Colorado Trip

My last post at the end of September was about August.  It seems appropriate that I blog about a Labor Day trip in mid-November.  So much has happened since my last post and hopefully I get it documented soon.  After all, this blog is a scrap book of sorts for me.

The perks of being a stay-at-home mom include tagging along with my husband on business trips.  We went on an overnight stay to Saint Louis and a day later traveled to Colorado.  We had family time in between Joe's inspections.  It was a lot of travel with two little kids but I want them to be used to road trips.  I don't think kids prevent us from having a life as long as we train them early!

We stayed near quaint Saint Charles, MO and spent the day shopping.  It was founded in 1769 and the brick streets are lined with shops and restaurants.  I found some old dairy crates and took one home as a souvenir.  It was a nice overnight trip!

After a night in KC we headed west for Colorado.  The plan was to stop in Manhattan for football games on each end of the trip.  I planned to tailgate in our RV with the kids.  It was really hot so Nola needed some shelter.  The poor RV wasn't running when we got there so plans changed!  I was trapped in the hotel room while Joe had a good time at the game.  I took the kids for a walk to dinner but was going a little stir crazy.  

At 11:30 pm they were still up and partying in the hotel room.  You can imagine how thrilled I was when my drunk husband came back and asked why the kids were still up.  The start of our trips always involve little sleep because Louis is SO excited!

A successful road trip has lunch stops with physical activity.  Joe played with Louis while I fed Nola.

We finally made it to Colorado Springs to see my cousins.  We had a really nice time with them and felt right at home!  Here is a pic of Shannon and her family.  I didn't get one of my other cousin Heather and her five kids!  I get so many pics and end up kicking myself for the ones I miss!

Louis had fun at the "beauty salon" with his older cousins.  He also loved playing with Adeline and her mermaids in the tub.  We have a book with mermaids and he has always loved them.  (I love messing with Joe when Louis likes girl stuff.)

 

Can you tell they are related?

Louis introduced Adeline to super heroes.

Isabel was like a little babysitter for Nola.

Shannon's husband Kenton grew up going to the Colorado Balloon Classic.  Apparently it's one of the biggest balloon events in the U.S.  We rolled out of bed to get there bright and early and it was so worth it!

 We also went on a short hike which was followed by a 15 mph (and for me terrifying) drive in the mountains.

Shannon made Nola a tutu which I was super excited about!

Louis is getting to the age where he isn't excited to pose for me anymore.

We were sad to leave and got one last pic of the kiddos before we hit the road to Denver.

We stayed downtown in Denver and my friend Mollie spent the day with us while Joe worked.  I didn't get a pic so I decided to post a Labor Day (Mollie's birthday is September 2nd) picture circa 2007.

Denver was fun!  We went to the aquarium and then to my friend Sarah's for dinner.  I also missed a pic of Sarah and couldn't find a good one of us on my computer.

Louis was terrified of this mechanical orangutan at the aquarium.  Mollie and I agreed it was pretty scary.

Then he saw real mermaids!

Small happy hour downtown before heading to my cousin Erin's for dinner.

On our last night in Colorado we stayed at a B&B in Woodland Park, CO.  We brought home some pottery as the owner is an artist and potter.

It's always good to get your hands dirty in the wilderness.

We had fun exploring the property but there was a mother bear and cubs in the area so their dogs stayed with us for protection.

Apparently the bear cubs like to play in this pond.  They don't eat the fish but take a little dip!

We had some yummy eggs for breakfast.  Once again I was fantasizing about living a life like this.

Louis had a little "a hiking we will go" song he sang.  That is Pike's Peak in the background.

We went into town for dinner and found a dinosaur museum although it was closed at that time.

It was a fun trip to wrap-up summer!  By the end Louis was sleeping like a baby in the car.

We stopped in Lindsborg, KS for the night on the way home and had a Swedish breakfast in the morning and shopped a little.  It's a cute Kansas town.  We dropped Joe off at the game and headed back to KC.  The kids and I were so ready to get home and Joe hitched a ride back with his friend.

We also ate lots of great food on this trip but I thought this post was too long to add the pics.

