Family Christmas in Colorado

WOW! I know it was now almost 2 months ago that my family & I spent Christmas at the Attas' beautiful home outside of Aspen, Colorado but there were A TON of photos to go through. It was nice for once, to take as many photos as possible knowing that it wouldn't totally back me up when I got home. Well, I didn't get to it as quick as I wanted but I think I've made some major progress in documenting my own life in 2011. Just a little preview first of the participants in this trip: Mary Helen, me & Stephen, Rachel and then my hilarious parents. You can find a full blog post of the portraits I took while we were there at my photography blog, www.wepblog.com. But for this blog, you get to see all the other fun stuff we did on our trip. Let me just take a trip down memory lane....

We had a great time at our favorite shop in Aspen, Kemo Sabe! Kemo Sabe's website says "kick ass western hats, boots, belts, buckles and more." The store and the people that run it are just that too. It is SUCH a fun atmosphere in there. Blaring country music, beer in the fridge, friendly faces. The owner, after we told him we were from Texas, played the UT fight song. OH boy did he hear about that! We seriously spent over 2 hours in the store and were on a first name basis with everyone when we left. They were so fun! I decided that day to spend my Christmas money on a new hat :) What a surprise. You know me, I am a little country and I'm excited to have this hat that I will keep forever.

I even got it branded!

the store had amazing boots!!

and hats....

Mary Helen spent her Christmas money on some new boots!

trying them on....

loving the store!!!

getting the boots branded

this is the man!

sweet golden girl! This is the main man's dog - she's been on the job with him for over 13 years!!!

Russ& Stevo outside Kemo Sabe, about to go steak out zoe saldana. Russ actually made it in the background of a paparazzi pic the next day!! we found it online. so funny!!!

the mornings we lounged around & chef Rachel made us YUMMY YUMMY Pioneer Woman breakfasts!!!

this is Russ on Christmas morning showing off his baylor bear bowl game t-shirt Santa brought him.

We went to Aspen a few times to shop.

*Note- Stephen, Dad & I went skiing in Snowmass one day. We had a blast! We skied ALL day and ended the day with peppermint snapps hot chocolate :) My phone got re-set so I lost the fun skiing pics :(

It didn't snow until the LAST day we were there! On the way to our last dinner...

We had a blast!

I don't have any pics, but one night we went to dinner on top of the mountain & got there on a snow cat! It was like a hay ride but on the snow. It was a small restaurant & this guy played the guitar and sang during the whole thing. By the end of the night everyone was singing classic country songs & dancing! What fun!

Other funny things to remember: the night none of the kids wanted to go to dinner, so mom & dad went and we stayed home to order pizza. well, pizza wouldn't deliver so we ended up with wendys. we played scategories for hours....haha.

Christmas Eve was marvelous as always! We had a wonderful dinner at this wonderful club in Snowmass - a full turkey dinner with leftovers for the next day :) then we headed over to Snowmass Chapel for christmas eve service. It was beautiful! What a fun night celebrating the coming of our Savior!

Christmas was SO MUCH FUN & we are so so blessed to have an amazing family that loves to be together!