Colorado Day 3

So last night we went to bed around 10. I woke up at 3 to empty my bladder since Lily likes to bounce around on it, went back to sleep and woke up again at 6ish. I knew Chris would be up around 7 to get ready for his workshop and have time to eat, and I wanted to get a shower in so I got up and got around. When I got out of the bathroom Sean was awake. Chris got around quickly and went down to grab some breakfast items for us all. Shortly after that the girls woke up too. All the kids were a bit miffed that daddy had to be gone again all day and they started out pretty whiny and argumentative. I was already tired anyway and not really looking forward to a day stuck in the hotel again, but I tried to make the best of it. Thankfully they got over their moods and ate their breakfast and played with toys and colored for a couple of hours.

Eleanor and Chloe are turning out to be pretty close companions when they are not fighting for mommy's attention :-)

Here is the sleeper sofa put back together. It didn't last long though. Sean wanted it out so he could crawl under and use it as a fort.

When their happy play time started turning into not-so-happy fight time I suggested we go get ice from the machine, so off we went. They took turns pushing Chloe in the stroller and pushing the elevator buttons.

We brought the ice back to our room and then went down to the lobby to pick up some travel brochures. We are considering driving a couple hours out of our way to Colorado Springs on Sunday on our way home so they can see (not go up) Pike's Peak from a distance. We thought if we are going to be there anyway we may as well go to Garden of the gods and/or Seven Falls. I think the Garden would be better for them though, but I'm not sure. I remember having to do a lot of walking/climbing at Seven Falls, so we probably aren't all up to that at this point in our lives...

So we brought the brochures back up to our room and then went for another walk around the building like we did yesterday. I set my alarm for 15 minutes since I knew Eleanor would probably be complaining that she was tired and her legs hurt if we were out for longer than that. I was right!

On our walk I told them to look for mountains. Here is what we saw...

Sean said, "Get a picture of me with the mountains!"

This is some sort of fruit tree. Plum I do believe.

When we got back to our room it was lunch time, so I fed the kids and let them watch a little bit of TV, then we read books for about 30 minutes and took a nap. They just now woke up, so I should sign off. Hopefully I'll update more tonight or tomorrow...

34 weeks - cantalope

I thought it would be fun to do a picture or two with the three-way mirror in our hotel bathroom, but I could only get two mirrors in the shots. So am I getting big enough for everyone? I feel like I am growing everyday! This baby may be a 7 pounder instead of a 6 pounder :-) I still have six weeks to go and my clothes are getting tighter and tighter around the middle...

34 weeks: Baby weighs as much as a cantaloupe

Your baby has bulked up like the average cantaloupe -- to about 4 3/4 pounds. (Length: almost 18 inches, head to heel.)

Monday and Tuesday - Getting ready for our trip

Do you see some Sean feet?

Peek-a-boo! This is one of the kids favorite things to do. They make a little tent in the living room with pillows and blankets. The hardest part is keeping Chloe from destroying it ;-) They did this on Monday and Tuesday while Chris and I cleaned, did laundry, and packed for our trip.

Tuesday we went to the library to turn in the kids Summer Reading Program game sheets. They were ready for more stickers and "shell money" so they could get a prize! They had already gotten a grab bag prize with their three shells, but they now had six shells, so they could get either a book or a t-shirt. They decided to get a t-shirt. Sean's is a little big, but that is OK! His says Make a Splash Read! Eleanor's is from last year, but it was the only one in her size. It says Catch the Reading Bug :-)

These are their full game sheets. The way it works is for every fifteen minutes that we read to them, (and we do make sure they pay attention and sit still and listen) they get to put a small sticker along the track, then for each hour that we read they go to the library and get a big sticker and a paper shell. With three shells they get a grab bag prize, (not very exciting we found out) but with six shells they can get either a book or a shirt. We went ahead and got another game sheet and more stickers to see if we can make it to six more shells so they can get a book. We have till 8 PM on the 16th!

I made some homemade chocolate chip cookies for our trip. They turned out really well I must say and it's been quite a while since I made cookies from scratch!

Mountains!

Mountain views in the Denver and Golden, Colorado areas!

