Rob here on Sunday morning. Kids love to hang out around the house and be silly. I really like to get some photos of them being silly and goofing of in their element. Hope you enjoy these photos. My kids are very cute.
Caroline
Madeleine
Nate
Madeleine with her flowers
We’d been wanting to visit Red Rocks Amphitheatre the last few times we’ve been in Denver but this time we actually made it happen. We didn’t go for a concert, but had fun checking it out anyway.
After hiking up the hill and a bunch of stairs we made it to the seating area. Now, I had heard that some people like to come work out here but I wasn’t quite prepared for what we saw. The place was full of Sunday morning exercisers. The thing is, this place is kind of out of the way so most of these people had to drive for at least 20 minutes to be here. The other thing is…it was a TOTAL meat market! We were just mesmerized watching the action. Many of these people were dressed to impress and showing more skin and makeup and hairspray than necessary in order to walk bleachers. Granted, some people were probably there to get fit, but we overheard more than a couple of conversations about trying to catch the eye, phone number, or more of members of the opposite sex. It was really funny, actually, even though I felt pretty underdressed. Overdressed? Just too dressed.
This video shows a tiny bit of the action. It reminded me of busy little bees in a hive.
We went into the visitor’s center and walked down a hall that had audiovisual presentations on some of the famous musicians who have performed here over the years. All I could think about, though, was the stench. The entire stretch of hallway smelled about how you would expect an area where large amounts of drunken (among other things…this is Colorado…) people gather. And I’m not talking just about the stench of numero uno. Gross!! I’ve been in porta potties that smelled better.
That’s all, folks!
I forgot all about blogging our ward’s annual Daddy Daughter Date. This year, since I’m the primary president, the theme was up to me. The last two years have been all about the princesses. They were fun but this year I wanted to do something different. The boys in our ward had just gone on a Fathers and Sons campout and I thought it’d be fun to let the girls have that same kind of experience with their dads. Well, at least as far as having 2 hours in a gym can get you :)
We decided to hand out a tri-fold pamphlet to each girl and require them to earn “badges” by completing different skills. Here are both sides:
Fishing:
Golf: One of my counselors made a mini golf course out of a pallet! I really wish I had taken a picture of it!
Art: The dads helped the girls make a necklace out of leather, wire, and a pebble that they colored. No pic of this, either :(
Photography: We set up a tent and sleeping bags for the girls and dads to lay in and get their picture taken together.
Personal Fitness: An obstacle course with, among other things, a log over a river, a mountain to walk around, and a cave to crawl through.
Beanbag Toss:
Orienteering: A scavenger hunt using a compass.
Ropes: A ladder rope toss game.
Cooking: We set up a make-your-own s’mores bar, of course! We had them eat on picnic blankets around an unlit fire pit.
To complete the ambiance we decorated with real tree stumps, artificial trees, fire pits, tents, flashlights and had mountainy nature sounds playing in the background.
I wish I could’ve taken more pictures of the activities but we were busy keeping everything running and do you realize how hard it is to take pictures in a church. So Hard. The lighting is absolutely terrible and everything just looks very bland.
The girls seemed to have a fun time and I’m guessing the dads enjoyed this almost as much as making fairy wands :)
So, for our first fun activity as a primary presidency I think we pulled it off quite well. I have to give serious props to my counselors and secretary. They are incredible. They are amazing. They are a primary president’s dream come true.
Last month we went to Denver for about two weeks. Here are some of the random pictures we took of our everyday explorations & adventures.
These pictures are from our drive there. In the past, we have not had a good time stopping in Green River. If we can avoid it and make it all the way to Grand Junction, we will. But, with kids, sometimes you just need to stop and eat and walk around, like, n-o-w. There are very few restaurants in Green River, even fewer if you don’t like fast food chains, especially ones located in truck stops. Thanks to Yelp we found a pleasant eatery (Tamarisk Restaurant) with great burgers and views overlooking the Green River. The restaurant is next to a sweet motel that looks like the same caring couple has kept it clean and running since the 60’s. Everything is vintage, the good kind. The garden with water features and tall, shady trees overlooks the Green River, too. This will be a go-to stop from now on.
We love driving through the beautiful Glenwood Canyon.
Our absolute favorite place to stop, Betty Ford Botanical Gardens and Park. I love the smell of pine.
A little tradition of ours is to yell all the way through each tunnel in as few breaths as possible. Cara caught on quite well this time. In this long tunnel, Rob and I can’t do it under three breaths.
We decided to be smart this time and ordered a pizza delivery for 10 minutes after we arrived at the hotel. By the time we get to Denver at 9pm the last thing the kids want to do is sit in a restaurant. This was so convenient that I think we’ll do this on all our long drives.
One night we visited one of the Tattered Cover Bookshop locations. There was a lightning storm outside so we sat and read books for over an hour, enjoying every minute.
We love Kadzooks Toy Shop (even though they just moved to a smaller location). Since we invaded the small store and let the kids play for over an hour and also we were running out of things to do in the hotel room (blow dryer wars, making forts out of cushions, gluing all kinds of things) so we splurged and let each kid pick a toy. Nate got a small erector set. Madeleine got a real-working kitchen mixer (which they played with TONS and made HUGE messes every day. Poor cleaning lady…). Caroline got pots and pans to use with Madeleine’s mixer.
We fed leftover breadsticks to eager ducks.
Many nights ended up at some park. It was nice to not feel rushed and just hang out.
We also swam almost every day. On our last night we let the kids stay up late and swim in the lit-up pool.
We did a few other notable things that will require their own posts, namely Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Denver Botanic Gardens, and the Denver Aquarium.
