I'm home!

I had a great time in Colorado Springs with my family!  My kids love Grandma Barb and Papa Don.  We had a long weekend filled with fun activities and lots of love. Pictures will come soon; my parents took the majority of the pictures.

Saturday we flew into Denver, arrived around lunch.  We met up with Grandma and Papa and picnicked outside the Denver Aquarium.  Then, we went inside the Aquarium.  It was a big hit with both of the kids.  The Denver Aquarium has 4 tigers on exhibit.  We spent a long while watching the tigers.  The aquarium also has a few "hands on" activities. Touching star fish, horseshoe crab and sea cucumbers.  And then being able to pet sting rays, and then feed them sardines.   Ethan loved being able to touch the animals, it was beautiful.  We bought some sardines for him to feed the sting rays.  He loved that too, but was a bit squeamish about letting the sting rays eat out of his hand.  He ended up dropping the fish into the water for the rays.  It was a good time for all of us.  I love aquariums.  I'm just in awe of the beauty of sharks.  The Denver Aquarium had some beautiful brown sharks, so it was a good time for myself too.

Saturday evening we tried to go bowling, drove through a huge rain storm to find out that the alley was closed.  We opted for ice cream instead.  (The first of several indulgences over the weekend)

Sunday morning, we woke up early to go to the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. It was sort of a wet, foggy morning.  No real rain, just kinda icky.  It was fun to go out and walk to support the cause. This year marks my mom's 10th anniversary breast cancer-free. It always a little emotional to confront that for me.

Sunday, Tod drove down to my parents house for lunch.  It was good to see him.  (Its Don's son, so my step brother)  I think the last time I saw him was right after Ethan was born?  Or maybe at Greg and Melissa's wedding?  I don't know.  It was a good visit.  We had awesome cake for Papa Don's birthday. (Another indulgence)

Sunday afternoon, the kids and I took a very long nap together.  Thanks to the Lion King. It was amazing.  We had gotten up early both Saturday and Sunday and the kids were getting sick, so a nap was due.

Monday, we met up with an old friend of mine from high school, Amy and her family.  We had lunch, went to a local park and then met another friend for ice cream. (Another indulgence) It was fun spending the day with other kids (Emma found a great friend in Ella, Amy's daughter) Catching up was great. Its interesting to see how our lives have shaped up since high school.

Tuesday was by far, Ethan's favorite day.  We drove up to Woodland Park to the Dinosaur Resource Center. Ethan's had an infatuation with dinosaurs for a few months now.  We both learned a lot, and it was so good for him to learn and have fun.  I'm so glad we went.  We've been struggling trying to teach him how big dinosaurs were, so it was nice to have life size bone structures for him to see.

Wednesday we flew home, security was a bit of an ordeal and the airline wouldn't give my mom a gate pass.  So that wasn't great, but we made it home safely and that's what's important.