Colorado Trip

We are in Colorado for Christmas. Its been a busy 4 days getting here.

We started on Saturday with packing and taking down our Christmas decorations. We didn't want to leave the tree up with the cat all alone in the house for two weeks.

The trip to Colorado was a bit longer than usual. We drove an extra 500 miles to avoid bad winter weather. It made for a long 3 day trip, but we managed and arrived in Colorado with no problems.

The first part of the week was spent with my family in Colorado Springs. We stayed at my sister Heather's house. Tasha was introduced to Rizzo, her new 'sister' that she will be living with for the next two years. She also figured out how to negotiate stairs. Its hard on her. She has arthritis in her front legs, so going down a flight of stairs is a little painful for her.

Christmas Eve was spent with Brooke, Jason, Tanner, Nana and Papa. We had a nice Italian dinner at Zio's then went back to Mom's house to open presents. Brandon came home with the mother load thanks to Nana and Papa.

We woke up early on Christmas day to open presents. Brandon and Dylan had the biggest piles, of course. The afternoon was spent with Heather, Rob, Dylan, Nana, Papa, Dee and Denny. We had an early afternoon dinner of fried turkey and all the fixings.

On Friday we met our good friends Jack, Sharon, Pam, Ron, Jackie and ? at a local Mexican restaurant. It was great seeing all of them and catching up on our lives. Rob and Dylan joined us as well.

Saturday morning we went over to Mom's house. Aunt Jane was expecting us at 10am. We had a nice visit with her. It's always interesting to hear her stories from long ago. She looks pretty good for 88 years old. Mom had sandwich fixings ready for lunch at her place. Katrina spent several hours fixing Mom and Dad's laptop. I ran over and got a much needed haircut, then Katrina and I ran a couple of errands. I accidently bought a movie theater gift card for Mom and Dad to theaters that no longer exist in Colorado Springs. We called while we were shopping and gave them a choice: a new gift card or a gig of memory for their laptop. They chose the laptop upgrade. The evening was spent hanging out with Mom, Dad, Brooke and Tanner.

When it was time for Brooke and Tanner to go home, Brandon had his first major crying of the trip. He didn't want them to leave. Mom and Dad joined us for dinner at Pei Wei and then came the second wave of crying. Its tough to leave family after such a nice visit.

On Sunday morning I packed up the truck while Katrina had an Italian lesson. We said our goodbyes to Heather, Rob, Dylan and our pupster - Tasha. Round 3 of crying for Brandon. I was sad, but not as emotional as I thought I would be about leaving Tasha behind. The hardest part was Tasha following me to the door each time I took a load out to the truck. She knew we were heading somewhere and thought she was going with. We left Colorado Springs and headed for part 2 of our trip, four days in Carbondale with Laurie, Jeff, Logan and Josh. Along the way we stopped in Fairplay to visit our friends the Vice's. We had a late dinner with a little to much 'spiked' egg nog - 2 bottles of egg nog + 1 bottle of red wine divided by 4 adults. We ended up watching Xanadu (I think you need to be a bit tipsy to watch this one) and didn't get to bed until almost 1:30am.

Monday was a lazy day at the Sabo's. We mostly hung out at home. Brandon and his cousins played in the snow and around the house. Jeff and I took a trip down to Glenwood Springs to run a few errands. Laurie made corned beef for dinner and we watched another movie. I think its called "Without a Paddle".

Tuesday was officially gift card day at Target. The three boys had Target gift cards from Christmas. We went to lunch at Beau Jo's for pizza, then headed to Target. Brandon ended up buying a Pokemon Ball and another Lego Indiana Jones kit. I think he has 4 Indiana Jones kits now. Laurie made a big spaghetti dinner and invited Jeff's sister and family, his uncle and nephew, and Uncle Gid and Aunt Sharon over. After everyone left we finished off the evening with another movie, 'Just My Luck'.

Wednesday was a day of hanging out at the house. I had an Italian lesson in the morning. Brandon and I dug a snow tunnel and built a fort in the afternoon. Katrina and Laurie went out for a sister's lunch. The late afternoon was spent getting ready for the evenings New Year Bunco party. What a blast. We had about 35 people show up. Food, drinks and Bunco set the tone for the evening.

Thursday was spent recuperating from the party and cleaning up. We spent some time cleaning up after the party. The morning was also filled by a game of Monopoly with Katrina, Ryan and Logan. I was the first one out and Katrina was the winner. Today was a snacking day. No meals were eaten, which is bad. I think you eat more when you snack than when you eat meals. Dinner turned into more snacking and then the drinking began. Mix Master Jeff was having fun coming up with all kinds of drinks and and several shots - names of which will not be repeated in this blog. We ended the night watching Blades of Glory.

On Friday morning we packed and hit the road by 9:30. It was a pretty uneventful trip home. We hit snow and ice near the Utah/Idaho border. We made it to Twin Falls on Friday night. On Saturday we hit snow packed roads over Santiam Pass in Oregon. We finally arrived home tired but happy at 5pm.

Vacations are great. Road trips are fun but tiring. Driving to Colorado in the winter is not that fun. Its good to be home...