We celebrated Dylan’s fourth birthday with a Mario Brothers themed birthday party. The little artists created life sized Mario and Luigi paintings, along with lots of other game related masterpieces. The girls were surprisingly focused on sketching the figures via a YouTube tutorial and Dylan loved helping to paint them.
Dylan is an artistic, loving, quick learning, silly, dog loving boy. He loves to torment his sisters, play toy cars, be like Daddy, bike, swim, bowl, play video games, snuggle, and well eat ICE CREAM. To our sweet baby boy: “Happy Birthday!!!”As our smallest little Yates, we hope you never grow up.
Happy New Years! We spent our New Years day in the shade of an enormous live oak while the kids stunned us with bike tricks. Brooklyn asked for another Harry Potter birthday and her birthday wish is our command. The grown ups toasted the New Year with champagne while the kids guzzled down as much butter beer as they could.
Brooklyn is eight. She lost her front tooth on Christmas Eve.
The kids built a Hogwarts Castle replica.
We ate cake and opened gifts.
We played Pin the Scar on Harry Potter complete with blindfolding and spinning. I have to say this was my favorite part of the party that had the grown ups laughing the most.
After the party finished, we made Brooklyn’s bed into a Harry Potter heaven. She fell asleep reading Chapter 1 of the first book in the series, the Philosophers Stone.
Christmas this year at our house has hands down been the best one yet and will probably remain the best one ever. The reason? We got a PUPPY!!!!
Meet Willow Itty-Bitty Yates. She is half black lab and half australian shepherd. She is the sweetest, smartest, most loved puppy in all the land.
We just really had an incredible Christmas this year. The gifts were perfect, the cookies were deliciously artistic, and what an awesome blessing to spend it with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma made an amazing Christmas dinner and spoiled us rotten.
Dylan experiences his first airplane ride from Denver to Orlando. He was more excited about the gummy bears and unrestricted game time on his device than the actual take off LOL. Cora, Dylan and I flew while Adam, Brooklyn, and our cat Maggie drove. I definitely am thankful for my easy journey. Besides dealing with masks on a three year old, the flight was a delight.
We arrived in Orlando just in time to kiss the hell out of Grandpa before his knee surgery. His hard work, progress, and commitment to push himself to make his knee replacement a success is inspirational.
Our new home is everything and more than we hoped for. There are 15 full sized horses and two ponies on our gated property. The stables owner has taken a real shine to our children and they have become involved in caretaking activities and learning about the horses and the veterinary care they require. Our driveway is gated and long and perfect for riding bikes. There is also an equine exercise track that Adam and I have been using to jog. The 16 acre property has live oaks that are over 300 years old and have such a presence. No neighbors can be seen and the stars are amazing. The climate is what we desired on those cold days in Colorado. We are absolutely 100 percent pleased with our new home.
Adam re-painted the interior for us and the clean, fresh walls and interior are ready for our own chaos and touches.
We have also bought passes to SeaWorld and have enjoyed many days there as well, but that is a whole different post. We are so glad to be back in Florida with our family, warmth, palm trees, and amusement parks❤️.
Ryan and Karen, Adam’s brother and sister in law, along with AJ, Angel and Riley came to visit!
Thanksgiving week was the last week spent in the cold Colorado winter. We have set our sights on a home on a 16 acres horse ranch in Florida and are really looking forward to warm weather, family, and the rural life. We made a beautiful Thanksgiving spread, enjoyed it immensely and then packed up the kitchen for the trek across the country. Colorado has been good to us, mostly in the form of one really amazing sister who we will miss enormously. Emily and Cameron have made our time in Colorado just that much more full of love and laughter. Emily, we love you and we are so thankful for all the time we had with you. KISSES!
Activities for Halloween were limited this year due to COVID, but we are so grateful that our little town of Palisade hosted a fantastic trunk or treat on Halloween Eve.
Brooklyn went this year as the dead bride from Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride.
Cora went as Sara, one of the witches from Hocus Pocus. Hocus Pocus has been the kids favorite Halloween movie this year. We have seen Hocus Pocus, Corpse Bride, and Nightmare before Christmas at the theatre this Halloween. Dylan sits so quitetly as long as there are endless snacks…
Dylan went as Scooby Doo and enjoyed an entire box of Scooby snacks, one of his favorites.
I went as Sandy from Grease and Adam went as Elvis’s great grandson.
On Halloween, we went to HighLine State Park for Owlween. There was presentations on bats and owls, archery, stories and smores, and a wagon ride. We also went to Memorial Gardens Cemetary for a trunk or treat, but it was a very small event this year.
Our home will feel empty once we take down all the great Halloween decorations. These two are my favorites made by Dylan:
My favorite art from Cora is this zombie. Even in her scary zombie art Cora must include a bright beautiful sun.
We had spiders in the house, ghosts in trees, and a mummy in the kitchen.
Considering how limited Halloween festivities were this year for children, we managed to have a GREAT year. The kids ate lots of candy and Halloween treats and for a kid that MUST be the indication of success, right? Happy Halloween!
