Kim and I ventured with our four kids to Colorado for a week to see Nana and Grandpa. Alli was pretty sure she wanted to go too!
It took 3 flights to get there, but the kids did great despite no one napping much.
Hunter made sure to read the safety information!
Willow was a great helper with Hannah on the flights and pushing Hunter in the stroller in all of the airports going and coming!
Owen apparently only needed to pack this one set of Lego directions. This is literally the only page he looked at during our first flight which was one hour. Sometimes I wonder what's going through his head as he looks at it!!
Same page. Different flight. Not exciting enough to keep him awake though.
Unfortunately we were traveling on Chick-fil-A's Cow Appreciation Day (which we've faithfully honored every year!). Fortunately though, the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport has a Chick-fil-A that was celebrating as well! We were thankful to have worn our shirts just in case!
He gave us our whole order free (lately you only get the entree free unless you're dressed head-to-toe, which we weren't) PLUS gave the kiddos each a cow toy!
Nana does a great job of bargain shopping for toys (or wrapping her own "toys" below) so we don't have to pack as much entertainment. These blocks were a hit!
Nana and Grandpa have recently decided that they're done with the farming life and trying to grow plants in this kind of dirt:
They got a few goats to eat the weeds out of the fields and bought their final two steer, then will be done with the "farm life," selling their home and cabin in CO to relocate to VA to be closer to the grandkids. The kids loved feeding the goats through the fence though. I wish I had a video of Hunter's adorable face saying, "Goats!" "Want some?" "Here ya go."
"Playing" the piano is always a hit with the kids. Mama enjoyed playing too. It's just like riding a bike, right??
The capacity for this pool is definitely not more than 4!!
The scooters were a big hit too!
Nana found these roller skates that go on over your shoes. If the big kids are doing it, then Hunter wants to do it too!
Enjoying a picnic at the park, because in CO the shade is actually cooler than in the sun!
Riding the "mule" to go get the mail:
Dad is always awake long before the sun comes up, then likes to sit in his chair near this large window and "make sure the sun comes up" he says. Hunter was up early enough to check on the sun too.
Yep! It came up! Dad likes to say that God is a Bronco fan because sun rises and sun sets are orange and blue =)
The rockstar on the left is training for a marathon in November and ran most days we were there. The one on the right hates to run but set a goal of running two miles twice and managed to do it. As long as your arms are swinging and your knees are bent, then it's running, not walking, right? We'll call it a success!
We had another picnic and walked along this little stream...
...to feed the ducks at this fun pond...
...BUT a certain 5-yr old boy was convinced to try jumping OVER the stream like his big sister was doing, yet was not wise enough to choose a narrow enough section to jump over, therefore landing IN the stream and coming out with one shoe missing. THANKFULLY it didn't go downstream but rather got stuck in the muck at the bottom and was able to be retrieved with a stick after a bit of searching. Whew! Crisis averted there!
There's an awesome new Rec center in town that we enjoyed going to twice. They had a great pool (slide, lazy river, playground, diving boards), rock climbing wall, playground area, and game area. We ignorantly walked into the diving board area and the kids went straight to the diving boards. We were quickly told that Owen needed to go pass a swim test to go off the diving boards which he decided not to do, then decided that it was way too loud in that area and sat with Nana covering his ears the rest of the time.
Willow bravely went to the line for the high dive without even drawing our attention to it, but only got to this point before the life guard stopped her to ask how old she was. If you're under 10 you also have to pass the swim test, so she climbed down and also wasn't interested in taking the swim test.
Owen loved learning how to play fuseball!
Willow loved the challenge of a different climbing wall with 4 tracks to climb up.
Her Mama gave it a try too (and didn't mention to her daughter how much her heart was racing!!)
But clearly has work to do on the "landing" part:
The kids enjoyed this fun playground area!
Willow tried her first tube slide! I wasn't sure how she'd do since it can get pretty dark in tube slides and I've always disliked the water spraying in my face. She asked if I wanted to go with her so I did because if she can do it, then I can too, right? Right?? It actually didn't spray bad at all and there was some "skylight" throughout the ride so it wasn't too dark. She ended up riding it at least 8-10 times each time we went there!
One morning we headed out to feed the goats but Owen decided to stay back with Nana. When we walked back he shouted out that he was "binocularing us."
Playing so nicely together!!
We drove up to the cabin that my parents built that Kim and I grew up going to in the summers. It was bittersweet going since they're going to be putting it on the market. I'm thinking the cabin "story" will be a separate post.
We drove up and had lunch then the kids enjoyed swatting flies...indoors and outdoors...
The kids and I rode in the back for the short drive to the "White Mountain."
What? It doesn't look like a mountain to you? It sure looked huge to us as kids and was our challenge to climb to the top and slide down.
Willow was at the perfect age for enjoying the challenge of getting to the top!
