The After-Party

We celebrated Kevin's birthday the day after Christmas.  He of course had to go to work, but we had a yummy dinner of Christmas leftovers, and his new favorite ice cream (Dreyers S'mores) for dessert. 

Ellie was turning one on the 28th, but since they were leaving for Utah on the 27th, we let Ellie open her gifts early.

Brooke had one more present that she hadn't opened, and it was a hit, literally :)  She understands the concept of hitting the ball, and does NOT like assistance in swinging the bat.  This is now an outside toy, don't worry.

Papa getting in some last minute snuggles with Ellie.  He has jumped into his Grandpa role quite nicely :)

Brooke helping NayNay feed Miss Ellie.

We had the whole family here for a total of 13 hours I think.  Kimberly and Josh flew in on the 27th at about 1:30 in the morning.  I was sleeping peacefully by that time, but Jeffrey stayed up with my parents watching old VHS tapes that my parents recently had converted to DVD.  Once everyone was awake on Saturday, we sat down to enjoy breakfast together and just talk!  Honestly, it was very refreshing to get to know Josh a little better and see him interact with my sister.  After breakfast, we just lounged around the house together until Jeffrey, Madi, and Ellie headed off to Utah to finish their holiday vacation.  

For lunch, Kimberly wanted to go to Whataburger.  She has coworkers in Denver I guess that told her she HAD to try it, haha.  I don't think it is that great, but I sent them (with Dad), to go give it a try.  They thought it was pretty good, so maybe I just order the wrong thing. And of course, they had to take pics in front to document the adventure.

That evening, we all headed to Ft Worth for dinner and to show Josh a little bit of what Texas is all about, besides Whataburger :)  We intended to walk around the stockyards, but when it was 30 degrees outside with freezing winds, we opted for a drive-by instead.

Sunday we headed to church, but went home after Sacrament meeting to prepare a nice dinner before Josh had to board a plane back to Denver.  It was seriously a revolving door around her.  Dad grilled another tri-tip and some sausage, and it was another tasty meal together.

Brooke was not feeling the Sunday pics, but Kimberly wanted a picture anyways :)

We started this puzzle Saturday afternoon, and were able to finish it minutes before Josh left for the airport.  I definitely didn't pull my weight on this one, but I was okay with that.

We then celebrated Dad's birthday on the 30th.  Crazy to think that he is 57 years old.  Sounds kinda young to me though, considering that a lot of my friends' parents are much older.

Kimberly also left on Dad's birthday, so it was down to our little family and Mom and Dad. We enjoyed a few more days together until they had to go home as well.  It was really strange when everyone was gone!  We loved hosting this year, and would be open to doing it again if everyone was willing to come back :)