But sometimes, no good deed goes unpunished. On our way there, I rear-ended someone.
#@**#(^*#&!!!!
Yes, this is ultimately my fault, as I rear-ended them. BUT, in my defense, we were turning right from Parker Rd onto Crown Crest Blvd, which has a continuous lane to drive into. We were of course going really slowly around the corner and it seemed like the driver ahead of me had paused, looked and started going, so I did the quick glance over the left shoulder to make sure no one was coming into our lane, and suddenly I was in the guy's bumper! He'd stopped for no reason!! And it wasn't a continuous lane where you had to merge over in about 10 feet, it was a continuooooooooooooous lane. The good news I guess is that I have the luxury of griping about the annoyance of it all because no one was hurt at all. And if this had to happen, it was the best possible scenario for it to happen. See, the car ahead of me was caravanning with the car behind me for lunch. After we crunched, we continued onto the Chick-fil-a parking lot and the other two moms immediately jumped out of their cars and started helping w/the boys while the dad and I sorted the stuff out. After we dealt with the police, thank you very much for the ticket officer, I ended up eating lunch inside w/the other ladies - weird.Sidenote: as we were going through our info, the dad pulled out his driver's license - from Utah. Turns out, they live in the next suburb over from South Jordan. They lived in Colorado Springs for two years, then took a job transfer to SLC and have been there for 2 years, and jumped at the chance to move back to Colorado. They too are gentiles that survived Utah. They are here in Parker making an offer on a house. Too weird!!! They turned out to be really nice people (so far, hopefully they don't get a crazy hair and sue me or anything). We just met under crappy circumstances. Also, him not being from here explains why they jumped over into the right lane of Parker Rd at the last minute for Chick-fil-a and then came to a complete stop at an intersection they should've kept going in. Sucks for me.
And I have to say, hats off to Progressive (so far - let's see how much they jack my rates later). I called in the accident about 1:30 and by 4:00 I had talked to two Progressive reps, they had dispatched a tow truck (the van was leaking antifreeze), and the tow truck was taking the van to a "network provider" that will do all the paperwork...I just pay the deductible and don't have to mess with getting estimates, submitting paperwork for approval, etc. The boys thought the tow truck was pretty cool. Max will tell you that the van was crying because of its owies. He says that once it gets fixed up at the shop, its windshield wipers will wipe away its tears.
And huge thanks to Mom and Dad for showing up with dinner and a car for me to drive (so I don't have to rent anything). This crisis was a lot easier to manage from Parker than the crises from South Jordan (of which there were several) with their immediate support.I guess this is one of those life lessons where I learn about forgiving my own imperfections. Fortunately there aren't many. HA!
Still, so maddening!!!!
Ahhh, powder so light you can sweep it off the porch!
The table is set and Max is ready:
Playing with the "laptop" from Aunt Whitney and Uncle Jody. He's already passing me technologically. 
Their new puppets elicit the biggest belly-laughs from Ben:
Enjoying the hand-made candy Grandma Jill & Grandpa Jim gave them (thanks for the pics, Whit):
Riding the magic carpet. This is an incredible innovation from when I learned to ski. It's like those people-movers at the airport; they just ski right on and up they go! 
Eating snow. A favorite past-time. 
Mama and Ben.
The boys went to Mom & Dad's. This is one of the reasons I am so glad to be close to family again - not just for the free babysitting, but so that the boys and their grandparents can have a relationship. I hope that when the boys are older, they will have many memories of time with Grandma and Grandpa (and aunts and uncles and cousins too). Ben, who is not always the warmest kid to, well, anyone besides Mom, is even warming up to them. He's always been a Grandpa's boy (even with grandpas that aren't his), but Mom said "and Ben's been so friendly - he even gave me a big smooch!" Cracks me up that it's a notable event when our 2-year old is affectionate to his grandma. And then Sunday was my mama's b-day, so we had a fun afternoon playing pinochle and just hanging out.
It was their special Santa Express weekend, where we got to take a little train ride & could've seen Santa in a red caboose had we waited in a long line. Even without seeing Santa, the boys had a blast! Their favorite part was this gigantic set-up with model trains running around. 
We also got to climb in a bunch of engines & cars. Here are Max & Andrew operating all the little controls. 
Lots of stuff to see there; we only got a small sample in the couple hours we were there.
And as Jody aptly described the game Friday, "who cares versus who cares," you're welcome Sonny Lubick for WYO giving you a parting gift of yet another Border War victory.
It was a struggle to keep Ben's hands out of the cake long enough to snap a picture.