And quickly learned the strategy of digging hand/foot holds with a stick:
Owen just enjoyed climbing as high as he could then sliding down multiple times.
Hunter can do it "no hands!!"
Check them out! More action here!
Willow figured out how to "cheat" her way to the top of the smaller side of the mountain.
Lots of sliding leads to some dirty bums!!
Willow enjoyed walking down to the pond with me, like Kim and I did every time we went to the cabin. She's definitely an outdoors type of girl!
Can you spot the cabin through the trees (view from the pond)? Climbing back up to the cabin sure gives your heart a good workout!!
I was also able to teach Willow and Owen our childhood favorite game of "Superwoman" (aka knocking down dead trees).
The views are pretty amazing!
The views at their house aren't too shabby either!!
Spin art!!
Willow and I created a "scooter city" on the driveway (including a round-a-bout!!)
It's a busy city!!
Nana sewed this fun table top house. The kids enjoyed LOTS of time playing together in it! Sometimes up to an hour!!
The boys enjoyed some sprinkler time!
My cousin Joel, his wife Grace, and son August were able to drive down from the Denver area to spend some time with us for the afternoon. It was great to chat (as much as you can with 5 kids running around!)!
We enjoyed a different rec center while we were there one afternoon. There's a fun shallow pool, 4 foot area with basketball hoop, lazy river, and diving boards. Thankfully there was not a swim test that had to be passed to enjoy the diving boards, so the three of us enjoyed that area for a long time! Not pictured is my insisting on the kids watching my flip (which I've never done mind you!!) during which I gracefully landed flat on my back. I could hear it underwater and felt it on my back for sure. I came up to notice the lifeguard getting a good chuckle out of my "show." Another quoteable:
Owen: Mama, do the same jump as me!
Mama: Do I have to make the same Ninja sounds you did?
Lifeguard: Yes!!
Triplet Lularoe dresses for church!
We brought home the original versions of Life and Clue to play with Willow since she's enjoyed the Junior versions so much. We were able to play Life 2 times and Willow won both times by becoming a Millionaire Tycoon. Guess it's time to have her choose some Lotto numbers for us!!
Sometimes "life" is rough!! (When I texted Chris this picture he responded that I would somehow make this his fault. Ha!)
S'mores are fun even if it's in the 90s, right?
Good thing it was a bath night for Ms. Hannah!
We enjoyed a guided tour of a nature center at the mall. The kids were able to touch a lot of the animals!
The tortoise gets free reign of the entire place!! Good thing he's slow!
We had luck at another pool that there was not a swim test that had to be passed to enjoy the diving boards. It sure is fun with the kids both being able to enjoy the diving boards!
Thanks to Nana for capturing Mama enjoying the diving boards too (yep...the only one who has to plug her nose though...)
Willow was able to do the high dive this time!! She went twice!
She asked if I was going too. How could I say no?? I decided just to step off (or "squat down to step off" according to the picture). I did go through the panic, though, of not knowing if my breath would last me through the drop AND being underwater. Haha! It's not even that high!
We were able to Skype with Chris a few times and talk to him on the phone too!
The neighbors let us come over to feed their chickens:
The flights back home were eventful. Haha. Three of the four kids had fevers and we had to wake them up to get ready for heading to the airport for our 3 flights back. Hunter had a knack for fighting naps while in flight, then falling asleep as we were taxiing to the gate, which made his naps only 15 mins or so.
Owen was able to nap too, thankfully!
We had a pretty tight connection in Philadelphia and Kim had to wait pretty long for her stroller. I rushed with 3 of the kids from Terminal A to Terminal F (seriously???) with 20 mins before boarding and the need to pick something up for dinner. We got to the gate and asked if we had time to go grab something for dinner and found out they were likely going to switch the gate (isn't that always lovely?) so we could go grab some dinner. Kim got there and they did switch the gate. Then delayed. Then...wait for it...cancelled the flight!! That is not allowed when traveling with 4 children!! After some (well....a lot of...) panicking, Kim called the airline to get us rescheduled for the next day (our original flight got in at 10:30pm so there were no other flights that night), but not arriving in one flight...now two!! By the time we got in line for meal vouchers and hotel information, got a hotel room, waited for the shuttle, checked into the hotel, and got to our room it was then 11:15pm. Thankfully they kids were pretty adjusted to CO time so it was 9:15pm on their bodies. They hung in VERY well!
We were on the 5:30am shuttle to the airport so it wasn't a long night's rest.
Nonetheless, the kids still hung in pretty well!
We were a bit nervous when our 2nd flight had a gate change, then a delay. At one point the screen said 6 minutes until boarding, but there was no plane in sight:
We were happy to get home around 2:00 then easily fell asleep that night to make the change of time zones super easy!! Thanks for a fun week Nana and Grandpa!!
*** Chris...this is your Snapchat warning!! ***
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