Colorado!

With tickets $56 ROUND TRIP I made a reason to go to Colorado. My Aunt B is one of those people that is always delighted to see and talk to you. I'm pretty sure she makes everyone feel that way, but when she offers an open invitation to visit her any time, I have no problem taking her up on it. She was my pen pal when I was a silly 8,9, and 10 year old and would often send stickers to me inside the envelopes. It pretty much eternally cemented my love for her. 

After I booked the trip and was figuring out some logistics with Aunt B, she asked why my mom wasn't coming too and the thought didn't even cross my mind to invite her! We fixed that quickly and sadly, Mum couldn't get on the same flight, but still got the same deal for a 9:30pm flight instead of the 7:30pm one we were on. But the joke was on me because my flight was 3 hours delayed (Bless you google for mining my data and giving me a heads up because Frontier left me completely in the dark). Mum ended up leaving before we did! It all worked out though and my kiddos did great on the quick flight despite being waaaaay too tried.

Technology is my friend. J was a hoot and loved looking out the window. She saw the city lights and said, "Fascinating. Fascinating, fascinating!" and delighted a lady sitting in front of us. M loved riding on a plane and thought take off was particularly exciting. He was even telling me about it yesterday, a month later.

 We came on the perfect day and had fresh snow falling on us the next two days. My kids had a blast.

On day two we made snow cream. I was so surprised that my mum and the others had never experienced one of my favorite college discoveries. This much fresh snow+ 2cups milk+ 1tsp vanilla+ 1/2ish cup of sugar = homemade ice cream the slushy consistency of homemade ice cream on the 4th of July in Phoenix.

The next day we went down to Colorado Springs for my cousin Lianna's baby shower and went sledding. My mum has amazing pictures that she shared with me on a flash drive. A drive I blame M for losing. I like how I can blame all missing things on him. We had so much fun sledding and M was so adorable, I was able to forgive him for the 3 hour process each night of trying to get him to go to sleep. Pictures to come when I finally get them.

The sledding combined with the hip adjustment I gave her the day before put Lianna into labor. Well who knows what did it, but I take credit :) We helped out with watching Korrali (and took zero pictures) and then the last day I took my kiddos to Denver's Museum of Science and Natural History.  That groupon for the AZ science center membership has really been worth it because we got in free in Seattle and here. Denver's beats out AZ for sure. They had a great balance of exhibits to space ratio and many exhibits you don't need to be able to read to enjoy. They had more things for the younger crowd and this little astronaut loved the dress ups.

The natural history part was excellent and reminded me so much of DC

Look, Big Sis! Bison (I had a bison shirt as a kid she loved to mock me for)

 The dinosaur at the entrance was pretty impressive. Note M's expression.

They had a live demonstration of a heart and lung dissection. My kids were riveted.

It was one of those rare museum excursions that worked out perfectly. All fun, very little stress. The whole trip was a bunch of fun and we loved having a chance to spend time with the wonderful Quillens! Thanks for having us!