Wrapping Things Up

Well, final full week in Colorado.  That's a lot to take in.  We had a good week together, and there was a fair share of craziness towards the end of it.  Everything looks like it's progressing just right to get us on our way on Tuesday.  Yeesh, that's still crazy to think of.  Well on Saturday we were able to make it out to the zoo, and everyone got to ride the carousel which they were all very happy about, and they even all rode an animal that went up and down!  It was so fun we had to go again even. 

Jumping back to the start of the week, the next door neighbors roof was replaced, and the roofer stopped by to let us know they'd clean up our yard and everything, and gave the kids some tape measurers.  They have been quite the hit, and Grayson especially loves to wander around and measure things.

On Wednesday Monica took the kids to the children's museum.  We've never been when it's warm, and it looks like there were some fun things to do outside, like this water geyser.  

Grayson climbing into the apple truck and enjoyed driving it around town.

There's a big ropes course of sorts outside the museum that's only open when it's warm.  I went and looked at it a few times during the winter when it wasn't open, but the kids got to try it out.  They had a lot of fun exploring, but they told me they didn't dare go on the slides.  They're probably at least 60 feet long, and that was just a bit too much for them.

We had to return our propane tanks before we moved, so that meant it was time to grill up everything we had left in the freezer!  After I finished grilling I left the grill on for a bit to burn up so I could come scrape it off and clean it, and when I came back a minute later it had all caught fire!  That was pretty crazy.  This is why you never grill right next to your house!  I thought about letting it burn out, but it seemed pretty intense so I grabbed the hose.

After dinner that night we gave the kids some ice cream cones.  They all looked very cute, and like they get along all the time, while they were eating them.  It was a wonderful moment! :)

I went to a game night Wednesday night, and when I was driving home there was a big rain storm.  Not only that, but there was some intense lightning.  Unfortunately it was all at the start of the drive, and I didn't capture any of it.

Thursday we had everything in suitcases and it was time to live like a hotel because the movers were coming to pack our house!  Turns out they only came in the afternoon that first day, and just to pack up wardrobe boxes.  Still good we had clothes in suitcases, but we didn't need to be quite as ready to be packed as we were.  Anyway, as part of this endeavor, we went for simple and on hand foods to eat, which included cereal for breakfast.  Grayson quickly found his spoon to be a hinderance, and just went for it.

Monica took the kids to the library, and really to the splash pad out front.  They met up with a bunch of other friends there and all had a great time.

That evening, Jelly decided to explore her new domain.  She found the highest place she could perch in our room, boxes and all.

Friday the movers returned to pack up all of everything else, and roofers came to replace the roof.  Well, they ended up just ripping off the shingles and putting something down to keep it waterproof and leaving halfway through the day... and still haven't been back.  They were supposed to come yesterday, but didn't, and when we got home from church today we found them here, going through our dumpster of furniture we threw out.  They were going to work on our house, but since we were home they headed out to let us be...  I'm starting to get a little annoyed, and so help me if they don't get the roof done tomorrow while the movers are here loading up the truck!

We had some nuts rain on Thursday, and there were even two tornados around Denver.  Nothing right here where we are, but one was 5 miles away.  Anyway, we got some more hail and a lot of rain.  There were some places around here that got baseball sized hail, so I'm really glad it missed us.  On Friday Monica took the girls to dance camp, and then Grayson to the trail to walk around.  Grayson loves walking on the trail and had places he wanted to go.  However... things were flooded, and so they had to drive around and try different places.  Grayson's goal was to find and walk on the "brown bridge" which was a  bridge under construction, but they had to go by where we were playing the other day and I'm pretty sure the water was touching the bottom of the bridges there and where we played was all under water this time.  The water currents also look swift enough that I wouldn't have let the girls go wade into the middle of the stream this time.

Good news though, there were still plenty of sticks and pine cones, and as of coming home from church today, they're still in the car.

Friday evening Jessica Lilak and her husband Tony came over for dinner!  I haven't seen her in a few years, and it was great to get together and catch up.  I took a picture of all the kids and Monica with her, but Monica's eyes are closed tight, so we'll go with this picture instead.

Saturday we went to the zoo!  I really love going to the zoo.  When we walked in, a worker told us about an animal encounter thing happening in a half hour.  We thought it was for the bear, but it was for the white raccoons next door.  They are leucistic.  They were found as pups, and couldn't be released back into the wild because they'd just die being white, so the zoo took them in.  One of them really loves to sleep in the food shoot!

Here are the kids watching them dig food out of ice.  A keeper brought in a tub of ice with some yummy treats for them, and we got to watch them eat for a little bit.

We went in the tropical house, and Grayson loved the frogs.  Mostly the bright blue ones.  They have poison dart frogs there, and he didn't want to leave them behind.

When we got to the car we saw it was 90 degrees out today.  Not too shabby.  The good news is that I didn't think it felt too hot outside.  The bad news is that it's still a lot hotter in Texas right now.  Anyway, the zoo has misters out, and we definitely took advantage whenever we walked by.

At various places around the zoo they will have volunteers doing animal showings.  We walked by this one a few times, and earlier in the day the kids all touched some lizard.  This time there was a snake, and Brooke wanted to go feel it.

We also went on the carousel.  The kids had so much fun I let them all go a second time.  The sad news is if I had thought about it from the start, I could have got a 10 punch pass for basically the same price and they could have all had a third time too.  I could have even hopped on one on the last go around.

Grayson loved it.  The girls wanted to ride ones that went up and down, so he said he did too.  When I first put him on he sat up there for a little, and then started asking me to get him down.  But once it got going he loved it.  I think it's funny that he was nervous when it was standing still, but once it moved then it was great to be up that high.

And finally last night we went to Butterfields for some ice cream.  We all got cones.  I'm going to miss Butterfields, and I really hope we can find a good ice cream place around our new house.

It's pretty customary for us to try each others' flavors, and Grayson will do anything he can to get an extra lick.

And I mean anything.  He ended up commandeering Monica's cone with quite a bit left and alternated eating his "three" ice creams.  He's not always a good eater, but he definitely knows what he wants.

Friday we also had a roll away dumpster dropped off at our house so we could toss some old furniture we have.  When we pulled out the couch we were greeted with this.  Mind you, Monica cleaned under there not all that long ago.  I think our kids just try to put stuff under the couch.

Today was our goodbye Sunday at church.  Winry even got a picture of her with Mr. Brother Pez, who is now sometimes called something like exciting superman, or something like that.  I wanted to get Mr. Brother Pez in here though because I'm not sure he's been in the blog much.

Well, that's all I've got for now.  Tomorrow they're coming to pack up all our stuff, and finish our roof, and pick up our propane tanks... sheesh.  Hope it all goes smoothly.  I'm interested to see how far I make it through the day before they need to take my folding desk I'm using for work and my chair.  Should be interesting.