Two Weekends in One Post

Last weekend was drill weekend for Aaron. I took Campbell to the ice skating rink at the Recreation District. The rink is HUGE. It's at least twice the size of the one in Greenville. Campbell did a great job. After 3 months of no ice time, she hadn't skipped a beat. She was skating forwards, backwards, and in circles. She was able to skate on one leg and do spins. She really does love ice skating.

After ice skating, the kids and I headed over to the base. I had to meet with the CO, XO, and one of the chiefs. I have volunteered to be the Omnbudsman for the unit. I had to meet with them to discuss the position. While there, we got to watch a re-enlistment ceremony. Campbell enjoyed seeing this. She doesn't often get to see what the Navy is like, so this was a good experience for her.

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping and doing housework. I know, not very exciting but that's life.

This last weekend started with a day off on Friday for Campbell. It was 70 degrees and beautiful so the kids and I went to the zoo. The zoo was packed! We ended up having to park in City Park and walk about a mile to the zoo entrance. It's springtime here, so we got to see a lot of baby animals and birds sitting on nests. We had lunch at the zoo and came home with some little pink sunburns despite the use of excess sunscreen.

Saturday started with Aaron and the kids going to get brakes replaced on the truck. I went to the hair salon. The trip to the salon went great! The trip to Breaks Plus was not so great. We took the truck there expecting to replace the breaks. We left there owing our first born. That's the way it always goes a the mechanics though, I suppose.

After our separate adventures, we decided to go to Tiny Town. We got there only to find out that they don't open for another 2 weeks. So we decided to go back to the Science and Nature museum. The last time we had gone, we only did the third floor.

We were able to see some really great exhibits. Both kids really enjoyed the play area. They got to play with bubbles, dinosaurs, the piano, and other fun learning things. I personally really enjoyed the Space section.

On Sunday, Aaron went on an all day motorcycle ride. The kids and I tried to go to a shopping center I had been hearing about. The add said to just take Quebec St to I70 and the center was right there. Well, one thing we have learned here in Denver is that while a road may go all the way from one side of town to the next, it may also have a section of that road where it ends and you have to find your way around to where it starts again. Anyway, we think we found the shopping center but aren't sure. There wasn't much there, so we went to a toy store and Starbucks. We then made our way through downtown and over to Golden to the Outlets. We had a great walk through the outlets.

Aaron ended up getting home about the same time we did. He had a great time on his trip, although he said it was very long. He left at 8 and got home at 5. Most of that time was spend on the motorcycle.

So, now you should all be caught up with us.

Easter in Colorado

Easter was the first holiday we were to spend in Colorado. We had planned on a nice quiet day with just the four of us. We were going to color Easter eggs on the deck, have a nice little egg hunt, and eat a dinner lovingly prepared by Aaron and Campbell.

Plans were changed when we awoke to yet more snow. The kids woke up early. Campbell got up at 6:00. Caleb woke up at 7:00. When I took Caleb downstairs, I found that Campbell had already gone through her Easter basket. She couldn't wait for us. Caleb then went through his and immediately started playing with his new vacuum cleaner.

The egg coloring was changed to an indoor activity. The cups were set up in the sink. Caleb sat on the counter and watched. Campbell and I did the coloring. It actually went over pretty well and there was no mess. After the eggs were dry, Campbell painted them with sparkly stuff. We then did a little egg hunt in the living room. Caleb didn't care about finding the eggs. He just wanted to throw them. (He thought they were balls.) Campbell enjoyed the makeshift eff hunt.

After the egg hunt we all got dressed. Campbell wanted to wear her new Easter dress which is sleaveless, so we had to modify by adding a turtleneck and tights. We all then headed to the bookstore for some out of the house time. Caleb loved playing with the train set there.

After we came home we fixed dinner. I made potatoes. Aaron made lamb chops for him and I and chicken for the kids. Campbell made a yogurt and cucumber dish. It was a wonderful dinner.

It wasn't the most exciting Easter, and we missed being with our friends and family in Carolina, but it was a nice day for our little family of four to spend together.

A Trip to Vail

Saturday morning we woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground. The snow was still coming down. There went any plans we may have had for a small hike. We watched the news and were informed that if we just went over the mountains towards Vail, the weather was much nicer. So we bundled up and piled into the car.

The first portion of the trip was the worst. It was snowing and the roads were wet. The visibility was almost none. To top it off, just after we got onto I70 the window washer fluid ran dry. For a good thirty minutes, we had a difficult time seeing. Mud was being flown onto the windshield and we had no fluid with which to wash it off. We stopped at the first gas station and fixed that.

