Denver like a Dervish

So I jumped in the car with Sagan, Andre & Ember and drove 12 hours to Denver. I must have been mad.

ha ha No, actually All the kids were really good. Ember doesn't hate me and Sagan and Andre didn't kill each other or me them.


The occasion was my Aunt Mary & Uncle Rich's 50th wedding anniversary. Aunt Mary and Uncle Rich are the shiz... We got to see super tons of paternal side family that I had not seen in like 20 or more years. Fish eating,

beer drinking, tall tale-ing, super razzing, outdoor bsing, cheek pinching good time.

No, I did not give wine to my baby.
Mark was supposed to come with us, however something came up. ;-) I'll get to that tidbit in a bit...

We stayed with my friend Mark Pratt. He's a kiwi.

He made our stay very pleasant. He lives in Evergreen. He has Elk in his yard... they are like pigeons or something.


Aside from all the crazy business of re-newing vows and eating away the days with family, we did get a little time to be entertained by some of what Denver has to offer. Boy, it sure has grown since I lived there over 20 years ago.
The Butterfly Pavillion was lovely.




Andre had some good times with Rosie. I figured they had a whole room full of "Rosies" You know, for when little boys change their mind. ;-) Mind you, Andre was first in line, and had a blast.





LOVED IT!

Then we hit TINY TOWN. I wasn't sold on the idea, especially after seeing their website, but I wanted the kids to pick. Pick they did, and as it turned out, the place was insanely cool.

These little houses were perfect little scale models, completely furnished. You can see in some of the pics the insides of these things.

The Adams Family House:



Cathedral on the outside:

Cathedral on the inside:

Barn on the outside:

Barn on the inside:

HEY! Shouldn't those kids be in school?
Oh, it IS a school! ;-)

They loved it!
(I loved it.)



The only "pretend" house in Tiny Town:


So yeah... Amazing schtuff. NEXT? The National Renewable Energy Laboratory Visitors Center

Inside:

Browsed around, bought the tshirt, left the kids in the car... I wish I had about three hours to look around this place, but it just wasn't in the cards.

The actual research facility, just up the hill from the visitors center. You can't go in!

THEN we zipped over to The Children's Museum of Denver.

All I can say is WOW. We have to go back!!! Just not enough time!

There was a really cool area just for babies.
This thing had springs in it and jiggled as Ember moved. She loved it.







Ok... now then right next door was The Downtown Aquarium!


Amazing, again, this place ROCKED. I could have stayed there all night.



Sagan knew a lot of the fish names. She saw some of her old pals from Seabase. Some that were big, she was used to seeing them small; and those that were small, she was used to seeing them big. We saw a sea turtle, a tiger and otters there too.

All of that in a day and a half?

You bet I'm tired. We ALL are. ;-)

So now WHY didn't Mark go with us in our whirlwind family & siteseeing tour of Colorado? Well, he decided to stay home so that he could get the time off for our next stop...

Oh yeah!

The Reader's Digest version of my week...

Ok kids, it’s almost that time of year again! Right here in the scorching heat of August, there is nothing I think about more than this:

Blue Ribbon winner at the Tooele County Fair. I loved it.

Deseret Peak Complex. Now there is a mouthful. NASCAR & BMX. A swimming pool, a Fire Museum, a mining museum, playgrounds AND a we happened to have reservations during the Tooele County Fair.

Hah, that worked out, eh? Sagan had a lot of fun with it in our “backyard” for a couple of days.

Now that the fair is gone, it’s relatively quiet. Ember seemed to get a kick out of all the happenings.



We thought Ember and Smokey should become aquainted early on. ;-)


Of course Mark walked around to the side door… to see if there was any other instructions. Hahaha This sign was at a Greek food booth. Mark talked the guy out of a free order of fries.

I’ve done 3 shifts now at the Breastfeeding Café.

It’s fun. I do know that the library has strange people in it…

Maybe I’m one of them. ;-)

Took a hike with Swiss, Ember’s SpiritParent (she’s the reason I know mark at ALL), up to Rocky Mouth Waterfall.

It’s amazingly close to the city, yet there you are, not a sound, sight or smell from the city. It’s a great place to go when it’s hot. The water is ice cold.

I can’t believe how out of shape and fat I am. I used Embers backpack for the first hike of any sort, Can’t be more than 22 lbs. with her and the pack and the water. Still. The hike is straight up some stairs. I thought I was gonna die. Pathetic. Gotta start somewhere, though. I think Diamond Fork might have been easier.

I’ve been busy making home made baby food for Ember. She’s loving this whole eating thing, so I figured the least I could do is make her some really yummy food.

Healthy food. Organic bananas, avocados, yams, applesauce, brown rice cereal, beets, peaches, green beans… all stocked up in the freezer in little ice cube portions.

Random cool pic I took this week: