More Pics from our CO Trip

We decided to head down from the mountains and spend New Years Eve at Randy's home in Denver. We told him to go out and just pretend we weren't there but he decided to spend the evening with us. We wanted to get a head start on our drive the next day which would be a long 12 hours in the car from his house to Wichita Falls, and it was. If we had left from the mountains it would have been closer to 14 and you just never know what the weather conditions are going to be in the mountains.

Here is Houston, we spend New Year's Eve outside with our neighbors lighting fireworks and firepits. In Denver, or at least in Highlands Ranch where Randy lives, I didn't here a single firework. I guess the snow and really low temps kind of put a damper on that.

Here are a few more pics from our trip:

Shane and Jacob going up the gondola lift at Keystone....must be really cold to cover every inch of your body!

Jacob in the trees....his favorite place to ski

Jacob bundled up and ready to go

Bryce and Jacob hamming it up for the camera at Randy's on New Year's Eve

My boys

There are some more pics for me to share that are on my mom's camera. I believe I may be in one or two and will post those asap.

We made it home safely on Saturday. Jacob returns to school on Wednesday. I am trying to get Bryce back to some sort of schedule. He is very mobile now so baby proofing is high on my priority list. He started pulling up to his feet just this last week.

We realized that it may be a while before we get to go back to Summit County. Since our condo is sold, I told shane it would be better for him and Jacob to do some sort of package ski deal and check out some other ski areas as Bryce won't be skiing for a few years. Then, we can make it a family trip. We will really miss our home away from home :(

In 3 weeks, believe it or not, we are getting in the car and driving to Guthrie, OK, just north of Oklahoma City for the Sooner BMX Nationals. UGH, a 10 hour drive!!! I am tired of driving trips but looking forward to watching Shane and Jacob race.

Hugs to all,
The Cauley's

Christmas in Colorado

We left on Wednesday, the 23rd, and drove to Amarillo with my parents, where we spent the night. A major cold front blew through on the way there and we woke up to snow and ice on the ground. On Thursday, we drove to Denver to spend Christmas Eve with my brother Randy. On the way there, Shane was dodging big tumbleweeds flying across the interstate and watching out for ice patches on the road. We ate out at a mexican restaurant that night and had breakfast Christmas day out too. Then we headed up to the mountains.


You may remember how hard a time Bryce had with altitude sickness last summer. That is one of the reasons we drove and then spent a night in Denver, giving him even more time to acclimate. He did great with the exception of a head cold. I took him to the doctor once while we were there to make sure he didn't have a sinus infection or ear infection and his oxygen levels were great so what we did worked.


You may also remember that we sold our condo. This trip we rented a house through http://www.vrbo.com/. It was a beautiful home. Randy came up and spent time with us too. Shane and Jacob ski'd lots and my parents, Bryce and I hung out a lot at the house. Shane and I both came down with sinus infections, as did my dad, and got on abx on Saturday. I felt lots better after a couple of days and was able to enjoy the rest of the trip.

We ate at our favorite restaurants and just enjoyed the snow and the mountains. During the day the temp was usually in the teens or 20's. At night, it would get to around zero degrees or less. I was worried Jacob wouldn't be able to handle the cold temps on the mountain, but he did great. His skiing has improved a lot and he just about has paralleling down. The boys ski'd at Keystone all but one day, when they went to Breck to meet up with some friends of ours.

Here are some pics of our trip:

Randy and Jacob on the ski lift

Shane and Jacob eating lunch at the mountain house

Shane and Jacob's miniature snowman

Shane and Jacob on top of Keystone mountain...you can see Lake Dillon in the back ground

Mimi and Bryce...isn't he precious in his puppy dog hat????

One day, Shane and Jacob went to Breckenridge to ski with our friends, the Shui's. They spend 2 weeks every Christmas at Breck. I drove up with Bryce to meet them for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Kenosha. It took me 1 hour 20 minutes to get there due to 2 car accidents and
just plain ole' traffic. It should have taken me just 20 minutes. I was a little frazzled when I got there to say the least.

