Here we gooooooooo!  For the next few Fridays I’ll be recapping our second vacation of 2015 – our trip to Colorado to visit my brother Dan and sister-in-law Danielle for Thanksgiving.  This trip was a BIG DEAL for us – a big expense, a big effort, and a BIG payoff, because it was totally worth it to get to spend ten days with family members that we love so much and don’t see enough, enjoying one of the most beautiful places in the world (where they are lucky enough to live!).  It was also a major first for us – the first time we’d flown with either kid.  I spent the weeks leading up to the trip talking up the plane flight in a big way, and Peanut was excited.  Nugget was not.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the flights went really well.  Steve and I were both working the whole time – Steve entertaining Peanut and me keeping Nugget fed, calm and happy – so as to not ruin the flight for the rest of the passengers.  Thank the travel gods, both kids behaved as well as I could possibly have expected.  Nugget didn’t sleep, of course, because Nugget doesn’t do that sort of thing.  But he was happy to eat, play and look around, and he had quite a few fans by the end of each of our legs out to Denver.

The first leg took us to Atlanta, which was weird for me!  In my previous job, it so happened that I spent a lot of time in Atlanta, and I know the Hartsfield-Jackson airport like the back of my hand.  I went on autopilot and started wandering off toward the C terminal, from which the flights to DC always depart.  Ha!  Steve was laughing at me.  But it did feel strange to be in the ATL and not headed to work meetings, and to be toting a baby instead of a briefcase.  Anyway, it was a fun blast from the past for me, and Peanut had a ball watching the planes out the window.  There’s our ride to Denver!

We made it safe and sound to Denver, and Uncle Dan and Aunt Danielle were waiting for us when we arrived at the airport!  They were toting a car seat that we’d ordered and had shipped to their house, so that we didn’t have to worry about renting one when we got to Colorado.  (I’d heard horror stories about arriving at rental car facilities to find that they’d given a reserved car seat to someone else, and about rental car seats that were broken, unsafe, or dirty – so figuring out car seat logistics was actually my top priority for trip planning.  We ended up taking Nugget’s car seat with us and buying a new seat – on sale – for Peanut.  We’re keeping it at Dan’s house for future visits.  It was the perfect solution!)

We spent our first evening relaxing at Dan’s house, and were ready to play the next morning!

After a relaxing morning around the house – well, relaxing for the kids, anyway; Dan, Steve and I each had to squeeze in a little work almost every day – we headed into Boulder to explore a bit.

Downtown Boulder was beautiful!  At Danielle’s suggestion, we took a walk down the Pearl Street Mall.  It reminded me of the Ithaca Commons – so pretty!

We had lunch at a cute little pub and brewery – I had black bean chili, which sounded like exactly what I wanted, and it hit the spot.  Peanut enjoyed mac and cheese and some crayons.

And tortilla chips.  Heh.

After lunch, we found a cool playground with bronze and concrete animals.  Peanut dubbed the playground the “Ugly Pond Museum.”  She had a ball running around and riding the animals, like ya do.

Totally jealous that Dan and Danielle live so close to this cool town!  We didn’t even scratch the surface of Boulder – there was so much to see.

Next week, a hike, a carousel, and Indian food – check back!