The rest of the trip was rather uneventful. The skies did indeed clear up and we even saw sunshine. We arrived in Vail just in time for lunch. We parked the car and went in search of a place to eat.

We ended up having lunch at a little pub. The food was great. The view was even better. We were lucky enough to have a window seat. The window gave us a very nice view of a little brook and the mountains.

After lunch, we did some shopping. There are a lot of cute little shops in Vail. Unfortunately, we are not millionaires. I also don't know how P*ETA is not picketing the town. There were several fur shops in town. We did see a bunch of beautiful artwork as well.

The kids had a great time. Campbell even stuck her hand in the creek. She said it was freezing! Both kids loved watching the skiers dome down the slopes. Campbell has decided that she wants to learn how to ski. We will definitely do that!

The drive back was much better. The roads, for the most part, were clear. On our way back we decided to stop by the mall. After a little walking we decided to grab some dinner. Our evening ended with a lovely dinner at Olive Garden. It was a terrific family day!

Dinosaur Ridge

On Sunday we knew we wanted to walk somewhere, but weren't sure where. We came up with three choices for Campbell. Her choices were the reservoir, Tiny Town, or Dinosaur Ridge. We fully expected her to say Tiny Town. She has been talking about going there since she learned we were moving to Denver. She surprised us by choosing Dinosaur Ridge.

After missing the turn, we made our way back to the Dinosaur Ridge visitor center. We didn't go in, but let the kids play on the dinosaurs they had out front. Aaron didn't want to walk all the way from the visitor center up the hill. (To his credit it was uphill on a busy road and was 2 miles long.) We instead parked at a pull off spot about halfway up the hill.

We walked and got to see the different rock formations. We also saw dinosaur footprints in the rock. Caleb loved playing on the rocks, and Campbell really enjoyed the history of it all. We hiked up a small trail to a beautiful overlook view.

After leaving the dinosaurs, we went for drive through Red Rocks Park. The rocks were absolutely amazing. We stopped in at the amphitheatre to take a peak at that. It really is something there, and we definitely want to see a show there sometime. That has been added to our list of must do's.

We ended the day with a lovely Mexican meal in the town of Morrison. It all made for a wonderful Sunday.

Denver: The Other Windy City

Saturday we decided to walk through downtown Denver. Aaron and I have walked through our share of city downtowns like San Francisco, L.A., Washington D.C, and Baltimore. We love to do this, but have never done it with children. We've taken Campbell many places and she has experienced so many things, but we have never just walked down the city streets with her.

The day was very sunny, but oh so windy. It was one of those winds that feels like it will just blow you off your feet. It was so strong that poor Caleb couldn't breathe when the wind was blowing in his face. We had to duck into a few stores just to get a break from it.

Even with the wind, we had a great walk. We walked through a few stores and had a great family lunch. We even walked down to the Capitol building. We stopped in Lincoln Park to look at the Capitol. From Lincoln Park you can look at the Capitol building. When you turn 180 degrees you are looking at City Hall. Both are beautiful buildings.

While looking at the Capitol we realized that we had never taken Campbell to see the Capitol in SC. She was born in SC and lived there for the first eight years of her life. Yet, we never took her to see the Capitol. Maybe on a visit back to SC we'll have to do that.

Butterflies

Campbell was on Spring Break last week. We were going to go the the Denver mint, but apparently you need to have reservations for that. Instead, we decided to go the the Butterfly Pavillion on Friday. We decided that since Aaron was at work, we would go to the pavilion.

We made our way across the city to Westminster. Campbell found this hilarious that we were going to Westminster, CO and Nana lives in Westminster, SC. Eight year olds are easily humored.

We went in and first went to the bug section of the Pavilion. In this section we found creepy crawlies such as spiders and roaches. Caleb got to touch a hissing cockroach. He was very upset that the lady would not let him pick it up and take it home with him. I, however, was not at all upset about that. Caleb was also very interested in the tarantula that the bigger kids were getting to hold. Campbell did not like this section at all.

After that we went to the underwater section. Both kids got to touch the starfish. Caleb wanted to splash in the water more than touch, but oh well. He is only 1 1/2.

Next it was on to the butterflies. We all three enjoyed this section. There were beautiful butterflies of all sizes. The colors on some were just fantastic. There were plenty of places to just sit and watch the butterflies. We spent most of our time in this section just watching the beauty of it all. It was a great indoor activity on a cold spring afternoon.