Colorado

Last week we were in Colorado to visit my family.  The boys and I flew out on Sunday the 15th, and Mike joined us on Thursday.  Lots of pictures were taken, and I'm including lots of them on here.  My justification for so many pictures here is that I almost never put pictures on Snapfish anymore, so this is my way to share them with family and friends.  

The flight out to Colorado was somewhat painful.  The idea was for Drew to get a decent nap in on the 2 hour drive to the airport, but he decided to just sleep for the last half hour of the drive and be a pain on the plane instead.  His plan worked perfectly; my plan not so much.  But, the boys and I all survived the trip and Drew easily went to sleep that first night at my parents' house, which was a blessing. He must have just been exhausted, though, because the next day, Drew, who is normally a pretty happy baby, decided that he didn't want Grandma Ruth, Grandpa Dick, or anybody else in Colorado to see his happy side, so he became a total crabby-pants.  It didn't help that he was so tired when we got there, and then developed a cold that night, so he didn't feel great. Plus, he was in an unfamiliar house with unfamiliar people, so basically, if you weren't Mom, Drew didn't want anything to do with you. That made it difficult for everyone because Drew was crabby, which made me  crabby, and it was just stressful. On Monday Drew started having a really hard time going to sleep and would just cry and cry. That didn't help the crabbiness (his or mine) one bit. Thankfully, though, after a few days, and many times of walking into Drew's room to plug him in and lay him down again, he realized that sleep-time was sleep-time, and Mom wasn't budging on it. That helped.

On Monday two of my high school friends came over.  Ange is almost done with law school at CU and Ana is in her first year of her residency in pediatrics.  Ange brought her 8 month-old son Ben over, too.  He is such a cutie and almost as big as Drew.  It was fun seeing Ana, Ange, and Ben again.  Of course Zach acted like a crazy kid, trying to show off for Mom's friends.  He's not always that weird, Ange and Ana!

Monday evening I got to go see my friend Britta, who is a friend from college.  It's so weird that she is from Minnesota, we met in college in Iowa, and now she lives back in my hometown.  It was fun to see her and catch up as well.  

While I was out with Britta, my sister Sandy and her son Anders arrived.  We were really bummed that my brother-in-law Will couldn't come for the trip.  When I told Zach that Will wouldn't be there, he said in a very sad voice, "What?!  Why?!"  Unfortunately, Will and Sandy's dog is not doing so well, so Will stayed home to take care of her.  Anders is now 6 months old, and quite a happy, content baby, except maybe at night, but I never really saw any of that.  He and Drew thought it was fun to see each other again.

I left Drew with my parents, Sandy, and Anders, and Zach and I met my sister Becky and her son Cam at the Denver Zoo.  The Denver Zoo is really a great zoo, and we had a lot of fun.  My favorite display was probably the gorillas.  One of them was laying right by the glass, just lounging there with his hands over his chest and his legs up on the wall.  I forgot to pack my camera, so these zoo pictures were taken with my phone.  In this gorilla one, the coloring looks a little off, but it's just Cam's reflection you're seeing.

In Zach's eyes, no trip the zoo is complete without a train ride, so at the end of the day we hopped on the train for a little rest.  We had the wagon with us all day, but the boys did quite a bit of walking and even more running, so the rest was welcome.

Since it was such a gorgeous day, we decided that we should all get a little ice cream before heading home.  Zach helped Cam spot a drip before it dropped.

Later that day Drew decided to share some smiles, as long as I was nearby.  Here he was trying on Zach's sunglasses and loving them.  I later bought him his own pair, and he's not too terrible about taking them off all the time.

Wednesday morning Drew and Anders played together some more while Zach and Grandpa Dick went to the railroad museum.  It's interesting to look how different Drew and Anders are now in size and to know that before long they'll be the same size, just like Zach and Cam, who are 9 months apart.

When Zach and Grandpa got home from the railroad museum, Grandpa made Zach one of his specialties- a peanut butter, mayonaisse, and pickle sandwich.  I'd say yum, but I think it sounds gross.  Zach and Grandpa sure enjoyed them, though.  I told my Zach that that can be a special treat he has only with Grandpa Dick!  

After lunch the boys and I headed to a park to see another one of my high school friends, Chris, and her two kids, Peyton and Nick.  It was Peyton's 5th birthday that day, so Zach made her a little card.  The kids were shy at first, but after a little while they warmed up to each other.

Here's Chris and Nick, who is 18 or 19 months old (I suddenly can't remember).  He looks just like his daddy!

Wednesday night we celebrated Cam's 3rd birthday, which was on Thursday.  Sadly, I forgot to take my camera to Becky and Tom's house, so I don't have any pictures of the event.  We had a delicious dinner that Becky prepared and Drew gobbled up (stuffed shells, and I think Drew ate about 3 by himself, which is more than I ate!) and a yummy cake she also made.  Cam picked my absolute favorite- chocolate cake with cherry frosting- YUM!!

While we were in Colorado, Drew discovered that he loves Sadie, my parents' big golden retriever.  He would see her and do his sign for Foudy, our dog, and crawl over to her.  He loved laying his head on her to love her up, which was very sweet, but not something I ever got a picture of.  Drew also loved Sadie's big pillow.  Here are Drew, Zach, and Anders playing around on it.  There were lots of pictures of the boys on the pillow, but I just included a few of my favorites.

Thursday evening I got to go up to one of my favorite restaurants- Beau Jo's Pizza.  It's in Idaho Springs, which is a little mountain town about a half hour from my parents' house.  I met another one of my high school friends there.  Preston lives in Boston but was in Colorado for the week visiting his parents and doing some skiing.  It has been a while since I've seen Preston, so it was really good to see him and catch up.  That night Mike flew in, so after dinner I headed to the airport.

