We left our house around 8:30 CDT Sunday July 27, just half an hour later than I wanted. I made up for it with my driving speed:/ We were at Sharley's house in Green Valley at 11:30 MDT. We unpacked, then went to church with them. It was fun trying to keep everybody's moods stable for 1 pm church when their little bodies hadn't had naps yet and it was 2 pm biologically. After sacrament meeting, we went to Pam Smith's house. She's the mother of a good middle/high school friend of mine, Liz. Liz had gotten married the day before, so a visit was needed before she and Mason returned to their home in Atlanta. Tom and Katie are VERY outgoing and had no problem jumping right in with all the people that none of us knew (loads of wedding guests staying at the house), introducing themselves as Spiderman and Batman, of course. One lady asked if she could be a superhero too. Tom allowed her to be Wonder Woman. Then he found out that she had two kids, both high school aged, and named them Wonder Daughter and Wonder Son. Oh, they were best friends and any time Wonder Son went anywhere without Tom, he came looking, asking, "Where's Wonder Son?"
We got to my mother's house around 4ish and Jen and her family were already there. When Bode opened the door for us, Tommy asked who he was. Guess we're a little lacking on some cousin pictures. I told Tommy that was his cousin Bode, and suddenly that made everything okay and off they went. Those two (now here I go quoting Forrest Gump...I still don't have him out of my head from reading the book on our Kentucky trip) were like peas and carrots the whole week. And yes, I had Forrest's southern accent in my head while I typed that. Katie leeched on to cousin Erik, and Dancy was happy to have Uncle Erik any time his arms were available.
Tom and Katie had fun climbing along the cement wall in Grandma's backyard.
Park time. Don't know if he's a pirate or a dancer. Or just Tom.
Katie with her best friend, Erik. Jake found that little cart in a trash pile on someone's curb on our walk back from the park. Katie is thrilled with it.
Dancy with her buddy Erik.
Monday morning I went out shopping...and came back with two bikes! Tommy already had one from Nana and Bumpa, but it's just a touch on the big side, and has hand breaks. Shad and I agreed that it would be best saved for next year, now that I found an in between option for him. Katie was happy to have Grandpa Wayne help her with her new bike. He worked on fixing the traction a little, and was patient in instructing her how to ride and maneuver her wheels.
After shopping, we went to Cherry Creek Reservoir. Note the fancy hair--Jen was Katie's hair stylist.
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Dancy wasn't impressed with it. She wasn't happy in the sand, water, on a towel, or in my arms. Shoulda just left her at Grandma's, I guess.
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Oh, that little butt! That crack is nothing compared to what those shorts shared with the world that day. We got full moons! And then I fixed them before we went to the swimming pool on Wednesday.
Katie reminded me, "And then there's a storm coming! Thunder and lightning." That's why we left the beach. We got everything and everyone loaded in just in time for the rain to start. After getting my kids cleaned up and put down for naps, I left to do more shopping, and then meet Jake and Amber for sushi. Think what you will about me being pregnant, eating sushi, but it's a one time thing, and to quote Roland Merrill, "Millions of Japanese women can't be wrong!"
Katie spinning with her golf club playing miniature golf at Colorado Journey in Englewood.
Fun water features that Tom and Katie liked to throw rocks in and splash their clubs in...and Katie fell in herself!
Erik is always Katie's personal helper. She wanted to climb the wall and he dropped what he was doing to help her.
Fun Eisenhower Tunnel hole. All the holes were themed after Colorado landmarks.
Tuesday morning waiting to go out to our activities. Lisa and I took the kids to the Denver Science Museum with Mom and Grandpa Wayne; Jen took Erik and Bode to Jake's for video games.
Everybody had fun with the penny spinner. Dancy was not content to just put her pennies in! She knew better and was patient to wait for her turn to put them in the launcher.
Discovery Zone was a new exhibit for us that we haven't been to before. Tommy built a dinosaur puzzle.
Dancy tried out an archeological dig,
but found that she didn't really like the rubber pebbles any more than she liked the sand at the beach.
So we moved on to the water activities. Tom played with the frog,
and Dancy was a lot happier.
