The end of 2013

My last posting was in September…of LAST YEAR!  This is bad, bad, bad.  I guess the recurring theme of my blog will be the lack thereof.  I am going to try and do a quick re-cap of what we have done from October through the end of 2013.  I'm also going to try and keep this short because let's be honest…long posts are boring.  And, a caveat of my awesome photos is that I lost my phone in early January.  John was able to salvage many of my old photos on my new phone but not all.  Don't ask me…I don't understand!  Oh yeah, so a goodly amount of photos will be screenshot photos from my instagram account.  Yep, I'm 'with it'...

OCTOBER
We left Colorado for Arkansas and made it to Conway to watch my Uncle Jerry Joe's installation into the University of Central Arkansas' Sports Hall of Fame.  It was really awesome!  We then went to El Dorado for a few days and then over to Dallas where John had some work meetings.  The following day, we headed to Fort Worth where we were invested into the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.  We were nominated by our pastor in El Dorado and are members of the Southwest Lieutenancy.  The Order's entire goal is to pray for and financially support the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.  It is one of only two Orders (I think) protected by the Vatican and The Holy Father.  You can find history of the Order here…  www.holysepulchre.net
To say that we are incredibly honored by our nomination and investiture is an understatement.  It was incredibly moving for us.

Snapshot of the program

New UCA Sports Hall of Fame Inductee, Jerry Joe and his bride, Lib!

After our Investiture Mass

Cardinal O'Brien 

Our new friends, Dr. Jim Bob & Holly

NOVEMBER

We left Texas and headed back to Little Rock where we began a very long, tiring, frustrating, and almost comical move with National Van Lines.  We rented a house in Colorado and needed to transport our belongings from our five large storage units in Arkansas to our house in Colorado.  Leaving out the details which would make this post painfully long, let's just say it was a disaster from start to finish.  We survived…barely.  I don't have photos from this, but that is probably for the best.  During the month of November, John had a few trips and we were able to go to Arizona for Thanksgiving.  Tex got to visit Pat and Ted's labs.  Thankfully, everyone got along which made for a really nice Thanksgiving…and we had our picture made for our Christmas card…yay!

Pat knows how to do patio dining.

Dogs are banking on a messy chef and sous chef!

Christmas card success!

DECEMBER
After Thanksgiving, we headed back to Colorado and then to Arkansas in early December for John's office party.  While we were in town, I was able to help Dad with his office party.  Dad introduced us to the book, Grain Brain.  More on this later, but we began our gluten free journey around this time.  We came back to Colorado via private plane out of El Dorado due to an ice storm that hit Arkansas and pretty much the entire country.  Colorado got it a day or two before, and it was moving on down and across the country.  Let's just say that I am not an easy going traveler in extreme weather.  We landed, thankfully, and ended up being trapped in the plane because the extreme cold/wet weather had created a seal on the plane door.  My heart is racing just typing this…  We got out just fine but not before I hyperventilated and thought I would pass out.  Awesome.  We had some special visitors for Christmas. More on that later, but it was an unbelievably sweet time for us.  We went to Vail for a week and took advantage of EVERYTHING Vail had to offer…except skiing.  I know, LAME!  Kerry and Clay joined us along with Pat and Ted.  John's Aunt Julie and her family was also in Vail, so we were able to spend Christmas Eve with them.  Here are a few photos…they are not an accurate snapshot of how busy and how much fun we had during the Christmas holiday, but they will have to do for now :)!

Pat at the top of Vail Mountain tubing.

Dog Sledding

My viking/mountain man on the ice rink!  Hey, it kept his face warm :).

We ended 2013 in the comfort and warmth of our own home.  I'm pretty sure I was asleep in front of the TV long before midnight.  In typical John fashion, he made me get up and countdown with him!  Gotta love him!!  2013 was an incredibly busy and sweet year for us, and 2014 is proving to be the same.  We are hopeful and optimistic that 2014 will be the best year yet!