A weekend away....

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of visiting my good friend Kelly!  I flew into Denver, Colorado thursday night after I barely made it flying stand-by, but that is another story.  Kelly and I had such a great time catching up and remembering when we were in dental hygiene school together.  Let's just say we shared stories and laughed until 2 am.  We haven't seen each other for almost three years so we had a lot to catch up on.  Kelly and I attended a dental convention in denver and completed our requirements to renew are licenses.  After a full day and a half of courses we went on a wonderful hike in Boulder.  The weather was amazing, 58 degrees sunny and clear!  It was a much needed escape from the terrible inversion that is looming over the Boise valley!  I also had the pleasure of meeting her adorable boyfriend (Jeff) and also reunite with her puppies (Cyrus and Jammer)!  It was such a fun weekend and the only thing missing was my hubbi.  I missed him so much and although the weather in Denver was beckoning me to stay longer I couldn't wait to get home to Ryan!  Thanks Kelly for a great weekend!  Now we can't let three years go by before seeing each other again!  

Kelly and me overlooking Boulder, Colorado

Kelly, Jeff and Jammer!  Kelly said she could only bring Jammer because "he is tough enough"!

Kelly and me towards the end of the hike.  Look at the blue sky and no jackets.  

This Christmas.....

I am sad to say the holidays are over and now I get to re-cap our Christmas events!  This was officially our first Christmas together as a married couple.  We kept it sort of low key due to the fact that most of our extra money has been spent on remodeling projects!  None the less it was a brilliant holiday spent with my large family!  For the first time in a long time everyone was home to celebrate Christmas Eve in style.  Let's just say as the number of grand children grows the louder it gets at the Blackhurst house!  I enjoyed every minute of it as for Ryan I think he found refuge in the basement with the brother in laws watching........you guessed it football!  Christmas morning we had the pleasure of visiting little Elly as she captured the pure joy of the season with her kitchen that Santa brought!  We stopped over at the Zickgrafs and played with all of the play dough that Izabel and Ford received!  We opened our gifts to each other and surprising enough my dear husband gave me beautiful pearl earrings and a pearl bracelet.  So much for keeping it simple.......I got him an electric razor :).  We ended Christmas day at the movie theater with Brian, Riley, and Emily.  We also enjoyed sledding with the nieces and nephews!  Ryan got a work out hiking up the hill with a kid in each arm.  The best part was watching Ford and Ryan go off of a jump.  Ford came back up smiling and saying "Let's do it again"  Ryan let me know he kind of hurt himself by landing on his tail bone!  Thankfully enough no one got seriously injured because there were many collisions that afternoon.  What can I say he loves kids and they love Uncle Ryan!   We had a glorious holiday spent relaxing, sledding, eating, laughing, and loving every minute of it!  Hope your holidays were spectacular and perfect.  Sending love to all friends and family we weren't able to enjoy the season with this year.  We love you!

let it snow.....let it snow.....let it snow!

Ford can hardly wait to get on his snow gear and head out into the winter wonderland!

The beautiful table that Emily put together!  She has such a talent for decorating!

The new mommas and their new little babies.  :)

Ready to go!  Ford never stopped smiling.

the madness Christmas eve!  Uncle Brian was the horse and all the grand kids wanted a ride.  Sam thought this was the greatest event of the night.

Uncle Brian is home for good now.  Here he is meeting baby Kaisley for the first time.

Ryan and I at the annual Zickgraf "Ugly Sweater Christmas party"!