Denver 2010

Hi

I know it'a been a while since the last post but we were enjoying ourselves too much to sort out the blog. Denver was a brilliant holiday. We arrived on Sunday 12th Dec, picked up a hire car and drove to our old neighbourhood and neighbours the Blunks. It was really as if we'd never left even though it had been 2 years since we'd seen them. The kids went straight off to play. Abi and Mallory got on great and Jacob and Will were straight to the basement to play a variety of video games. The adults caught up over a beer. Over the next week we gradually met up with lots of old friends. John and Sheri kindly leant us a car so we returned the hire car back to the airport. We went out for lunch with them and Sheri brought along her Ipad, which we were all very impressed with. I really thought we'd be going home with one, especially due to the amount of time we spent in the Apple Store at Cherry Creek Mall. Abi met up with Maya and had a lovely lunch followed by playdate at Maya's house. Jacob had great fun with Dillon and Nicholas and I had a good time catching up with their mum Renee. We also managed to catch up with Melissa's clan, meeting her one year old twins for the first time, Ryan and Risa, who were on holiday from their new base in Boston, and also the Livingston's. Missed a few people but I'm sure we'll see them next time! Also managed to do loads of shopping and we loved it. Visiting Denver made us both realise how much we miss America. Ate out loads, shopped too much, drank way too much!

So we then went up to the mountains for a week of skiing. I was hoping Allen would take it easy, due to his knee, but he didn't. He'd had a brace made before we left, which he did wear. Skiing was good for everyone. We even got the kids down a black run although Abi was a bit of a pain on the way! We were so lucky with the weather, lots of snow but good during the day. They have built a new outdoor, very heated, pool and 2 hot tubs which we used everyday. Jacob and Abi were torn between swimming and skiing. They did 2 days of ski school and then skied with us. They both said they prefered skiing with us so I think that's the end of ski school for them. Santa visited us in Breckenridge. Then we had to pack up and drive back to Denver for a Christmas dinner with our old Jewish neighbours Mindy and Shawna. We got down to brilliant sunshine so took the kids to the park. Mindy was in full flow, preparing an enormous meal for Christmas tea. She'd invited her family and cooked loads. It was all lovely, a favourite being yams with maple syrup and marshmallows! So we had a very different but great fun Christmas finished off with Betsy and Tim and kids joining us for a drink and then watching Dr Who on BBC America! We stayed at Mindy's for 3 nights, again we experienced brilliant hospitality.

I've included a variety of photos, Abi with Maya, a couple of group shots plus a few from Breckenridge. We had an excellent time away, didn't want to come back, endulged too much. Our livers definitely needed cleansing by the end of 2 and a half weeks. I hope we can repay Tim, Betsy and Mindy if they come and see us in Europe as they were so kind and generous.

Next post Allen's 40th.

Rachael.