A Colorado Christmas
After years of talking about a trip to Colorado, we finally decided to make it happen right before Christmas of 2019. The plan was to head up for a couple days and then make it home December 23rd in order to spend Christmas at home.
Like many people, the night before a trip we don’t want to cook or have any leftovers in the fridge so we decided to go out to Lupe Tortillas for dinner. we decided to try something a little different and added some shrimp to our fajitas. Holden always eats the onions and peppers from the fajita plate, but this time he didn’t seem interested in them after touching them to his lips a couple times. We didn’t think anything of it until I was getting him out of the car and noticed his face had started to swell. After a couple hours it finally dawned on us that he was having an allergic reaction. Luckily, some of the meds that Holden takes before bed include an antihistamine, but to say we didn’t sleep well the night before the flight would be an understatement.
When we woke up for the early flight the next morning the swelling had still not gone down.
Luckily the swelling was almost gone by the time we arrived in Denver, but the whole experience would spur a full allergy panel, and the realization that Holden has a severe allergy to shrimp. We definitely felt extremely lucky that he didn’t actually eat any of the peppers or onions that had touched the shrimp.
We were spending the trip with Jordans parents and his little brother Marshall and his girlfriend Kenzie, although we were the first to arrive by a few hours so we decided to explore downtown Denver a little bit on the way up to Keystone.
The kids were ecstatic over the little amount of melted snow that was left in downtown Denver. It was all we could do to make sure Holden didn’t put any of the dirty snow in his mouth!
After some pizza and ice cream we headed up to the mountains via Loveland Pass. As someone who is pretty afraid of heights this wasn’t the easiest drive, but you can’t beat the beauty of the snow and mountains and despite being terrified I did enjoy the drive as much as possible.
This was the first time we realized that Holden was going to have some issues with the cold. Of course he didn’t want to put on a jacket to get out at the continental divide. That would change, although he never really became a fan of the mittens.
Finally it was time to check into our beautiful cabin. I definitely could have sat there all weekend with some coffee or hot chocolate and a book. The views were gorgeous!
Holden especially loved the bathtub…
The next few days were filled with tubing, skiing, ice skating, sleigh rides and of course some apre's ski.
The kids both did a great job skating. Isla’s a seasoned pro, but this was Holden’s first time, and he loved it!
There were so many gondola rides that by the end I wasn’t even nervous anymore.
Skiing isn’t really my thing, so while Kenzie and Marshall went every chance they could, Jordan and I opted for one day. Isla was signed up for ski school, but we busted her out after half a day as it wasn’t really her thing either.
Jordan got his groove back pretty quickly, I was much more conservative and while I did okay at first, I quickly got nervous and when I started falling and couldn’t get myself up very easily I decided to call it a day as well!
Keystone is extremely kid friendly, and there’s a lot to do even if you’re not the biggest skier. The kids really enjoyed “Kidtopia”.
When we weren’t at the resort we were spending time at the cabin which was a couple of miles away and had a lot of fun things to do as well. There was even a sledding hill right down the road.
This may have been Holden’s favorite activity of the trip. Marshall and Kenzie (AKA Santa and his Elf) also enjoyed themselves, while Isla who was quickly tiring of the cold weather stayed home with Nana and Papaw.
Everyone enjoyed warming up in the hottub though.
The walks around the house had that quiet and beautiful stillness that snow brings. That is until Holden started screaming that he too was too cold ;).
One of the best parts of the trip was being able to spend part of the Christmas season with family in a cold weather location.
Capping it off with dinner and a sleigh ride really brought the Christmas magic to life. It was time to get home so Santa would know where to find us!
This little elf just couldn’t help spreading her Christmas cheer all over the Denver and Houston airports on the night before, the night before Christmas.