Colorado Day 1

We got to Denver area around 5ish AM Wednesday morning. About 2 hours later we realized it was actually 4 AM that we got here since we were in a new time zone. Wow, we are really perceptive huh? So, we stopped at a King Soopers to use the restrooms and stretch our legs before venturing on to Denny's, which happened to be right next door to our hotel. So Denny's was convenient and good in theory, but the food was not such a great idea. Not horrible, but certainly not IHOP. Our waiter was extremely nice though. After breakfast we drove around Golden area to get a feel for our surroundings and to try to find some things to do to kill time before checking into our hotel.

We found this park online and it sounded pretty cool, but upon further inspection, it really was not all that exceptional. There were no slides or swings!

At some point as we drove around Chloe crashed out again even though the kids all slept a good portion on the drive Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning!

We enjoyed a snack of chocolate chip cookies while Chloe slept. She had one later to be fair ;-)

Another place we went was Dino Ridge!

The kids got to dig in the sand for shells and in another area they could scoop rocks and find dinosaur bones. There was also a small hands-on museum about dinosaurs with fossils and bones that had been found in this area several years back. Sorry I don't remember dates, I was going on very little sleep by that time :-) We considered going on a trail where we could see dinosaur footprints/tracks in fossils and find bones, but it was $4 per person to take the bus and we were all tired and hungry by the time they were ready for the tour. Plus, there were signs all over the premises warning about rattlesnakes being spotted in the area a lot lately and to take caution and report any that were seen, so we got a little spooked and decided that we had enough fun there for one day!

When we were finally able to get into our hotel we got settled and relaxed for a bit, then took a little swim! The water felt very warm and wonderful even though it was in the shade and not a very hot day!

Chloe was happy in the water as long as she was in mommy's or daddy's arms or on the stairs where she could sit or stand by herself. After a while though I would set her on the side of the pool or stand her up there and she would jump in to me! I think she will be the fearless little water-bug of the family!

We got the big kids some floaty rings so they are somewhat free to swim/float around, but we still made sure we were close enough to grab them if they needed help. They are starting to get the idea of kicking and using their arms.

Eleanor was a little scared of the water, but she got used to it pretty quick.

Sean had a blast and would probably spend a whole day out there if he could!

Colorado Day 2

The kids slept till 6:30 Thursday morning. We all went to bed around 8:30 the night before and I was up about every 2 hours with the girls, but Sean and Chris slept all night! Anyway, we all got up and around and headed down to the complimentary/continental breakfast. It was packed and hard to get around with three kids, two parents, and one stroller. Tomorrow Chris and I will take turns going down and bringing things back up for everyone to eat. They did seem to enjoy their food once we brought it all back up to our room though!

Eleanor and Chloe shared dry Cheerios, toast and waffles

Sean wanted a pancake, but they didn't have any. Thankfully they did have waffles!

I enjoyed some instant Quaker oatmeal, yogurt, a hard boiled egg, and of course COFFEE! I needed it today!

Eleanor has been "Little Mommy" to Chloe lately. She wiped her clean after breakfast.

This is day one of Chris workshop/conference, so we are hanging out in the hotel all day today and tomorrow. To help time pass we brought books, toys, colors and coloring books, and movies.

We also took a walk around the hotel. The kids enjoyed taking turns pushing the stroller.

Since Chris has the van and we are here today and tomorrow we also brought some food and snacks for lunch. So they enjoyed their lunch at this multipurpose desk/table. Last night we ordered pizza delivery, so Sean had leftovers, but the girls did not since it's cheese. They seem to do OK with cheese one day a week, but no more than that or we have problems... I'll spare you the details ;-)

I love Chloe's little crossed ankles

They also watched a Curious George DVD today on our portable DVD player and now they are napping, which is why I actually have time to be on the computer! I should probably be taking a nap too, but...well, I really don't have a good excuse :-)

"Hi Bunny!" "Bye Bunny."

Chloe LOVES the bunny that lives under our deck. He is pretty cute and we have watched him grow since he was tiny! It seems like he is getting a bit more skittish as he is getting older, but he still comes pretty close to us when we play outside.

The other day when we were out there Chloe was waving and saying "hi" to him, but as soon as he went back under the deck, she was TICKED!


This was taken right after he went back under the deck. See the very displeased face!