Estes Park: Day 4

Day 4.

We got up early, finished packing, then headed to breakfast. After a lot of good-byes as various groups left, we headed out - Peter and I headed to the park near our lodge for one last playtime, and Scott went to the room to finish packing/loading the car/checking us out.

We weren't able to do any of the planned activities with Peter this trip - he's just still too small to go on the children adventure hikes or bug hunting or that sort of thing. He was old enough, however, for Bubble Hour, and by god - we had missed it all week, but we were not missing it today. Doots was not disappointed, in fact we had to pry the wands out of his hands and drag him shrieking back to the car. He got over it quickly, and zonked out in the car for our drive to Denver. We had a long day in the city ahead.

We didn't fly out until dinnertime (more on that later...), so we decided to goof around Denver for the day. We ended up in the Highlands area near downtown, it's a great little neighborhood with sweet boutique shopping, restaurants, and wine bars. Love it. There were a lot of newer lofts and it's definitely part of Denver - tons of bike shops and bikes abound in that area. Paulo would love it.

We had lunch at Proto's Pizzeria, we had a prosciutto/capers/mozzarella pizza it was sooooo gooooood.

Then we walked back to the car, did some window shopping.

What brought us to the neighborhood is that it was near the one planned stop we had while in Denver - The Children's Museum of Denver. This place did not disappoint, we spent a long time in here and would definitely go back. The Denver Aquarium was right next to it and I wish we had more time in the city, as I would have loved to go there as well. Ah well, next visit.

Our first stop in the Children's Museum was in the Center for the Small Child. It had several rooms catering to the younger set (newborn through toddler). We spent a good hour in this area alone. The best part is that shoes are not allowed, but neither are bare feet. They had freshly-laundered socks in kids and adult sizes as needed - Scott and Peter had socks. I did not. So I got to wear the weirdo socks, yay.

Oh my gosh, he kept going back to this little treehouse with the stirring pot. He must have run back to it half a dozen times - apparently he really really really liked stirring that pot.

They had kid-sized bathrooms, with really low toilets/sinks/everything. We went in there to change the diaper and he was so excited with the low bathroom facilities, that it took forever to coax him out of there.

Next we went up to the 2nd floor - dudes, they have a Bubble Room. BUBBLE ROOM. He was in heaven in there. Our favorite bubble machine created these smoke bubbles, that fell down from the machine on the ceiling and turned into a poof of smoke when you popped them.

Next we tried out the train room. We didn't spend too much time in here, because Peter spied another room down the hall...

OMG A GROCERY STORE AND KITCHEN!!! He put on his apron and got right to work filling a cart. Apparently there was a pretend massive blizzard hitting the pretend grocery store in Denver, because the workers could not even keep the shelves stocked and the kids looked like they were playing Supermarket Sweep. Insanity!

Clearly he missed the good sale on organic black beans, because the shelves were empty.

This one kid there was rockin' the cashier counter.

We filled up our cart twice before heading out. We were going to play in the kitchen but even Peter seemed too hesitant to play in that area - a pack of wild children had taken over the kitchen and let's just say they definitely were future-chefs-in-training - they were Anthony-Bourdain's sort of crazy-story chef.

Next we hit the forest room. They had costumes hanging on a hook by the door, squirrels and rabbits and mice and... worms. Then the room was full of underground tunnels and foresty-areas and it was really meant for the bigger kids. Scott helped Doots climb around though and he had a blast.

Next we found a dancing room. Peter busted out his inner Patrick Swayze, put on a Pilot's hat, and grabbed some ribbon-rings to go dance-dance crazy.

It was all fun until he fell down and whacked his head.

Lastly we hit up the Firehouse. Again, for the older kids mostly so Peter mostly watched and walked around a little bit. By this time we had been there for several hours, so he was getting kinda tired.

We checked out the gift shop and were getting ready to buy a bottled water at the snack bar before leaving... And we realized it was raining. Boo. We booked it to the car and headed to the airport a little early. There's a lot of shopping and restaurants in DIA so we knew it wouldn't be so bad to get there a little earlier than planned.

We had an early dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery in the airport, then did some shopping in the stores and headed to our gate. I changed Peter into PJs for our flight (it was supposed to leave
at 6:30p), made him a bottle, was ready to put in to sleep on the dark quiet plane. Now, I should probably mention at this point...

When we got to Estes Park, Peter was a little snotty, a little feverish, so I chalked it up to teeth (as he was also extra-drooly). Then he got a cough, but I figured that was just due to altitude. And he was very snuggly and needed lots of holding-time, but I thought to myself hey he's just away from home and needs more hugs than normal. Yeah, no.

He was sick. Sick sick sick and we really didn't put it all together until we hit the airport. We hoped for the best for the flight home, but between a sick baby and a turbulent (and very delayed, and longer than expected, and the lights were never turned off) flight - we had quite a bit of fussing and writhing. He finally collapsed onto my lap and passed out during landing, but then woke up in the car and cried the entire drive back home. Poor little darling.

He was still so so good the entire trip though, and even with the rough trip home I was so glad we went.

We had a great time, and it was kinda sad to come home.

Estes Park: Day 3

Day 3.

I am sad to report that yet again - a pretty rainy day. We didn't get to spend a ton of time outside, but we did make the most of what we had.






The day started out pretty nice, very sunny and just a tad chilly. No bother, Peter's grandpa bought him a sweatshirt the day before, so we were ready for the morning. After breakfast we hit up the playground near our lodge, we spent quite a bit of time there.

We are still trying to figure out the slide. It isn't pretty, but he does make it down without seriously maiming himself.

Sah-weet: sidewalk chalk.

After that we checked out the sand " box" area, there was a little sand-house there.

After much contemplation, we decided to move into the sand-house permanently. You can see all the action from here.

And dad will bring cold beverages on demand.

I will miss that curly baby hair so much when it's gone.

Practicing for his career in modeling.

Mom and Doots - best chums to the end.

On second thought, mommies are embarrassing get off of me.

Wait nevermind I changed my mind. Hoooooooold me.

After park time, we headed back to the room for a quick nap and then met up with the Chaneys downtown for some lunch at El Cherino's. We also did a little more shopping afterwards.

After denying the poor thing yesterday, Scott broke down today and bought Peter a toy snake. He showed his appreciation by gnawing on it all afternoon. Did I mention he's teething?

We got bing cherry ice cream from a little shop downtown and stepped outside only to discover: it had started raining. Woohoo. So we made a mad dash for the car and Peter enjoyed his ice cream from the comfort of his carseat while we headed home.

You know what's super fun? Running up and down the hallway, trying to fit the keys into random doors on our hall. I bet our neighbors all appreciate that.

We spent A LOT of quality time in our room while it rained. Ah well, vacations are about relaxing right? We got some quality naps and playtime in, so it wasn't a big loss.

Peter likes to play with my rolling luggage. That's what he's been doing most of the afternoon.

PS - the balloon died days ago but Peter still plays with it.

Um. And I bought Peter the most awesome shirt evah when we were shopping downtown today: Ta Da! Isn't it just the best? No wardrobe is complete without a shirt emblazoned with wolves howling at the moon, right? I mean, I know there are only 2 wolves, but he is only a toddler.

Around the time we hit the dining hall it was STILL RAINING, but soon after we finished it stopped. We took advantage and spent the early evening walking around some of the campus, checking out the main lodge and all the sport courts/fields.


Peter really wanted to join the b-ballers.

That's it kids. We had another family evening get-together (picked the next reunion spot: San Diego) and Scott's off playing poker with his cousins (or 2nd cousins, or something...). Anyhoo. We'll check back in sometime tomorrow.