The next day we visited the Denver Zoo. It was awesome with so many great animals to see. It was really cold that day, but we bundled up and kept moving and it wasn't too bad.
Early morning snuggles...
Before we went out on Monday we got everyone dressed and took some group photos. This one came out so well!
And since this was the day that the college football National Championship game was played (and we somehow ended up with a lot of red clothes on our trip), we decided to dress everyone in Buckeye Scarlet and Grey to show our support for the Ohio State Buckeyes in the game that night. I know I probably should have rooted for Oregon just to be the bigger person, but I just couldn't. I was still so mad at them for the whooping they put on the Seminoles. But I did feel really bad when the Oregon quarterback cried at the end of the game. :( And seeing as how I absolutely loved the three years we lived in Ohio when I was younger and the fact that I have several aunts, uncles, and cousins who are huge Buckeye fans living in Columbus... it seemed right. :) This was actually one of the best family pictures we've taken since Davis was born! Ha!
Oh, my gosh... did the boys ever have fun that day!! We went to the Denver Children's Museum and it was seriously amazing. Two levels and lots of various rooms with tons of fun activities in each one! Reid's favorite was probably the huge, life-size fire truck in the first room that he was able to climb all over. There were even these kid-size fire outfits that the kiddos could wear. They all loved it.
Then there was this awesome ball room with lots of tunnels and levers and wheels to make those little plastic balls go through the tubes in different ways. That right there is an area where you could make your own ramp for the ball to run down before it got sucked back up into the other tube to run down the ramp again. So cool.
This was an air gun of sorts where if you jumped hard on that round thing that Davis is on, a shot of air would shoot the ball up into that maze that J and E are playing on in the previous picture. Davis loved to jump on the circle, but only Jackson could jump hard enough to get the ball up into the maze.
This was in the bubble room... J and E are inside a huge four-sided bubble that J is making when he lifts up that rope.
Oh, and then the construction room! This was also one of Reid's favorites. All kinds of real tools, wood pieces, nails, screws, saws, clamps, etc. that the kids could use to their hearts content.
This was back in the ball room... When the balls went through the maze they ended up in this container hanging from the ceiling above this area. When the container filled up with balls a fun alarm would sound to let everyone know that the balls were about to drop out onto the floor. When they heard that alarm the kids would run over and lay down here so that the balls would drop all over them! They LOVED it!
Davis was a little late to the party...
J and I worked on constructing a ramp for a while. We made one but then he wanted Daddy to come help with the second one.
This was the market/kitchen area. R and E didn't discover this until we were about to leave, but they loved it, too.
Emmett had all of these plates and food and dishes laid out and set up for whatever he was playing.
Back at home... more Nana snuggles...
The next day was Sky Zone! An indoor trampoline park!! The boys' dream come true! And we were almost the only ones there which was so great!
This was an area where you could jump into that foam pit. Total fun.
They had an area with dodgeballs, too. You could even jump up on the sides!
We were hoping to see snow while we were in town, and it did snow a little bit one night, but on our last day we decided to drive up into the mountains to take the boys tubing. Unfortunately, the tubing place we were planning to go to was closed on Wednesdays (the day we were there... we didn't know this until we drove up), so we ended up finding a great sledding hill nearby and just let the boys go nuts with their inflatable tubes from Walmart (which we brought home and will use in the pool this summer)! They absolutely loved it.
You can't see in the picture, but there were even some bumps at the bottom of the hill that you could sled over to send you flying through the air. The boys loved that for sure.
Reid needed help getting up the hill and J and E were so sweet to help him.
Mountain selfie!
We even had a sled for Davis... It had sides on it and everything so he stayed all snug in there. It was hilarious because he loved the sledding down part so much that as soon as he got to the bottom he either cried or got out of the sled and stomped around because he didn't want to stop. Lol. Too young to understand the concept of "you have to walk back up the hill to go down again." I'm sad I don't have any pictures of D in his sled! Only videos.
We took some quick pics before we loaded up to leave. Emmett was so sad to go, as you can see in this pic. He pulled it together for the pic with me, though.
That night Chris and Charlene took Phil and I out to a really great dinner right on the runway of the airport for private jets in Denver. The food was amazing and it was such a unique place! Two of their friends were so kind to come over to watch the boys for us while we went out. We had a great time just the four of us after bedtime all week... relaxing by the fire watching fun shows and eating chocolate with Chris as the bartender pouring us glasses of wine and fixing delicious Moscow Mules. :)
Back on the airplane... I finally won round 2 with Davis, but I had to stand for a while and sway back and forth at the front of the plane in front of everyone (which I hated) to get him to settle down and fall asleep. It worked, though.
Waiting in the Atlanta airport for our last flight home...
And then a few days after we got home we went and got three fish for good behavior on the trip. Frank, Max, and Digger.
We cannot thank you enough, Chris and Charlene, for such an amazing trip! We had so much fun together and it was hard to say goodbye. I know the boys will remember this trip their whole lives. They are still talking about it! Thank you so much for putting up with us for a week and for all that you did to make sure our trip was so wonderful. We love you!!
