Colorado Staycation

Ed took one of his two Sundays off a couple of weeks ago so that we could have a little vacation together (with the kids, of course). We left on Thursday morning for Denver. Our day started with the BEST breakfast available at Snooze. I had the most scrum-diddly-umtious french toast ever - S'more's French Toast - it was drizzled with marshmallow creme and dark chocolate sauce, then covered with a sprinkling of chocolate chips and marshmallows (which were perfectly toasted brown). I'm drooling again just thinking about it! Anyway, after our fabulous breakfast we headed to Denver Zoo.

Here the kids are all ready to head out for a few hours in the sun. Sunscreen? Check. Sun hats? Check. Seatbelts? Check. Let's go!

Tabi had to model her new sun bonnet for Nana. It came in the mail the day before we left. It's reversible and we decided to wear it with the rainbow suns showing.

We headed down a little walkway to see the polar bear underwater. Unfortunately, she was up out of the water, so it was a little pointless until we saw this on the wall. We decided to see how the boys measured up to the polar bear. She's 9 1/2 feet tall. Daddy's about 6 feet tall. Ephraim is less than 2 1/2 feet tall. We've got a lot of growing to do to catch up!

Even with Ed lifting Ephraim up, he's only about 8 feet tall.

Ed and Ephraim checking out the fish.

Ed claims I was trying to be artsy with my pictures and maybe I was. You can see a smile on Ephraim's face - he really enjoyed watching the fish and other creatures.

Here's a ray. Ed is explaining to Ephraim how they breathe underwater.

We let Ephraim lead for awhile, but we often ended up standing in front of a tank just like this. He had to be prompted to move on.

Another picture of Tabi modeling her sun bonnet. You can see the eyelet material that is currently on the interior. It's a little bit dressier than the rainbow suns.

Found a nice gentleman to take our picture as we were leaving. Our little family in front of the giraffe family statues near the entrance. It was a fun few hours, but we needed to leave if were going to make it to PALS in time.

We headed to Boulder for PALS, got checked in to our hotel and unloaded our stuff. Got both pack 'n plays set up and then back into the car to head to University Lutheran Chapel. We had a nice evening with the PALS guys and their families. The ULC students made us a great meal and the kids and I headed back to the hotel while Ed stayed for casuistry with the other pastors.

Friday morning a number of the wives and kids headed to Pearl Street to walk around and window shop while the men did their study. It was a fun morning.

Ephraim turned 17 months today - not the best picture ever, but at least we got one. Notice that he's managed to remove one shoe and sock during our walk? Luckily I noticed before he threw it overboard and it was lost forever.

Here's Tabi-girl smiling and wearing her hippie flower-power pants. We thought it was fitting since we were in Boulder.

After our PALS meeting concluded, we headed to dinner with another pastor and his family. A thank-you for letting us use their home for a week after Ed's surgery back in May. Then we drove up to Estes Park for the night. A member of our church has a house up there that she offered us.

Just a note: I'm not a huge fan of driving through mountains in the dark. I'm even less of a fan of passengering through the mountains in the dark. We made it safe and sound and got the kids in bed pretty quickly.

Saturday morning, we headed to Fort Collins to visit my college roommate, her husband and their beautiful twins.

This is Henry. He was so alert the whole time we were walking around and such a good, handsome baby!

Violet napped for a good portion of our visit, but she's such a beautiful, little angel.

Here's Tabi, napping too. The three babies are about the same size as one another. We heard countless comments during our visit about the "triplets". It was adorable.

Here was our group, minus the adults. I can't wait until the kids are a little bigger. They will have a blast together. Henry and Violet are a little less than a year younger than Ephraim and Tabi is about 3 months younger than them. Ephraim was so excited that there were so many babies around.

Here's Beth and Bill with the babies. What a change in their family from when we saw them last year about this time!

Heading back to Estes Park, I pulled off the side of the road to get a picture. The whole drive was absolutely gorgeous.

Here's the view from the driveway of the house where we stayed.

Isn't it beautiful? How can anyone believe that this all just formed here by chance?

We did TV dinners for our evening meal. I should have removed the pizza from Ephraim's tray and given it to him. He went for the pudding first and it was everywhere - all over the white high chair (all those darker marks you see are pudding). Any idea how long it takes to wash every inch of those spindles on the back of the chair? A really long time.

Tabi did not wish to be left out of dinner, so she got to lie on the table while we ate. The sun was setting creating some amazing shadows.

Sunday morning we got up, went to church, packed up the car, got some lunch, and headed home. It was a great few days away.