Bluebonnets + Blue Bell

This year we were able to spend the week of Thanksgiving in Telluride, Colorado with my dad and family. We haven't taken a family vacation with him since probably 2005, so we were all so excited! My sister and her boyfriend flew in from Denver, and the rest of us (9 of us!) flew in from Houston the next day.

Sawyer did SO GREAT traveling - it was a long day, getting to the airport around 6:15am, a long wait to finally take off on the Dreamliner from Houston to Denver, a very quick sprint across the whole terminal in Denver to make our connection, and a bumpy flight into Durango. The Dreamliner was awesome because it had free TV shows and movies and a lot of kid options, so the 3 of us got to each plug in our headphones and watch what we wanted. Then the white noise of the propellers on the plane to Durango helped lull Sawyer to sleep the whole flight! Once we landed we had a quick snack while waiting on our luggage then we had about a 2.5 hour van ride to Telluride. Like I said, it was a long travel day. Sawyer reached his limit when he spotted the pink car seat he had to sit in on the van, and I have not seen him throw a fit like that (screaming, crying, trying to claw his way out of the seat!) in years. It was a rough first 45 minutes or so on the van... for everyone, but he bounced back when we arrived at the condo and Aunt Amanda was there!

We didn't have many plans at all for the week, so it was very relaxing. We played in the snow, went sledding, walked around the town and visited the toy store a couple times, took naps, had snowball fights. Some people were able to ski or snowboard on Donation Day (Wednesday before Thanksgiving) and on official Opening Day (which happened to be Thanksgiving Day). We left the Friday after Thanksgiving and it was a much calmer travel day - no pink car seat, no running to make a connection in Denver, and then we had a whole weekend to unpack and recover.

Trying on our new snow boots!

First Snow!

the snowman Wilson built, as requested by Sawyer, before Sawyer "boomed" it down

First Gondola ride!

Loving special time with Aunt Amanda

It snowed pretty well the first two days we were there, which made for some fun sledding before the slopes opened. All of the kids had fun! Sawyer just loved the snow.

On Tuesday, before the slopes opened and while Wilson was still in town (he flew out on Wednesday to be with his family), Wilson, Amanda, Alexander and Jeremy rented snow bikes and tried biking through town and on some trails. Apparently it was pretty tough and it was a good idea for me to have stayed home! They also thought we might be able to ride the bikes to Telluride Brewing Co. on an "easy" trail. Thankfully, Wilson tested it out while we napped... and he determined it was extremely difficult and frustrating and not a good idea for the rest of us to even try, so we got the lodge to drop us off. It was really fun, and nice to get away for a couple hours! Afterward we met everyone else for dinner in town at Rustico.

All Telluride Brewing Co. pictures courtesy of Amanda :)

The skiing/snowboarding crew on Donation Day

I paid a visit to Telluride Truffle instead of skiing. :)

Thanksgiving Day was a little sad because we all split up to do different things. Tuesday night we had a very nice "Thanksgiving" dinner in town at Rustico, but I found myself missing family time and preparing traditional Thanksgiving food together. If we ever go back, we'll know to plan better for the actual day! All of the skiers were pretty tired after a full day on the slopes the day before, and my sister opted not to snowboard at all, so while Jeremy stayed with Sawyer at the condo to rest, we went into town to see what might be open and to grab a snack. Not much was open in town, but we stopped at Allred's, a beautiful restaurant you can only get to via gondola at the top of the mountain between Mountain Village and Telluride. We got a great seat in the bar area and shared some truffle fries. Just what I needed!