Scenes from Colorado

Roan and I are back from Denver. Choua is still out in the mountains with buddies. It was a very long day for us yesterday. I hope that Roan is napping very well at daycare, since he never fell asleep on the plane like I had hoped he would have. I am glad to be home, but I dread going into work tomorrow morning. I am trying very hard not to check my work email.

I would like to have posted more pictures of the girls, but I need to make sure that it's okay for me to do so on here first. I actually took a lot of pictures of them as they were so much more open to looking at me.

Above: Roan during take-off on our flight to Denver. He had to have two suckers. We decided to meet my two best friends' from college and their families in the Denver area, where one of them lives. Roan and I left a day earlier than Choua.

Above: Roan and my first day in "Denver". I have it in quotes because it technically was not Denver. It was very hot so cooling down in the very cool pool with new friends (for Roan) was necessary.

Day #2: Above: We had a most delicious picnic in the backyard and the kids decided to lay on the huge hammock together. Roan was the only boy. Only, Kira, the little one next to him liked him. But as nature would have it, he preferred the older girls who had really no interest in him. We start punishing ourselves early on in life, don't we?

I just thought this was a neat picture too with their little feet. However, I may need to crop it differently. I wanted to get Roan's feet in there also (in the foreground), but now I think it is better if I crop it so that I cut off his feet.

We also managed to celebrate Kira's second birthday, which won't occur until later this month. Her daddy divided up the cake in some major pieces.

Since the Daddies were headed to the mountains for five days, the Mommies decided to take a ladies night out. We had pedicures, dinner--where our waitress happened to be Hmong also, and caught the Improv. The children loved my toenails. Roan kept giggling when he saw them and Kira wanted to peel them off. Can you tell which one was mine? Clue--double click on the picture.

Day #3: We didn't actually get out of the house until 6p in the evening. With the Daddies gone, the Mommies and the children headed to a very cool park, where the kids played. Roan was immediately attracted to the sand (above).

One lonely balloon escaping from the children. I have to tell you, by day #3, I was aching for a little escape myself. I must not be a very good mom because I was going crazy without a schedule for my child. He was missing naps, sleeping late, and sleeping in. It was making him and me cranky. I was amazingly exhausted!

Day #4: We decided to try to get out of the house early, which translated to being on the road by 10a. I have never been in a car with four car seats before, but it was great! Four children, all under five and three mommies; all in their thirties. Above: (from bottom to top) Kira, Roan, and Malia marching up the path to the rest stop.

Left to Righ: Roan, Trinity, Malia, and Kira. We made our way to Sprague Lake and stopped for a picture. By this time, I was about halfway to the end of my stick with Roan. The lack of sleep was catching up with him and so it was hard for him to listen to me.

Surprisingly, he wore this little hat for most of the trip. He loved going off of the path, which meant I was chasing him a lot because he wouldn't let me put on his hiking shoes so all he had were his Crocs. There were a lot of little rocks and ground was unleveled so he kept falling, but he loved it!

At one point, I let him get into the lake, which was very clear and calm. Big mistake! He really wanted to swim, but I didn't bring his trunks so by the time we got half way around the lake, he was soaked...and crying because it was time to go.

Day #5 and Final Day: We headed to the zoo for the morning and then it was time to pack and get ready to return home. It was incredibly hot so I didn't feel like using the camera much. Above: Malia and Trinity posing in front of the giant ostrich, which I tried to get, but missed...three times! Below: just a picture of a giraffe.

It was wonderful to spend the time away, but I feel exhausted! Thank you to our friends for putting up with us and our attempt to stay on a schedule. We don't function well without it.

We are safely home. Roan didn't sleep at all on the plane and even with the car seat stroller adaptor, it was still a challenge to get it on and off the plane. On our way down, I think he experienced ear pain as he cried a little. He was sick of the snacks and didn't want to suck on his blankie anymore. This is the first time I've seen him experience the pain. He was still wired when we boarded the shuttle. He called it a train and made "choo choo" sounds as we drove away. He finally fell asleep in the car as I left the park-n-fly.

Finally, thank you to the young stranger who helped me carry the car seat in and out of the airplane while I held onto Roan, our diaper bag, and my camera bag. Your kindness is greatly appreciated.