Visiting our Colorado Family

This has been a busy month, so I'm now trying to catch up on my posts before the month is over. May 11-16th we were fortunate enough to travel as a family along with my parents to Colorado to visit my brother, his wife, and our two nephews. Colorado is always full of surprises, especially the weather. I haven't had a lot of luck with weather.com predictions, and this trip was no exception. Coming from California, I expect May to be a little warmer. Instead, we experienced snow, rain, slush, wind, and a little sun. I only packed light jackets, so we were short on warm jackets. At least I packed one long-sleeve shirt for each kid and pants. Luckily my sister-in-law had some extra snow clothes for the smaller boys to borrow so they could do some snowplay. Our trip went something like this:

Hanging at the airport with Gramma and Grampa

On Wednesday, we flew in and were greeted by snow. The snow was beautiful as always, so I guess we can't complain too much. We were greeted by a blanket of snow, and by the time we left the snow was mostly melted away. Amazing. But the kids made sure they squeezed in some snowplay with cousin Logan.

Cole couldn't wait to love up on Cousin Landon.

Here's the snow that greeted us on arrival.

On Thursday, the boys started the morning with some snow play. 

Bode and Cousin Logan

Cole and Cousin Logan

Ian and Cousin Logan

Bode and Logan going for a slide

Ian shoveling snow

My boys

Bode "cleaning" Uncle Chris's car

Then while Darin and Chris were working, we took the kids to play miniature golf and to the arcade. The kids love playing miniature golf in the dark, with glow-in-the-dark golf balls. The arcade may be small, but we're always up for a good game of air hockey. Even the grandparents got in on the action playing the motorcycle racing game.

Cole in action, with the family supporting him

Ian taking a shot

Nice form, Bode

Cousin Logan and Bode

Don't forget Cousin Landon

The boys, glowing in the dark

That's a good looking group of boys.

Bode and I playing air hockey.

Grampa vs Ian

Ian vs Gramma

Bode the motorcycle dude

Cole vs Ian

Ian vs Bode

On Friday, we visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science where they had the Real Pirates exhibit. The exhibit was amazing. It took me two hours to get through it - my family made fun of me because they went to lunch without me because I was taking so long. I wish I could have taken pictures inside, but they didn't allow it. But the artifacts were incredible and well worth the trip. (More details can be seen in my post about Pirates.)

The museum had many other great exhibits to explore and a great Kids Discovery Zone.

Bode petting a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach

After the museum, we visited Jessica's grandmother's house for dinner. She and her husband are wonderful people and great hosts. We had a great time eating, chatting, and letting the kids play. The boys were joined by their cousins and Tatiana (Logan & Landon's cousin). Fun!

On Saturday, Chris joined us for some family fun. We had some interesting things planned, but the weather had other plans for us. The rain and snow put a roadblock on our outdoor plans, so we improvised and stayed at the house. At least my Dad got to make his special french toast for all of us, so that was a treat. The kids were creative and found plenty of things to do. It also gave us some extra time for card games, which we all love to play. Jessica's dad and Tatiana joined us, so it was another fun family day.

Wasn't there just snow here?

Ian and Cousin Landon

Is that rain and an elk? What happened to the sun we had earlier?

On Sunday, we ventured out to go bowling - all 13 of us (actually, Landon didn't bowl, so just 12). It was a lot of fun. There were some great plays out there, lots of strikes and spares. The kids had fun as usual. Then Jessica's dad was kind enough to take some of the kids back to the house so the rest of us could check out a Dim Sum restaurant. As you may have guessed, we kept baby Landon and crazy Bode with us.

Bode bowling in the dark

Cole going for it

Ian trying for a strike

Daddy and the boys

Racing cars with Bode

Gramma, Grampa and all their kids and grandkids

Don't forget Guy and Tatiana

On Monday, we flew back home to the California sun. We had a wonderful trip and always love seeing our Colorado family. We look forwad to our next visit, when our nephews will be bigger and who knows what kind of weather we'll have. It's always a fun adventure.