Friday morning started early.  Mike, Zach, my nephew Cam, my brother-in-law Tom, and my dad all headed down to Union Station to board the Amtrak and ride it up to Glenwood Springs.   Here are the two little engineers excited for their first big train ride.

Zach and Grandpa enjoyed looking out the window.  It's hard to say who was most excited for the train- Grandpa or his 2 grandsons.

I thought this was a cute picture of Zach and Cam being kind of silly in the lounge car on the train.  It's a long train ride- about 6 hours- but the boys did really well, according to the grown-ups on the train.  My mom, sisters, the babies, and I drove the 2 cars up to Glenwood and met the guys at the train station when they arrived.  

Glenwood Springs is a place that is very near and dear to my family's heart.  We used to spend lots of time there when I was a kid, always staying at the Hotel Colorado, an old hotel that is rumored to be haunted.  We still stay at that hotel every time we go there.  Glenwood is a little town in the mountains near Aspen that is famous for it's hot springs and for it's place in history (it is where Doc Holiday died).  I've heard it is the largest natural hot springs in the world, but I don't know if that's true or not.  There are 2 pools that are open year-round.  The big pool spans over 2 city blocks and the temperature of the water is cooled to about 90 degrees.  The smaller pool, called a therapy pool, is cooled to about 104 degrees.  We took the boys in the big pool, and Zach and Cam loved it.  Anders found it so relaxing that he fell asleep.  Drew was not a fan at first, as you can see from the picture below.  He did warm up to it a little bit, though, and got to splashing all over.  The day we were at the pool was a beautiful day, so they opened the water slide, and Mike took both Cam and Zach down it.   Apparently it was freezing, so I'm glad I skipped that.  

On our last day in Glenwood, Becky, Tom, Cam, Mike, Zach, and I headed up to the Glenwood Caverns.  We decided to skip the cave tour this time and just do some fun stuff with the boys.  

Here are Mike, Zach, and me on the tram on the way up.

Zach and Cam were not at all afraid to be up so high.  They enjoyed the view.

There was a giant maze up on top of the mountain.  We had to race around to find our way to each corner of the maze to find the shelters with the letters M-A-Z-E.  Mike was across the way at the M shelter and took this picture of Zach and me at the A shelter.

Here's a good action shot of Zach and me racing to the next shelter.  We finished in 7 minutes, so Zach got to pick a couple of prizes.

This is the view atop one of the shelters.  Amazing, isn't it?

Here are Becky, Tom, and Cam up on top of the mountain.  You can't tell as much from this picture, but I really think Becky looks like Charlotte on the T.V. show Private Practice.

The boys and I all rode the alpine coaster, and that was fun.  I purposely made sure Zach went with Mike, because I knew I'd be too chicken to go super fast, and I thought Zach might have more fun with Dad, who wouldn't be chicken.  They had a blast, and all the boys rode the coaster again.  This picture is Tom and Cam just starting out.

This is the view from the top of the mountain, looking down on the valley below.

Here's Zach and Cam waiting for the tram to go back down.  We had so much fun up there.  It was nice that my parents and Sandy and Anders were willing to stay at the hotel while Drew napped so that we could get Zach and Cam out for some fun.

This is a picture Mike took from the tram.  It's a little difficult to see in it's small size, but if you click on it to make it larger, you'll be able to see the Hotel Colorado, where we always stay, in the sort of lower-right corner.  It's U-shaped.  The pool is across the street, right smack in the middle of the picture.  Then there is I-70 and the Colorado River, and then the train tracks and the depot.

We headed back down to my parents' house on Sunday afternoon.  We stopped in Idaho Springs for some Beau Jo's pizza again, as that is the tradition in our family.  Monday morning we headed out to the airport to begin the trip home.  We ended up leaving Denver about an hour later than we were scheduled to, and by the time we got to Omaha Drew was exhausted (no morning nap), and so was Zach.  They both fell asleep before we got to the interstate and slept at least part of the way home.

Though the trip started out a little rough and had some difficult moments (as to be expected when traveling with a one year-old), it really was a good time.  Probably the best thing for me was watching Zach and Cam play together.  Even though they only see each other a few times a year, these boys sure do love each other.  When I asked Zach what the best part about the trip was, I expected him to say something we did, like the zoo, the pool, the train ride, the train museum, the roller coaster, etc.  But his answer was an enthusiastic, "CAM!"  I just wish we lived closer so they could see each other more often.  They are at that age now where they can just go off together and play, and they don't need the adults to help them (except for the occasional refereeing and reminding Zach that he's not Cam's boss).  I love watching Zach and Cam from afar and imagining Drew and Anders in a few years being the same way.  

I'm disappointed I didn't get a single picture of my sisters and me together on this trip.  I'm sure Mike would say we have enough pictures of my sisters and me already.  It seems like the 3 of us are together less than ever since all the kids have been born, so it seems like we should make note of those times by taking pictures.  One funny thing Becky's friend Caitlin's 5 year-old daughter said at Cam's birthday party- "Mom, why do Becky and her sisters all have the same hairstyle?"  Another lady at the Hotel Colorado asked us if we were triplets or just twins (I'm not sure which 2 she thought were twins- she didn't clarify).  That was kind of funny, too.  There's something comforting to me about looking like my sisters.  I guess it's nice to know that people think we go together.

Whew!  I got through this post faster than I expected!  Thanks for a great trip, Family!