Colorado!

My ENTIRE life I have wanted to go to Colorado, not sure why, but it always sounded like a great place to go. Now that I've been, I want to go back and do more exploring. I loved it!

I took off with the kids on Wednesday morning and made the 9 hour drive with only 4 stops... what can I say, I have a potty trained 2 yr old? Overall even with the snow for the first 100 miles we made pretty good time.

James and Allie's house and backyard are GORGEOUS! The kids had a great time playing in the backyard and at the park. The neighborhood park backs on to nothing but prairie, which makes for some great exploring and treasure hunting. We even had a train go past on the RR tracks and the conductor waved to the kids and tooted his horn for them. That was a huge hit!

Thursday night and Friday morning we had a scare with EmmaRay-- she put a rubber hair band up her nose and I wasn't able to get it out myself. I had James help me pin her down Thursday night but still couldn't get it (I had even packed my hemostat's, and the Mouth to Mouth trick wasn't working either). I put her to bed and worried about her aspirating it all night long. First thing in the morning Allie went to the store and got a baby nose "sucker" and we tried that to no avail... then put pepper in front of her nose and took her out in the sunshine to make her sneeze. After sneezing twice and still not being able to see the rubberband Allie made an appointment at her family doctor's clinic for five minutes later.

I took EmmaRay down to the office and checked in. The doctor was able to see the rubberband with the scope all the way up her nose, and tried for half an hour with tweezers of various lengths to get it out, but was not able to. She had the office staff refund my copay and did not charge anything for the appointment. How nice is that? She sent us to the ER.

At the Emergency Room it took a male nurse and I holding EmmaRay down and another nurse holding EmmaRay's head and a light, and the ER doctor using every tool imaginable over an HOUR to remove the rubberband. THREE times the ER doctor said "I can't get it, it's time to take her up to an ENT, she'll probably need to be put out and have nasal surgery to remove it." Then someone would suggest a different method or tool, so the doctor would try that and then give up again. The third time she said it was immediately followed by "WAIT! I got it!"

The entire time poor EmmaRay screamed and screamed and screamed. Poor little baby. I hope she learned her lesson about putting things in her nose. After we were discharged from the ER (EmmaRay calmed down with a popsicle first) I took her out to the car and called Michael who was waiting anxiously for word while at work. I must admit that I lost it then. I cried and cried. It was so emotionally taxing to worry about EmmaRay so much.

Now we're just waiting for the bill... the copay was $250! At least EmmaRay will answer "Noooooo" when we ask her if she should put things up her nose. She always used to say "yep" A step in the right direction maybe?

Friday afternoon Allie took us to their indoor pool and we had a BLAST all afternoon playing in the wading pool and lazy river. What a fantastic place for the kids, and warm water for the moms!

Friday night my parents flew in to spend the rest of the weekend.

Saturday James and Allie borrowed enough bikes and trailers for all of us to go on a great bikeride. We started out at a park where we found out just how big of wimps my kids are... as first EmmaRay and then Cade screamed when they were pushed a little on a swing, and Brennan refused to take a turn.

Check out EmmaRay's face compared to Grace... silly little girl.

And this one just makes me laugh!!!

We took the Poudre River Trail and ended up going about 8 miles! EmmaRay HATED the trailer for the first 15 minutes, then fell asleep for a few minutes, and then LOVED it for the rest of the time. She sat with her patient cousin Ben and was pulled by Grandpa.

The boys were pulled by Aunt Allie... and due to an unfortunate flat tire on James' bike just as we were at the furthest point from the cars, Ben was added to this trailer for the ride back, and Grace & EmmaRay shared the other trailer. Cadence is such a talker I don't think he quit his neverending monologue the entire time! Poor Allie :)

Marie and Tessa rode the WHOLE way by themselves! We saw 3 deer across the river which was a lot of fun, and it was so nice to get outside and get some fresh air and sunshine!

After the bikeride we rushed to get ready for Marie's baptism-- we didn't realize we would have to drive 25 minutes to the Stake Center, since we're used to ours being 2 minutes away. Just look how cute she is!
Her baptism was so nice and special. The kids just loved watching her and haven't stopped talking about when it will be their turn. I'm so glad we could be there for that!

The rest of these pictures are just fun ones of the kids playing together until we had to leave Monday morning. They loved every minute of it, and wish that we lived in the same neighborhood as those fun cousins so they could walk to each others houses and play every day.

My brother James left for work about a minute after I left their house. I stopped before leaving their neighborhood because I had forgotten to turn on the GPS (and I'm a good driver who doesn't drive and push buttons at the same time), so I ended up following him to the freeway. I needed gas before really getting underway, so I got off at the first exit. James thought "oh boy, two stops already... she's going to have a fun drive home!" We didn't stop again for 5 hours, and then one more pit stop about an hour from home, so it was actually better than the first drive.

We had a great trip, and can't wait for the next one!