CCC - Carson's Colorado Christmas

Tyler's Army unit is on standby to respond to any large emergencies or natural disasters that may occur in the country so weren't able to travel anywhere this Christmas. Rachel didn't mind too much though, since she was eight months pregnant and her entire family came to visit us anyway!

We started off the Christmas festivities by putting up and decorating our Christmas tree for Family Home Evening the Monday after we got back from Bennett and Margaret's wedding.  

 

This is all we got done before it was Andrew's bed time. 

As Christmas grew closer, we went to our Church Christmas party. Andrew wasn't very excited about sitting on Santa's lap. We need to leave that kid with babysitters more so he gets used to being held by people other than family members.

Rachel's parents arrived the Saturday before Christmas.

They had lots of quality time with their first grandchild. 

They colored pictures together.

Went sledding in the back yard. 

And snuggled before bed time. 

We took some family pictures before Church on Sunday.

Auto correct gave Tyler reconstructive surgery in this picture!

We got a pretty cute one with Grandma and Grandpa Judd!

Action shot of Andrew running around the house.

 The rest of Rachel's family arrived late Sunday night. They were glad to see Andrew again.

And Andrew loved showing off for them. 

We decorated Christmas cookies to give to the neighbors. We used Tyler's Grandma's recipe, that his family made every year while he was growing up. 

In the almost two years we have been here, we haven't visited Cave of the Winds. Tyler went with Rachel's family, since it was discouraged for pregnant women and young children to go spelunk in the caves. 

The caves were at the very top of a ridge near Manitou Springs. With the recent snow they were worried the van might not make it up to the top!

 

But they did. Here are Rachel's Grandma and sister at the overlook. 

The caves were originally discovered by two young boys who heard whistling sounds coming from these sink holes back in the 1800s. 

The cave was very well lit and there were plenty of hand holds. 

Our tour guide told some pretty tall tales... including how you could go "cave blind" after three days in complete darkness, and how you would go insane after being in the dark for longer than a week. Probably not true, but I guess it made things sound more exciting. 

There were lots of cool rock formations and caverns. 

We took a small detour through Garden of the Gods on the way home. It is always a scenic place to visit!

 About 45 minutes south of us is a city called Pueblo. We haven't ventured down there too often, but we did discover a river walk there this summer. We braved the cold to see the Christmas lights the night before Christmas Eve.

Andrew was so bundled up he couldn't move!

 There were plenty of cool lights to look at as we walked around.

 Bennett did a great job adjusting the manual camera settings to take great pictures in the dark.

Here we are at the entrance to a small park area at the end of the river walk. 

Andrew getting some snuggles from Grandma Judd

After Andrew went to sleep on Christmas Eve, we put all the presents under the tree. We couldn't put them there earlier because he would have gotten into them of course. 

Andrew didn't quite get what was going on at first, but once we started opening presents he had lots of fun playing with the toys, and the wrapping paper. 

Here he is about to open the floating space orb we got for him. (Just kidding, it's actually a basketball for the hoop you see pictured behind him)

Rachel made a quilt for her sister Camille using her (Camille's) old t-shirts from high school. It took a lot of work but Rachel finished it just in time for Christmas!

See? Normal basketball. No supernatural cosmic contraptions this Christmas. 

One of Andrew's favorite toys was a doodle toy. Some of his friends had a similar one that he played with at church. 

Here we are playing with some of our loot. 

Here's the Judd girls

As stated before, Andrew enjoyed the boxes as much as the toys. Here he is sitting in a Christmas tin. 

Around lunch time we got a call from Elder Judd! Rachel's brother is currently in the CCM (MTC) in Santiago Chile. 

We got to talk to him for half an hour. It sounds like he is doing great and excited to go to his first area in a few weeks. 

Andrew loves drinking water like a big boy. Watch out for backwash, Grandma!

The weather was cold, but not too bad and we took a few walks while everyone was in town. 

Here's Rachel's dad leaping Fountain Creek in a single bound!

Some of the ponds were iced over. 

You can see Pike's Peak in the background. 

Andrew liked looking at the geese through the observation binoculars. 

Could this be a band album cover?

Andrew was so cute toddling around all bundled up. 

Near the end of the walk he started to get fussy because it was past his nap time. Daddy gave him a ride to help cheer him up.

