An adventure, indeed...where to begin??
Because there is too much detail to include, I'll summarize:
December 20-21: The second blizzard of 2006 hits Colorado, closing DIA for a few days, cancelling flights, closing roads, etc...
December 23: Head to Windsor, CO to stay with my parents the night before we leave for Texas to visit my sister and her family for Christmas.
December 24: Wake up at 4:00 AM to make sure we are able to get on our flight that leaves at 11:40 AM, at the suggestion of Frontier. We end up sitting at our gate for two and a half hours, but are thankful we made it through the chaos.
December 25: Wake up and explain the significance of this day to Benjamin. He helped us sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. We celebrate a wonderful Christmas in Texas. Christmas dinner was a delicious fondue with cheese and oil fondues. Yummy!
December 26: Relax, play with toys, take a tour of the area.
December 27: Sea World!!!!
December 28: Pump It Up (the inflatable bouncy place)! Ben gets a black eye.
December 28 afternoon: Begin checking flight status for our return flight the next day....only to find that a THIRD blizzard has already begun dumping on Colorado. At the urging of Frontier and impending cancellation of our flight, we rebook our tickets, hoping to beat the craziness of doing it once the flight has actually been cancelled. The earliest we can get out is Monday, January 1, getting into Denver at 8:45 PM. We take it, knowing that if we wait much longer, it could be Thursday before we get a flight. Sometime that evening, we check and our flight HAS been cancelled.
December 29: Find out that our flight actually WASN'T cancelled and we could have been on our way home. Oh well, more time with family!
December 29-January 1: Do LOADS AND LOADS of laundry (see below), go the park, shop, sleep, go on a date with Andy and Kelli into downtown Austin, go to IKEA, do more laundry, etc...
January 1: Put the Pease house back together and head to the airport. Upon arrival at the airport, Jarid and my dad go to get our cars from parking. After minor digging and pushing, the cars are out and they are ready to come back to the airport to load up the kids, the girls, and the luggage. As Jarid is paying for parking, he realizes the window won't roll up. It's 15 degrees in Denver. He and my dad end up riding back to Windsor with a blanket shut in the door, and Jarid's arm holding it down. We get back to Windsor around 11:00 PM, where the guys immediately get out and start shoveling a path to get the cars in the driveway.
January 2: Jarid gets up early to see if the window has thawed enough to roll up. It hasn't. He takes it to Honda in Greeley, only to find that the motor and the regulator on the window are shot. Ah well, they taped the window up and we head for Colorado Springs, where most of the snow has begun to melt.
Backup to January 1, at baggage claim: Jarid receives a message from his boss at the tree farm to be in at 9:00 the next morning to dig out trees from the snow drifts. Obviously, we don't make it back at 9:00.
Fast forward to January 2, at the tree farm: Jarid arrives to see 8-9 foot trees completely buried in snowdrifts. He starts shoveling.
Whew. What an adventure. In the midst of all that, we had three children with colds, two children with a NASTY stomach bug (use your imagination!), two adults with a nasty stomach bug, two adult with colds, and a bladder infection among other things.
All in all, it could have been a miserable trip. With ten people couped up in a house, we could have been at each other's throats. But we weren't. We had a blast, we all worked together, and made it work.
Definitely one of my more memorable Christmases.
Shamu - "Believe"
She's good! 
The log ride at Sea World (if you could zoom in, the terror on Ben's face is priceless; don't worry-he loved it!!) 
It was supposed to be a sweet picture... 
The Happy Family 
Future rock climbing pro? 
Daddy and his girl 
Right before Ben got a black eye
Whose toys are they???
What a ham...
What a daredevil!
Playing at Gaddyland (kind of like Chuck E Cheese)
"Santa"
THIS is why there were 8 bags of luggage!!!
Playing with Ramone and Luigi from Cars
She just wants to play with the paper
Shamu and Friends
Cranium...