Colorado Trip - Part 1

Note from Amanda: There is no way I could make our trip to Colorado into a coherent story, so I decided to just do bullet points by days. :) Let's start with Sunday, shall we?

Sunday

We were woken up EXTREMELY early by the monster in the other room. Thank goodness he's a cute, happy morning monster, or we may have gone crazy. Tim did some last minute packing and we headed to the airport to drop him off for his trip to Ft, McCoy, Wisconsin, for Army training stuff. (You'll have to ask him for clarification, I have no clue what all he did.) The entire way home from the airport Brenden sobbed for his daddy, which is heartbreaking. He eventually calmed down and took a nice, long nap before we headed up to Bartlesville to see grandma and grandpa Warehime. I needed to get some extra work done at the dance studio since I would be gone for awhile and Brenden needed to open his Easter Basket, which is very important!

That night, after a lot of wonderful spoiling, we headed back to Tulsa with my mom following us since she was headed to Oklahoma City. The car had been making some funky grinding noises that went away after it heated up so we assumed it was the tailpipe and Tim said it would be okay. Right near 96th Street North on Hwy 75 a lovely, white puff of smoke showed up behind the car and suddenly it was impossible to steer. It hasn't been that long since the last wreck with the car so you can imagine the horror I felt. After a long, not very happy conversation with Tim and a 2 hour wait for a tow truck we made it home. A few good notes to this story: my mom was following us so we had a built in ride to the house; we were all going to be gone for a week so we didn't need the car; we had an extra car at the house so we weren't stuck.

Monday

Mike came to pick us up to take us to the airport and we dropped the keys off at Pep Boys on the corner of Admiral and Memorial, who I HIGHLY recommend. Then we headed to the airport, had a swift trip through security, and headed to the gate to wait for our plane. While waiting, Pep Boys called to update us on the car. The left rear wheel bearing was completely shot and was the cause of the nasty, white smoke. The whole thing had almost fallen off the car, which again was much too close to the scenario in October. They told me the estimate and also remembered that I said we needed an oil change and offered that as well. I'm pretty sure they through that in for free, but I haven't seen the receipt yet so I'm not sure. Not 45 minutes later they called back to let me know it was done and that Mike could come by to get it the next day and that they would keep it inside for us. Like I said, I HIGHLY recommend them.

Our wait for the plane wasn't as painful as I expected. Brenden found a little girl named Emma who was 13 months old and decided to entertain her and try to steal her toys. Her mom and grandma were very nice and were even nicer when Emma decided to imitate Brenden and stand up and walk to me, which she had not yet been doing. She ended up wandering around after him for awhile, much to her mom's surprise. We both got a lot out of it! By the time we got on the plane, Brenden was a mess. He hadn't napped yet and it was at least 2 hours past the time he usually laid down. He's not really into sitting on my lap unless he's been bribed with food, much like any 18 month old I'm sure. Luckily the gentlemen next to me both had children and were extremely understanding when he started throwing his fit. Right before takeoff Brenden fell asleep and stayed that way most of the trip. Twenty minutes before we touched down in Denver he woke up and by that time he was in a much better mood. He was a little upset that he couldn't run up and down the aisle but eventually he became enthralled with the view out the window and very happily chattered until we landed. We met grandma Karen near the fountain at the Denver airport, found our luggage and headed to the house to relax. That night Chrissy, Karen and I sobbed our eyes out watching Marley and Me and gorged ourselves on Karen's homemade caramel corn.

Tuesday

I missed a little of the morning on Tuesday because I got to sleep in, something that I've become unaccustomed to in the last 18 months. Brenden enjoyed a ton of oatmeal and applesauce and a lot of attention from grandma. That afternoon, grandpa Rick came home and Brenden was immediately stuck to his hip. Where "gah-pah" goes, he goes, which doesn't hurt grandpa's feelings at all. We spent the day either taking a trip to the park, doing arts and crafts, or watching Australia (not half bad!) which made for a nice, relaxing day

You gotta follow me, grandpa!

Wednesday


Grandpa Rick had already planned on heading to Colorado Springs to look at a few of his stores (he works for J.C.I which has a contract with J.C. Penny) and we decided to tag along. After dropping him off at the Citadel Mall we drove past our old house to see how it looked and then headed to a playgroup at Heather M.'s house. The playgroups I was invited to are one of the main things I miss about Colorado. There was an awesome group of moms and a ton of kids Brenden's age that made them fun for Brenden and helpful for me. Heather is looking fabulous, she's due in May with a little girl, Anya, and there were 6 little boys all withing a few months of Brenden. Not that he noticed; he spent most of the time pushing himself around in a car and yelling at me to watch him.

Loving on grandma.

After we left we headed to see Leigh and Rachel, who I used to work with at Dr. Foy's office. I miss them a ton as well and really enjoyed getting to see them. By that time Brenden was starving so our visit was short, but it was still nice. We decided to go to Subway and Brenden thoroughly enjoyed his sandwich. After pick up grandpa we headed home, exhausted but happy.

Subway endorsement deal, here we come!

That night Jason wasn't feeling well so he gave me his ticket to go see the Nuggets play the Oklahoma City Thunder with Chrissy. VIP parking and courtside seats...yes, we had fun! The drunk guy that made fun of my hair and the waitress that ignored us? Didn't ruin the night at all. :)

Showing off our jerseys.

Thursday and Friday

Another couple of lazy days, sleeping in, eating a ton, and playing outside. Grandma took Brenden to the park and somehow he talked me into buying him a set of plastic golf clubs to leave at grandma and grandpa's house. He spent a lot of time outside smacking at the plastic golf balls and trying to get us to chase them. In between he's been chowing down on all his favorite things, like applesauce, cottage cheese, yogurt, spaghetti O's...he can't get enough. This is the same child that for the last few months only eats well at breakfast. Another growth spurt? Probably, but that's just fine with us.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this extremely fun and relaxing trip, although we miss Tim like crazy. He finally made it back to Tulsa (I just got off the phone with him 10 minutes ago) and is ready to see us, too. Between now and next Wednesday we are planning on checking out the Wildlife Experience here in Parker and the Denver Children's Museum. Many more pictures to follow!