 The happy couple's first Christmas together. 

There was a cool nativity scene a few houses down from us. The owner came out and talked to us after this picture. Turns out he got it from Walter Reed Medical Center when it shut down. 

Andrew loves going down slides!

And hugs from family.

The day after Christmas we went to Tyler's work to see the helicopters. It's not every day regular civilians get to interact with fancy military equipment.

"You can be my wingman any time"

Those helicopters must be cold outside the hangar! (Just kidding, they are only machines they can't feel the cold)

This is one of the big Chinooks. Tyler does't fly these ones but they are cool too. 

It's pretty cool to be able to stand up and move around inside of a helicopter though. 

This picture sums up Andrew while everyone was here. He loved all the extra attention from his relatives and ran around wild a lot.

We had a very merry Christmas with Rachel's side of the family in town. We look forward to 2015 and all adventure it will bring, starting with a new addition to our family!

Giving Thanks for a Wedding!

We spent Thanksgiving in Tennessee and Kentucky for Rachel's brother's wedding. The parking lot at Denver was full, so we left very early Thursday morning, parked at a different parking lot and took a bus into the airport. We arrived at the gate right on time! Andrew did well on the trip, and enjoyed having the jetway to himself as we boarded the plane. 

He's a good little traveler! He doesn't sit still very well, but he has lots of fun crawling between mommy and daddy and doesn't fuss at all. 

It was Tyler and Andrew's first time visiting Tennessee and Kentucky. Tyler spent most of his younger years living overseas, so his family took trips across Europe or Asia instead of the United States.

We arrived at Margaret Jeskie's (Bennett's Fiance, now wife) house and were given a warm welcome by Bennett and Rachel's dad. 

We felt very welcome at the Jeskie's home. They gave us all a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and plenty of good company. Tyler was a little disillusioned though, because he misunderstood me and thought we were having Thanksgiving with Jet Skis. 

On Friday, the morning of the wedding, we all got ready in our nicest clothes to drive to the Nashville Temple. 

The Carson boys matching in their wedding party clothes. 

Andrew likes taking off his socks and shoes on car rides

Here we are in front of the Temple!

We arrived a little bit early so we had time to walk around the grounds. 

Andrew had lots of fun stomping the Autumn leaves!

Family Selfie!

Tyler's parents will be pleased to see that Andrew sometimes screams in pictures with Rachel's parents too. (although it happens to look kind of like a smile in this instance)

He was quite entertained by walking up and down the stairs holding on to the shiny hand rail. (Andrew I mean, not Sam)

Here's Uncle Sam, now Elder Judd, holding Andrew!

After the sealing we all waited outside for the Bride and Groom

There's the happy couple!

Here is Bennett with Ben Bosworth, his best friend since childhood. It was great to have so much family and friends around. The wedding photographer prepared a list of different poses and combinations of pictures too, which made picture taking flow smoothly and made sure they got all the pictures they wanted. This is something we should have done at our wedding so picture taking wouldn't have been so chaotic!

Andrew was worn out from all the fun and slept the entire drive to where the reception was going to take place. 

Here we are with Rachel's Grandparents.

Andrew loved dancing, especially with the other little kids. We took the opportunity to dance too, since we don't go to many dances these days.

The night before we left we took some fun family pictures. Andrew loves looking at pictures of himself. Hopefully he isn't too vain when he gets older!

Our flight didn't leave until the afternoon on Saturday, so we got to sleep in a little and take our time heading to the airport. Here is a picture of how Andrew typically sleeps. If it is cold he will cover himself with the blanket. How cute!

We don't often eat fast food, but we did pick some up on the way to the airport. Here is a picture of Andrew finishing up the last of Mommy's Frosty. He loves ice cream.

Adventure Andrew surveying the tarmac as we prepare to board our plane home.

Andrew was way past his nap time during the flight and started to get very squirmy and some what fussy. Tyler discovered he could quickly change Andrew's mood and make Andrew by making silly faces.

The last 45 minutes of the flight he did something he hasn't done in months - fall asleep in Mommy's arms. It was so precious. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend celebrating Bennett and Margaret's wedding. We are glad to welcome another sister in law into the family! That's all for now, here's Andrew to wave bye bye until next time!