The second week in March was our Spring Break, and James and I had been anxious to leave and get out of windy cold Wyoming. We had seven days for our trip and were so excited to take the kids to Denver to visit the aquarium and also the Children's Museum. This would require us to stay a few nights in Denver, so we booked a room and made the trek down. As you will recall in an earlier post, Grant had outgrown his old carseat, so we bought him a new one. It's much less of a chair, and he can be strapped in now with the seat belt. We should have taken into consideration the fact that when Grant was strapped into his old chair, he literally could not do anything, but sit there and play with toys on his lap. This new chair provided a lot more freedom, which made going down tiring even more to say the least. Grant can now undo his seat belt, twist and turn his whole body (even when he is strapped in), and lean clear over onto the seat, so that he is laying down. This makes travel interesting. This was our first big extended car trip with his new seat, and he just was not used to it. Neither was I. I ended up riding in the middle to entertain, and also to struggle with Grant so that he could remain safe in his seat.
I had the most fun with Audrey this trip. She was just so fun. She was crawling everywhere and was interested in everything. She loved this rocking chair in which we were supposed to read together. The only thing is, she did not want to share!
Grant doesn't necessarily like grocery shopping, but he does like to push things around. He actually went shopping and put a few things in his cart, and a checker was there to check him out in the grocery line. So fun. So wishing they had this in Casper!
Our first activity was the acquarium. This was the first time we have taken Grant anywhere where he seemed to enjoy himself. He loved looking at the fish, putting his hands in the water and attempting to touch a sting ray, and then pointing at all the numbers they had on all the fish tanks. We saw a tiger, a turtle, and tons of sharks. It was a neat museum, and I LOVE the fact that we went on a cold, rainy day, in the middle of the school year, so it was not crowded at all. That was the only way we could enjoy this musuem with our almost three year old. We went through twice.
Our lovely tiger. I have no idea why he would be at an aquarium of all places, but I was glad to see him. This made our choice of coming here instead of the zoo more worth it. (Although we are going to try to hit the zoo sometime in the summer.
We stayed at a nice place in Denver called The Commons. We booked a suite with a seperate bedroom and a full kitchen. We wanted to be able to come back to the room and eat lunch and our meals with out having to take the kids out to eat (since we take our chances whenever we do this!) Things went well the first night we were there, and then the second day, (after we had come home from the Children's Musuem), to eat lunch, Grant decided that he was going to scream at random times throughout the afternoon. When I say "random" I mean RANDOM! He was fine one minute and screaming short screams the next. We were there in the afternoon, and Audrey was napping-we thought we were fine, until we got a call from the front desk about a "child screaming in your room." You know, couldn't do anything about it. We tried to make him be quiet, but it happened at such random times, I could not tell when he would scream next. We decided to wake up Audrey and leave. It kind of put a damper on the trip for me, but I didn't feel too badly when we got another call that night from the front desk, about "someone throwing rubber balls against the wall." Sorry, people who are in ahotel, we have to walk and little kids pattering feet are going to make a noise. Maybe they shouldn't have stayed in a family hotel. So, ironically, after that last phone call, I felt better about the whole thing. There honestly wasn't anything more we could have done. What did save our life though, was this Leap Frog Caterpillar which plays classical music. Grant loves to hear it play, and will not scream while it is playing. So, dear people who have to share a hotel wall with kids-get over it!
I adore this pic of Audrey. Long car rides do not agree with her!
I had the most fun with Audrey this trip. She was just so fun. She was crawling everywhere and was interested in everything. She loved this rocking chair in which we were supposed to read together. The only thing is, she did not want to share!Grant doesn't necessarily like grocery shopping, but he does like to push things around. He actually went shopping and put a few things in his cart, and a checker was there to check him out in the grocery line. So fun. So wishing they had this in Casper!I mentioned the Children's Musuem-the kids loved it. This was our second time visiting the musuem. Grant was one year old the first time we went, and could only do a little of all of the activities they have for kids there. It was fun taking both Grant and Audrey. Grant did much better this time, although I wish there was something like the musuem in Casper. He played with tools, climbed on a fire truck, pretended to be a vet, shopped around in the grocery store, discovered more to bubbles, and crawled around like a maniac in caves, up trees, and slid down slides. SOOOO fun for Audrey too. She got to dress up like a dancer, play with stuffed animals, and test her crawling skills. The kids had a great time, and it was so fun to be able to take them both.
My prima ballerina. She looked so cute in her little tutu with ribbons to hold. Now all we have to do is sign her up for dancing lessons and she will be all set. Too fun!
On to St. George. The trip, of course, wouldn't be complete without disclosing the fact that on the way down, Grant RUINED my Kindle. I absolutely have adored my Kindle since I got it for Christmas and could not survive a week without it, so I brought it on the trip. I needed to get a cover for it, and thought that would be a fun thing to shop for with my mom once we got to St. George. Well, Grant stepped on my pink bag that had it in there, and it was ruined. Sooooo sad. I hurried and called Amazon, and they got a replacement ordered for me so that it would be there when I got home. Any way, the trip from Denver to St. George was about like Casper to St. George -11 hours of fun entertaining in the back seat, topped off with monitoring Grant's status in the carseat. So happy when we finally arrived in St. George.
