Last week, Jacob had a training for work in Denver so the kids and I braved the busy freeways and joined him for a few days. I have no idea what we would have done without a GPS (a.ka. "Miss Yelley") to help us get around. I was pretty stressed by the crazy busy roads and was so thankful we made it everywhere we wanted to go safely. And we did get to explore some great places. Denver is a cool city.
The kids were fascinated by the Downtown Aquarium. Keiger was a bit nervous at first, but he summed up the guts to touch a starfish with Sage. Sage was so excited to see a macaw since her class has been studying rainforests. When we were resting in the lounge after going through the exhibits, a trainer walked by with the "Miss Molly," the macaw and had her perform some tricks. What a treat.
Just a short walk from the aquarium is the Denver Children's Museum. Too fun. The kids had a blast in the bubble exhibit and ran, climbed, and slid all over areas decorated like forests, only cushoined. They loved shopping in the pretend market. Finn did a great job painting and even stayed pretty clean. I was impressed.
We also got to visit the Museum of Nature and Science, which is GINORMOUS! The GPS took us on a crazy route right through downtown to get there. It was nerve-wracking, but really neat to see neat landmarks like the Mint and the Capital Building. I'd definitely like to go back and explore someday. Anyway, the museum was overwhelming with so much to see and do. The kids enjoyed the animal displays, dinosaur skeletons, and I think they were grossed out by the mummy exhibit (they sucked the brains of dead people out of their noses! Eww!). There is a great view of downtown from the back of the museum, as well as geese to chase and a fun playground (my kids' favorite).
Sage loves learning and has a memory like a sponge. She loved reading whatever she could about all the exhibits we saw. Several times she surprised me by telling me the names of different animals and facts about them, like how the Lionfish has poisonous spikes. How on earth does she know all this? From what she's learned at school and from reading "101 Freaky Animals." Who knew? She certainly taught us a lot about some of the animals we got to see.
I think Finn had the most fun of all playing in the bathtub at the hotel. He could have stayed in the water forever tinkering with plastic cups.
We were able to spend a night at Kent and Rolayne's house, which was very nice of them. They were darling with the kids. When we asked Sage and Keiger what their favorite part of trip was, they both agreed it was getting to go to the Sellers' house.
So it was a super-fun trip. Too bad Jacob had to spend so much of it at his training, but we're proud of his hard work and thankful for the chance we had have this little getaway.
