Busy days in Colorado

Yes, Jason was having fun in California, but we were having fun too!

Dress up is a fun activity for the girls - and Papa too.

Painting is fun too!  Each child has their own style.  Kaia likes to mix all her colors together.

Tenley likes to draw with just 1 color.

Papa did a "Bob Ross" impression.  See the pretty little tree?

More coloring and using scissors too.

We read many books.

Puzzle time.

They helped fix breakfast.

There was a lot of wrestling!

Mindy had a long to-do list for Papa.  He fixed a stuck sliding glass door.  Then he helped remove the "out-dated" valance.

And helped to lower the lights just a tad.

Kaia kept asking "Are you okay, Papa?"  And in her two-year-old voice asked "Did you figure it out?"  So sweet.

Kaia is so funny.  She loves to "call" her Papa on her play phone or anything that is handy, like a lump of playdough.

"Hello Papa!"  Mindy will daily hear her crying for her Papa.  "Papa!  Paaaapaaaa!"  "Papa, what you doing?"  She has deep conversations with him on her play phones.  One day, Mindy suggested that she call her Nani. 

 "Nani, where's Papa?"

We took Tenley to preschool one day.  We sang "Tenley's going to school today, hurrah, hurrah" to the tune "The ants go marching two by two".

Kaia gets alone time while Tenley is gone.

We went to the Museum of Natural History.

And who doesn't want to go to Party City and Home Depot??

We had a paper airplane contest.

It was nice enough to play outside one afternoon.

February in Colorado??

Mindy started a snowball fight.

Colorado is a wonderful place to visit!

Especially to play with our kiddos!

Finally celebrating Christmas in Colorado

Because Mindy's girls were sick over our Christmas time with the family, they were not able to come to Kansas last month.  Now we were taking Christmas to them.

We left around lunch time so Al could work in the morning.  It is a long drive, so we listen to various things on the way.  60's music is fun!  Brought back our dating years.

We listened to a couple of sermons that were interesting.  We heard a story about a man who was demon possessed and on death row in a prison for murders he committed.  His cell was filthy, filled with roaches, feces.... A man visited him (wasn't sure he wanted to but was compelled to) and told him about Jesus.  The man accepted Christ as the One who could save him from eternal punishment. The next time he visited him, the cell was all clean.  The man had cleaned it himself! These 2 men visited regularly and read the Bible together. This prisoner learned what it meant to be a Jesus follower.  He knew he'd have to pay for his consequences but he was really free.  Free from Satan's clutches!  God is Personal!  God is Powerful!  He transforms people!

We also heard someone talk about how we like to have control of our own lives.  Me-ology, not theology.  People want to be their own god and don't want listen or follow Christ.

We got to Denver after dark.  The girls ran out screaming and wanted hugs and kisses!!  We unloaded all the Christmas presents. Some of these presents were from the gift exchange from cousins and siblings.  We did Christmas first thing, since Jason was going to leave in the morning.   Stockings were opened first.

Tenley loved her music box from her cousin Claire.

I found this bird feeder for Mindy and Jason that had a KU license plate for the roof. 

One of my favorite gifts to give was this one for Tenley.  

It looks just like her!

I'd given Kaia a personalized book for her birthday and Tenley expressed that she would like her own book also.  They are pretty neat!

We loved reading books to the girls while we were there.

I probably read "The Monster at the End of the Book" at least 20 times.

Good-bye, Daddy!  Jason went to California to golf with his buddies.

He was having fun, but we were too!  Next post...