Trip to Denver

A couple of weeks ago we went to Denver as Jack had an appointment at the children's hospital. We are trying to figure out what is causing his low platelets and low neutrophils, and we decided that it was worth a trip to Denver to get a second opinion. Unfortunately, at this time we don't have any real news from that visit yet as we are waiting to talk to the doctor about the test results, but we feel like the drive was worth it as in the long run it will give us peace of mind to know what is causing Jack's issues (assuming the doctor in Denver can figure it out), and we were able to see friends and family while we were there as well.

The drive from our house to Micah's sister's house is about seven hours, but we decided to go a little out of our way and spend the night at Micah's parents' house as that would break up the drive into two days, and we had a free place to stay. We left Wednesday around 6:00 p.m. after Micah got home from work and we arrived at his parents around 10:00 p.m. The kids did great on the drive as they were able to watch movies the whole drive. The next morning we left Monte Vista a little after 8:00 a.m. and we arrived in Westminster around 12:30 p.m., so we were able to feed Jack lunch and he had a short nap before we left for our appointment. Micah's parents were actually in Westminster as well, so we left the girls with Micah's mom and sister while we went to the appointment.

The kids taking a turn at the wheel (at a rest stop)

A quick lunch with cousins

Overall the appointment went well. Both the doctor and nurse were kind and thorough, and the doctor decided to test for a few specific things. The blood draw went very well as Jack only had to be poked once (usually it takes at least two pokes to actually get the necessary amount of blood from Jack as his veins are difficult).

Jack didn't seem to mind the appointment as he got both Mommy and Daddy to himself for hours, and we got gelato as a treat afterwards

In the evening the kids played with their cousins, which was a definite bonus of our trip to Denver since they have only seen their Denver cousins two other times.

Dinner with all six cousins

The girls playing with the giant blocks in the basement. They definitely felt like "big kids" playing with their older cousins (ages almost 3 to almost 6)

On Friday morning Micah and I decided to take the kids to Boulder, where we went to school. I hadn't been to Boulder in years and I was blown away by how much it has changed! I hardly recognized different areas as there is so much new development in Boulder and the surrounding area. I thought it would be fun to walk around Pearl Street, which is an open air pedestrian mall downtown. I pictured the kids walking / running alongside us and stopping to play at the kid rock structures while I drank a hot beverage. Sadly this did not work as I pictured because as soon as the kids got out of the strollers they decided they wanted to push the strollers. Since we have three kids and only two strollers, multiple meltdowns ensued. They DID NOT want to push a stroller together, even though the double is plenty big enough for two toddlers to push, so whoever wasn't pushing a stroller was screaming, running, and throwing themselves onto the ground. Part of me thought this was humorous as I didn't expect this at all, but the other part was embarrassed as we were causing quite the scene. It didn't take long for us to return to our car as nothing could stop the tantrums.

Faith happily pushing the single stroller while Micah tried to deal with Lexi and Jack fighting over the double stroller

As we were leaving Boulder, it occurred to me that we all might enjoy walking around the trails near the Flatirons at Chautauqua Park, as long as we left the strollers in the car. Luckily, this time I was right! The kids loved "running" up the trails and, although we didn't make it far, it was a lot of fun to be back there as Micah and I spent a lot of time on those trails during the five years that we lived in Boulder. After we walked the trails, the kids spent some time playing on the rock benches at the trailhead and then playing in the leaves in the big grassy park. We were so happy that our morning had been redeemed.

Heading up the trail with the iconic Flations in front of us

It would have been nice to get a family pic, but we didn't want to push the kids too much since they weren't being super cooperative that morning, so I settled for me and the kids.

Playing on the rock benches

Re-discovering leaves as they didn't remember them from last year!

Throwing leaves is so much fun!

After the kids napped on Friday we went to Micah's sister's new house, which is currently being built. The house is amazing. When it is all complete it will have a lot of fun amenities, and there will definitely be room for all of us to spread out when we stay there. Since the house is currently a construction zone, we couldn't let the kids walk freely while we toured the house. Of course they only wanted to be carried by me or Micah, not their aunt or uncle, so it wasn't working out very well. When they realized that their cousins were playing outside they really didn't want to be carried on a tour, so we decided to let them play outside while we walked around the house. We checked on them frequently, but it felt like a big step to let them play outside, at someplace other than our backyard, without an adult right there.

The cousins playing in the dirt piles

On Saturday morning we were able to meet up with a couple of different friends that we hadn't seen in years. First we met Paige and Andy at an outdoor mall so that the adults could have coffee and catch up while the kids played. This worked out really well, and we were so happy to see them again. Then we went to Davin and Trish's house and we got to meet their 17-month-old son and have lunch with them. It always astounds me how easy it is to catch up with friends that you haven't seen in years, even after so many things have happened in all of our lives.

Faith, Jack, and Lexi eating breakfast before we met up with our friends

Jack at the outdoor mall play area

The kids become more coordinated and get stronger every single day

Around 1:00 we started the trek home to ABQ. Overall the kids did great with the drive. We stopped in Trinidad for 1.5 hours to play at a park and eat dinner, and then we pretty much made it the rest of the way without stopping (besides one diaper change in Santa Fe). Although seven hours in the car in one day is not ideal for kids, we were pleased with how well our kids did with it as long as we rotated between Frozen, Cars, and Daniel Tiger.

This slide in Trinidad is the tallest twisty slide I've ever seen! Jack absolutely loved it, and all of the stairs to the top definitely helped wear the kids out for the second half of our car ride.

The kids' first time ever eating at McDonalds (or eating McDonalds food for that matter). They seemed to really enjoy sitting next to us in the booth as it made them feel like big kids.