Colorado

I've been saying to Alisha that we should come visit them since they were here visiting in March (really since they moved to the Denver area over two years ago).  Suddenly I really had to pick a time to go.  Jamon graduates at the end of November and they'll be moving out here to Utah after that.  Alisha's baby is due on Tuesday so it was either go out there when she's about to give birth or when she's got a newborn.  I felt that we'd be less of a burden now.  So basically, one Thursday I decided to take the kids on a trip to Colorado and three days later we were on a 9 hour roadtrip.

I brought SO much to entertain them in the car, you wouldn't believe it.  I was so nervous to take a long roadtrip with the kids without Brandon.  I've never driven longer than 6 hours by myself and the kids have never been in the car in the daytime for more than 4 hours and they are not good car sleepers.  But everything turned out alright in the end.

We spent a lot of our time just hanging out in Alisha's backyard.  It was always shady back there and the kids loved the pool, the swing, and the sandbox.  We gave up on trying to keep Scarlett and Elora in clothes.

Tuesday morning Lacey (one of my dearest friends, who also lives in a suburb of Denver) accompanied Alisha, the four kids, and I to the greatest park.

It had a train and a great petting zoo.

We had a picnic there.

And played in the man-made river.  It was about a foot and a half deep everywhere and there were kids all over enjoying the water.  We basically had to drag the kids out when it was time to go home for naps.

Even though Joselyn is a year and a half older than Jonah, they got along just great.

Lacey took us out to lunch on Thursday up a gorgeous canyon to a fantastic little cafe.

After that her husband Ryan came with us to go swimming at the kids' pool in their rec center.  It was awesome with it's pirate ship in the middle and the warm water.

We had a great time hanging out with Jamon every evening and going to the park in their neighborhood after dinner one night.  After the kids were in bed Jay, Alisha, and I watched Invictus, which was fantastic.  Alisha and I talked, talked, disciplined kids, talked, cooked, talked, fed kids, talked, cooked, cleaned, talked, and talked and had the greatest time together.  We both married into the J. family and we love laughing about all its quirks and wonderfulness.