Daniel, Valerie (Daniel's girlfriend) holding Bryce, Bingiee, Cara, Nike, Shane, Jacob and me

Christmas with the Cauley's

We celebrate Christmas with Shane's dad's side of the family the Sunday before Christmas. This year, we went to Shane's dad's house. We had great food, opened presents and spent time catching up with family. We look forward to this every year.

Here are some of the pictures that we took:

Nanny (Shane's grandmother) and Thomas (Shane's dad)

Aunt Christy (Shane's sister) and Bryce

Farrah and Tommy (Shane's brother)

Alicia, Dave, Chaz and Lynda....Alicia is Lynda's daughter, they live in Pensacola where Dave flies for the Navy(???).

This is Bryce's favorite position...on his side with his leg up

Shane cutting up the turkeys that he fried

Grandpa holding Chaz and Bryce

Jacob and Bryce with Caden who is 3 years old

Chaz, Jacob and Bryce....Chaz was born in March and is 2 months older than Bryce

Christmas Day...Lunch

For lunch on the 19th, we had a traditional Christmas meal. My parents came, Shane's mom and Rich came, Shane's Uncle Butch and Aunt Dee came and my cousin Elan, her 2 kiddos, Daniel and Joy, and my Aunt Mary came. You might remember that Joy was born just 3 days after Bryce. We love to get them together to see what they do and compare. Mostly they just looked at each other. Bryce likes to grab ears and he did this a few times to Joy.

We enjoyed our huge lunch and then opened some presents. Then we had dessert, of course :)

Here are some pics from that day:

Elan holding Joy, Mom (Mimi), Dad (PawPaw), Aunt Mary with Daniel, me holding Bryce, Shane, Uncle Butch, Aunt Dee with Jacob in front of her, Rich (Pop) and Gail (Nana)

Bryce has figured out that when the red light starts flashing on the camera, he is to smile. We love playing with him and the camera. He almost always smiles for that red light :)

Bryce and Joy....looks like Joy has something funny to tell Bryce

Daniel, Aunt Mary, Elan and Joy

Jacob and Daniel.....this Nerf toy has been a hit.

Bryce and Joy

Christmas Day

We left for CO on the 23rd, so we celebrated Christmas on Saturday, the 19th. We got up that morning and opened presents with the boys. It was just like any other Christmas day except that this Christmas was very special because Bryce was with us. It is so neat to be able to experience all of the baby first's again and opening presents is a big first.

We didn't want to set up our big 9 foot tree since we were going to be gone Christmas day so we borrowed my parents 3 foot tree and set it up on a table. The small tree took some getting used to in our big 2 story living room. The cats were still able to have some fun. and enjoyed taking naps underneath it and playing with the ornaments. UGH! I remember Boo climbing up inside the 9 foot tree last year and breaking many ornaments. It was nice to not have to mess with that this year. It was especially nice to not have to chase Bryce away from the tree constantly.

Jacob's big present from us was a boombox. Now I get to hear loud thumping coming from his room, which is above the kitchen. He loves to play his electronic drum set through the boombox. He also got some video games and movies and some other toys from us. Bryce got a ball popping toy and some stacking cups from us. We didn't spend too much on him as we knew family would and a 7 month old doesn't need too much.

As soon as presents were opened, we started preparing for our Christmas meal. Shane fried 2 turkeys and I cooked some sides.

Here are some pictures from our morning:

Jacob helped Bryce open his presents but all Bryce really cared about were the bows.

I know...we just coudn't resist putting the bow on his head :)

Two bows...he's really having fun now

Bryce and Sadie

Every year, Sadie gets a bone for Christmas. She expects it and will look through gift bags for it. I started hiding it a few years ago. She doesn't even chew on them much anymore but does look forward to her present.

Hurry up and unwrap that bone!

Jacob and Bryce

Jacob and Moose in front of the tree. Now you get the full effect :)