August

August was a nice wrap up to summer.  We enjoyed a few visitors.  My nephew, Zerano, had a soccer tournament in Lawrence so he was able to come for dinner one night.  Louis had a blast with him, Zerano ate Joe's BBQ ribs like a teenager and held Nola like a pro.  The visit was too fast as we don't get to see him much since he is busy with sports and school.

Nola turned 5 months old!  She was able to sit up without falling over so we tried the swings at the park.  She giggled and loved it!  She is changing so fast and we are really enjoying this time with our little lady!

She also loves getting up in the morning and is super cheerful.  If you know me, you probably wonder where she gets this from!

We were excited to go back to the Ethnic Enrichment Festival this year & eat our way through several countries!  After looking at my pictures in this blog, I am realizing why I'm holding onto the rest of my pregnancy weight.  I can fool myself into thinking I'm eating well until I see the proof in photos.

Our first stop was to Spain for some meatballs & patatas bravas!

The event is family friendly.  Louis liked checking out the different items at each booth.

Refreshing coconut on a hot day!

My mom and Tom met us for a little while.

They also have a kid's booth where Louis did some crafts and his own face painting.

 Louis started potty training around 20 months when we took him to Germany.  I never really pushed it and still kept him in diapers half the time since he still had accidents.  I had heard they regress after a new baby comes along and that is exactly what happened.   He wanted to be the baby again and I was too tired with a newborn to risk the accidents.  He slowly went back to going on the potty and I decided it was time to ditch the diapers.  I printed out a free potty chart online and we picked out a prize and special stickers.  It took less than a week for him to earn his new train, James.  I can finally say he is officially potty trained!

Joe's little sister had her first baby so we took Nola to Houston to meet him.  Louis stayed behind with his other cousins since we drove down and back in 4 days.  She did great in the car!  We stopped at a friend's in Dallas on the way there but came all the way back on Sunday.  It was a long day but she only needed to stop 3 or 4 times which was perfect!

Nola looked huge compared to Ethan.  She is about 4 months older.

The trip wouldn't be complete if Joe and I didn't sample some local food.  Taco truck?  Yes, please!!

On the way home we had to find out what a fried pie was since there were signs all over.  Leave it to Texas to offer something fried and delicious.

My friend, Hayley, and I have been meaning to take the boys on the bus for a while now.  It stops down the street from my house so we thought it would be fun to take it down to Crown Center.  There was a free Curious George exhibit.  Hayley is pregnant so the smells on the bus were very pungent for her!  The boys had a good time and keep talking about Max the bus.

We ate at Fritz's so the boys could get their food delivered by train.  This is a must do in Kansas City if you have little kids.

 My other nephew, Jonah, made his first trip down without my brother.  He enlisted in the Navy so it was a practice run at taking an adventure as an adult.  He explored the city on his own during the day but made time to teach Louis to skateboard.

Jonah inherited the artistic talent that skipped over me so he drew some pictures for Louis to color.

I had my heart broken for the second time watching Louis try to play and getting denied.  We were at a local pizza place and some little girls were coloring and running around.  He asked politely several times if he could play.  They just wouldn't let him.  I felt so sad and wanted to slap their parents for seeing it all go down and not tell their kids to let him play.  But I just sat there.  Joe was oblivious to all of this and told me I was being ridiculous of course.

We finally had our neighbors over for dinner.  They have kids around the same age as ours so we are trying to start a rotation of hanging out between our houses.  One of the couples has two sets of twins almost exactly Louis and Nola's age.  I can't imagine!

The rest of the month was spent doing lazy things around home.  Like finding cicada shells on our walks.  Louis got over his fear of these things and now wears them.  He told me these two were talking to each other.

We met Becca and Landon for a play date in Loose Park.

This is what happens when I am changing Nola and Louis tries to make his own breakfast.  This is from two different boxes.

We walked to Brookside a few times to hit up Reading Reptile.

Louis loves running on the trail and can go about a 1/4 of a mile without stopping.  He will run the whole mile though with breaks in between.

We did a few trips in September that I'll update next time!