Katie was off doing her own independent thing the whole time.
She found the art center, which had this COOL marker block. The caps are stuck in the block! No more lost marker caps and dried out markers! Lisa (as a 3rd grade teacher) and I (as a mother of preschoolers) both fell in love with this.
Touch screen art desk.
Dancy enjoyed the food table, and had this weird 90 degree squat going most of the time. She just wouldn't let me get a picture of it.
Little girl knows what to do with blocks! She was very insistent with asking for help to reach the top.
"There's a toilet just for me!!!" Yep, and a sink, too. Katie was thrilled with that! It was a family bathroom, and had the adult size versions in there too. Cool for us both being able to go at the same time!
Then we moved on to Space Odyssey.
Katie cared to be an astronaut this time.
Dancy played with the moon crater and rocks, too.
We got to see a liquid nitrogen demonstration! When the guy got on the intercom to announce it, Tommy asked if that was Grandpa Wayne. I told him it wasn't, but the voice did sound remarkably similar. Funny thing, Grandpa Wayne was a chemist before he retired!
Katie got cold in the 68 degree air conditioning during the demonstration. Lisa helped her tuck her arms into her shirt. Then she fell asleep on Lisa. We moved her to the stroller (despite Dancy's jealousy) for about an hour til she woke up. When Dancy started to fall asleep on Lisa in the Expedition Health exhibit, we headed back to the van. Once again, we made it just in time for the drops to start falling from the sky.
The next three pictures do a good job capturing the relationship Katie and Erik have.
Wednesday we went to an indoor aquatic center in Arvada. It was fun, but the hour and a half drive back in traffic compounded with downpour rain made it not so worth it. Pretty sure we could have found something similar closer to Aurora. And my wipers quit working a couple miles from mom's house. Great! Luckily, I was inspired with the thought to turn off the van (like traffic was moving anyway...) and turn it on again, like restarting a computer or phone. It worked! Wipers turned back on.
That night Tom and Katie went to Jump Street with their Jen, Becky, Lisa, Mik (eh, she's an adopted sister), Erik and Bode. It's an indoor trampoline place (it rained ALL DAY Wednesday).
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And these next three depict Tom and Bode's relationship quite well:
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Thursday was our visiting day. After breakfast I took Dancy to Gail Zuniga's house to get a teething necklace made. Then after lunch Flo came over. Easy way to describe Flo is that she's my adopted grandma. Might as well be, for all the years she dated my grandpa before he died. I love her dearly, and see my future in her eyes. When I first met her 5 years ago, I fell in love with her, seeing her as who I would be in 50 years. Things didn't work out to visit my friend Jeremiah and his new wife, Becca, but we caught them for breakfast at IHOP on Friday. In the afternoon, I loaded the kids up and we drove to a library in Thornton to meet my best friend, Nikki and her husband Cliff. For all this visiting of all these friends, Katie has pointed out that I didn't get any pictures with them! Guess I'll have to do better next time.
Dancy is a climber. She wouldn't stay off the table in the kids' section of the library. Kept climbing up there and standing up. Tom and Katie followed suite.
We saw this statue as we pulled into a parking lot to turn around and catch the interstate ramp that I missed. I think it's a pretty cool piece of art.
There's urban gardening at Expo Park! I'm so proud of them! I took lots of pictures because I loved their layout and proximity of plants, and it's something I'd like to try replicating next year.
More of the garden. I always feel like I waste space in mine, so I like this example.
Tom wanted me to take pictures of him, so he gave me the following two.
Also for all these pictures I took, Katie keeps asking where I am. Guess I need to get on the selfie movement...
Friday after IHOP, I left the kids with Jen at Mom's house to play with their cousins before we spent the rest of the day in the van. Mom and I spent a couple hours at Costco and King Soopers buying groceries for my food storage, month supply of freezer meals, and fresh produce to eat now. Between all that and the kids' bikes, it took a while to get the van arranged for our return home, and once I did, it was very apparent that nobody was coming out once they were put in. There would be NO bathroom stop! Yeah, I drove fast again. Made it home in 4 hours, including stopping fill up on gas.
