Topping off 2011

Happy New Year!
First things first, lets finish out 2011 on the blog.  I have a lot to catch you up on.  November and December flew by and were jam packed with travel!

Thanksgiving in the QC & CR - was great - it was our first time back to IA since moving out to CO, and it was great to see family & friends.  Ash, Scott, Jason, Hubble and I crammed into the Camry for the drive back to IA.  Here's what we saw along the way... yeah- exciting.

13 hours later we made it back.  Guess what was my first stop after showering and saying hello to the Cochrane family?!  Joan was more than willing to make a shopping trip.

After Thanksgiving with the Cochranes we made it down to the QC for Thanksgiving with the Tumeys & Nannie.  Billy, Nikki, Jason and I made it to the casino on Thanksgiving to visit Kitty and try to win some money.  None of us left with any $.

We were also able to catch up with some of my favorite ladies.  Always love PVG time... and this time we even made it out to the Valley Inn.  Classy. 

That wraps up Thanksgiving weekend in IA- we spent just as much time in the car as we did visiting our family and friends :) 

The next trip was our weekend in Seattle-  Jason was able to attend the National Science Teachers Association conference in Seattle, WA the first weekend of December and I was lucky enough to tag along! Seattle was absolutely gorgeous.  I want to go back in the summer.  We only had one sunny day that I could actually take in the scenery- but the mountains straight up from the ocean surrounding the city- so pretty.  But, other than that it was cloudy and I don't think I could handle that for a majority of the year.  We had a nice trip... here's a quick photo collage of our adventures.

Last but not least... our last trip of 2011 was our Christmas vacation in the QC & CR - but no white Christmas for us!  We missed the winter storm that dropped 18 inches of snow on Highlands Ranch and hit the road for IA where was saw high temps and green grass.
Since I didn't officially start my full-time job with Mile High United Way until the new year, we were able to spend about a week in Iowa for the holiday.  We split time between CR & and QC and spent a lot of QT with the fams.
We were able to stop in Omaha and bug the Wieners on both the way out and back.  We are so grateful that they open up their house to us in the middle of the night for a quick nights sleep before we continue on our way!
Christmas in the QC involved time with both Grandmas, the siblings, mom & al and some more gambling.  I guess it becomes a tradition when your sister works at the casino on ALL holidays!  This time we took Nannie with us- so she enjoyed some time at the slot machines :) We didn't lose this time either!  We also visited the new Mississippi River Distilling Co in LeClaire along with the American Pickers store- unfortunately we didn't see Mike or Frank- maybe next time.

Christmas in CR was great - spent with the Cochranes and Grandma Anna Lou.  We also had the opportunity to meet little Carson Hellerstedt.  WHAT A SWEETIE!  It makes me a little (a lot) sad that we aren't there to spend more time with the new Hellerstedt fan, but I love the blog updates Les- keep them coming! We also caught up with the soon to be a family of 3 Paaschs.  Love Andie's little baby bump and can't wait to meet Baby P in 2012.
After running around IA we eventually made it back to CO-  Hubble started off happy in the car... and then couldn't get comfy.

... he was really glad to be home.

Now... on to 2012!