Anna in her flower girl dress for Aunt Robyn’s wedding

On Christmas Eve we went to a church service in Boulder where our good friend Scott is the minister. It was a beautiful service and it was great to connect with him again. That night we watched Mary Poppins and we (really, it was 99% Marcy) got everything ready for Christmas morning.

The presents were stacked under the tree when the kids awoke on Christmas morning. The kids appreciated their gifts with Anna spending most of Christmas Day upstairs putting together her 800+ piece Harry Potter lego set. Jude played with his Perplexus but like most days his thoughts soon turned to soccer. It was a pretty nice day so we went out in the afternoon and played a family game of soccer in the park.

Playing soccer in the park on Christmas Day

The day after Christmas, as we do most years, we left on a drive to Iowa. So as to make Christmas Day a bit more relaxing we decided to leave after lunch and just drive part of the way. There was a winter storm on I-80 in Nebraska so we decided to take I-70 to Kansas City. It was raining a good part of the way and the drive was a little nasty with heavy rain but there was no snow thankfully. We made it to Topeka where we spent the night before heading to West Des Moines on the 27th.

Jude wearing Baba’s battery powered Santa hat

Jude and Anna were so happy to see their Iowa family again. The kids have been playing really well together for the most part and as always there has been lots of fun activities. There have been lots of games, breakfast at IHOP, a trip to the indoor trampoline park, a movie theatre outing and more. Jude, Nathan and I even went to play indoor golf in a simulator where we “played” Pebble Beach.

Breakfast at IHOP with Baba

There has been lots of playing around the house as well. The kids have been playing with Lola who at 16 years of age just keeps on going.

Sharing Lola’s favorite chair