This afternoon we saw our first snowfall. It was a downright blizzard with gusts of wind that went right through you. Before the sun went down there is a sizeable accumulation. It has been years since the kids have seen snow and it was a very exciting thing for us all. Snowballs flew within moments of being out and tongues were out to sample the goodness from above. The roads are jacked for drivers, but for children it is a 10 minute moment straight from Jack Frost heaven.
Our family hunkered down with hot chocolate and homemade chili. The kids gutted the slimey from the pumpkins with real bravery and Adam let his artistic juices flow with the carving knives. Meet the double jacks!
Adam surprised me with a renewal of our vows at The Little Neon Chapel in Las Vegas. Elvis serenaded us with the Hawaiian Wedding song before, during and after he walked me down the aisle. He serenaded as we stood holding hands at the alter, before our audience of three kids.
Elvis led us through our vows which included: You are my hunka hunka burning love, you have got me all shook up, I vow to love you tender, You are my sweet thang baby, etc. The vows were slightly comedic while still touching us both profoundly as we repeated them to each other. After the vows, Elvis sang Teddy Bear, and the whole family danced!
We loved the children being a part of our vow renewal, to be a part of our love and faithful dedication to each other. It was a memorable, beautiful experience.
Adam surprised me with a vacation to Las Vegas to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. We spent 2 nights at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino, right on the famous Vegas strip and one night downtown at the Golden Nugget to experience the Fremont Street Experience. Our trip ended with us renewing our vows at The Little Neon Chapel, serenaded and officiated by Elvis himself.
The strip reminded us a lot of Disney with the way the casinos/hotels were scaled. The interiors were as incredible as the exteriors with endless incredible things to see. The themes of each casino was really fun to walk through, connected through what felt like a labyrinth of escalators. leading to different worlds. Paris, New York, Egyptian pyramids, Venice, and our home base the Excalibur castle. The casinos/hotels were massive, our room was #17202.
Many attractions were closed due to COVID including most the bars and big restaurants. The casinos are open, which is an experience in itself. Dylan was tortured by all the blinking lights and sounds which he was not allowed to touch. We were pleased to visit Vegas when the streets were a bit quieter due to the COVID closures. Even with a quieter scene than normal, the crowds felt a bit rowdy especially after the sun went down. We only stayed on the strip after dark one night to see the Bellagio water fountain show at 8 pm. We experienced lots of beautiful people, but also a large homeless presence and an unpredictable element with the crowds and party atmosphere.
On the other hand, the four level M&M and Hershey’s store was made for children to visit. We made a custom mix of the following M&M’s: vanilla orange, English toffee, coffee nut, mint crunch, and cocoa crispy.
The concentration of culinary excellence, exceptional beverages, specialty shops, shows, and glitz and glam make Vegas an incredibly fun place to visit. We are not gamblers, but we do love to spoil ourselves in other ways.
The kids and I spent lots of time at the Excalibur’s three pools, so much time that they befriended a lifeguard. The lifeguard allowed them to sit with her at her post and trained them how to be a lifeguard. The kids loved the water slide! The weather was in the low 90s and laying at the pool every afternoon was just AWESOME.
We spent one night downtown Las Vegas at The Golden Nugget. We visited the downtown container park and Fremont Street. Fremont Street had a three block long canopy light show synced to music which was pretty spectacular. Street performances and scantily dressed women were everywhere. Our hotel displayed the world’s largest Golden Nugget which we estimated to be valued at 1.5 million.
The mountains surrounding Vegas are gorgeous. We visited Red Rock Canyon National Conservation to escape the bustle of the city.
With the winter chill just around the corner, we decided to get a season pass to the Glenwood Springs Hot Springs and bask in the 90° water while the snow flies around us. The springs have been continually operating since 1888 and have 15 naturally occurring minerals which are known for their healing benefits. The native Americans called the water “Yampah” which translates to Big Medicine. The Hot Springs resort is nestled between gorgeous mountains and includes the world’s largest hot springs pool complete with diving board, a spa kept at 104° for the really chilly nights, a lazy river, and a kids play area with a waterfall, water slides, and fountain.
Although Glenwood Springs is merely 45 minutes from Palisade, our family took the train to experience the mountain views in complete relaxation. The breathtaking views cannot be overstated and the train ride was a very fun experience.
At the hot springs, Dylan went off the diving board for the first time in his life. That boy is fearless and an exceptionally good swimmer for a 3-year-old. He was able to jump off of the diving board and swim to the side all by himself over and over and over again.
Dylan has just had a genius week. This week alone, he learned how to ride his bike without training wheels and then two days later rode through the obstacles in a skatepark on his bike with impressively good control. He also learned how to write his first and last name and spell it correctly too. Finally, he desperately wanted to sing the Addams family theme song and practiced snapping his fingers nonstop for 2 days until he mastered it. GO DYLAN GO!!
OUR LOVE IS ALL OF GOD'S MONEY 