Forgotten Holidays - Part Two: Thanksgiving 2010 in Ft. Collins, Colorado

Our family made one of the best decisions of 2010 and spent Thanksgiving with Christopher and Katie in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Chase and Bethany and {a very tiny} Oakley came and made our caravan from Mesa, Arizona complete. 

The bright lights of Albuquerque, New Mexico. We pit-stopped here and ate at Rudy's. Now we only have three or four more Rudy's in the US that we haven't been to. But who's counting? (Olen, that's who.)  

We arrived at Chris and Katie's house a little ahead of schedule, about 4 o'clock in the morning. It was dark so we convinced the kids that it was still night and tucked them into the warm beds waiting for us. 

The day before Thanksgiving Chris and Katie took us to one of their favorite parks. We would have stayed longer outside if it wasn't 56 degrees below freezing with a frost-bitten wind chill. Ok, not really that cold, but it was really fun. 

Chris looks so cool in this picture going around on this twirly thing I don't think I have the heart to post the picture of him after he fell down. 

Oh, wait. Yes, I do. 

Look at the rosy cheeks! It was so cold, I tell ya.

On Wednesday night we (by "we" I mean Chris and Katie) made all the pies, baked the rolls, and prepped other yummy stuff for tomorrow's big feast.

Thanksgiving Day 2010

Brothers for the Brotherless. Porter and Asher made a perfect pair. Asher kept up with Porter in every way and even wore him out at times. 

Cooking, chopping, slicing, and dicing. We seriously spent all day in the kitchen either making food or eating it. Heaven. Simple heaven.

Chris's first turkey. It was a total success and he was just a little bit proud. 

The official carve.

You can take the picture out of the photographer, but you can't take the photographer out of the picture.  

I love this picture. Guess who wasn't so happy about sitting at the kids' table?

The gracious hosts. 

The Pies!

The cooks. This was right after we ate and Olen was hugging my tummy so tightly. That's why I am making that face. 

Our shirts say: "We rocked it like Plymouth!" And yes we sure did. We sure did. 

In full Richards tradition, we took our whole gang to the movies on Thanksgiving night. The town of Ft. Collins was in a turkey-induced coma and we were the only ones out on the roads. Making Daisy happy during a 2-hour movie also makes kind of a big mess. 

Thursday night we gorged on pie and dinner leftovers. Chase and Bethany prepared dinner for the next day. Needless to say, we came home a few happy pounds heavier. 

Chris and Katie prepared fun activities and crafts for the kids. 

The boys and the babies playing some Wii bowling. 

Port was a Wii expert by the end of the week. 

Friday - family picture day!

I'll travel any distance for a great photographer. My brother, Christopher, has an incredibly artistic eye and I'm so grateful he gave the time during our stay to take our family's picture. 

London, how about a smile?

 You're halfway there!

All right, I'll take it!

The Thanksgiving 2010 bunch. 

Since we were all dolled up we took our gorgeous selves to downtown Ft. Collins to eat cookies at the cookie shop, let the kids drool in the best toy store on the planet, and then experience falling down on a freezing sheet of ice and laugh as they dust their frosty bottoms off and do it again. 

London did really well, as long as she held on to her bucket. 

Porter started on the bucket then found his balance and could skate on his own. 

 Olen said instead of ice skater he would be the photographer (although credit for the last three pictures goes to Chris). He waited with Daisy who was bundled up in the stroller.  

Isn't this breathtaking? On Saturday Chris and Katie lead the caravan to Estes Park. We saw elk, bighorn sheep, and beautiful scenery. It was a little rainy and snowy and a lot windy so Daisy and I stayed in the van most of the time. London, Cecily, and Jocelyn van-hopped and watched movies on Chris's iPad. 

Since I was hiding out from the cold in the van, Chris took some pictures for me of my boys hitting the slopes.

We probably shouldn't have let Porter get this close to such a big animal armed with sharp antlers, but Chris was right behind him taking this picture and Porter is a fast runner. 

Porter sticks his head out the window and does his pitch-perfect elk call. What I love just as much as Porter's concentrated look in this picture is Katie busting up laughing in the background. His call is so lifelike, you just don't expect it to come out of the mouth of an eight-year-old. 

Another day, another beautiful Colorado park.  

Round and round we go...until someone falls off. Olen felt so bad when London let go and went flying across the playground. There were some tears and a lot of hugging but London lived (and daddy did too) and we learned that maybe we'll wait a few more years before London goes on speedy spinning things. 

I was going through a little McRib phase and this picture is for Katie and Chris who understood. 

We did so many fun things but I think my favorite pastime was just hanging out in the family room talking or watching the kids play or forcing our babies to be best friends. 

Sunday morning we loaded up and hit the highway for home. 

Goodbye Colorado and Chris and Katie. Thank you for one of our favorite Thanksgiving ever. We are thankful for you. 

Our kids did nothing but play, play, play for four days straight. This makes for very sleepy kids on the twelve-hour drive home. It also makes for very happy parents in the front seats. 

It was only snowing a little when we left Ft. Collins. For the most part, the roads were clear. We were in lead with Chase and Bethany behind us going the long way home because we wanted to detour through Four Corners Monument. After our last stop for dinner (at the worst diner in America, sorry again Beth and Chase) the weather took a nosedive for the worst. 

Olen was such a steady driver and kept his eye on the road (yes, I totally just said "eye", it's ok to laugh, that's funny stuff!). I tried to keep calm and preoccupy the kids with songs and games. We could only drive 40 to 35 miles an hour, so our long drive was getting longer with each mile. 

Daisy is never hard to cheer up. She entertained us with her spitting skills. 

We rented another minivan for our journey because I loved the one we got for our Florida road trip. Minivans are awesome. 

Visibility went like this: 

Bad

Worse

Not At All

We were keeping constant communications with Chase and Beth checking that they were doing all right. The roads were covered in black ice and we were crawling along at 15 to 10 miles per hour. Olen was driving and I was directing him by keeping my face six inches from the windshield and saying things like, "See those tire tracks? Stay inside them and I think we'll be in our lane." or "You're almost off the road! Take us to the center about five feet and just go straight." Once our back tires slid and I almost passed out. The kids could sense the tension in the car with our serious moods and I had to tell them they weren't allowed to ask us questions or talk to us because watching the road took 100% of my concentration. It was about nine o'clock at night and there was not a town or hotel in sight. 

After Chase and Beth took a little spin they were ready to call it quits and we all decided no one needs to die that night. We rolled into a tiny town just inside the New Mexico border and got a couple rooms at the only hotel for the next 75 miles. After we unloaded the kids Olen and I went out looking for an open restaurant with some hot dinner but everything in town was closed. We headed back to the hotel and saw that the highway patrol had blocked the road we had just come from and were shutting down that stretch of highway. We had just barely made it! We went back to the hotel empty-handed and ate muffins and cheese and crackers and then took hot showers and fell happily asleep in real beds. 

The next day we packed up early to clear skies and open roads. Just around a bend from our hotel was the Four Corners Monument, about a ten-minute drive. It was still so cold up there to us thin-blooded Phoenicians and the snowflakes were starting to fall as we pulled in to park. We got out of the van, stood in the four corners, took a picture, and ran back to the van. All the drama and driving for five minutes! But I wouldn't go back and do it any other way. What an exciting way to end such a wonderful week.

In four states at once for five minutes.

ARIZONA! Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.  

Twelve months old and has traveled through twelve states.