Colorado Weekend!

Before Cora's break, we had two trips to Colorado planned in August - one for a girls weekend with Aunt Kelly and our cousins and one two weeks later for the Fort Collins Temple open house.  Since Cora is not able to travel with her harness, and Andrew had school requirements during the weekend of the open house, we had to cancel that trip.  Thinking it wasn't a possibility, we also canceled our weekend with Aunt Kelly.  

Then, the day before we would have left, I suddenly decided to give it a try.  Andrew was able to stay home with Cora for four days and do his school work from there, and Kelly and her girls were still available last minute, so we decided to go for it!  I didn't tell the girls until Thursday morning when we were about to leave and they were super surprised and excited!  Although they didn't show it....

We had a rather uneventful, if long, drive out.  We were delayed an hour and a half due to construction, so got in much later than we'd hoped.  But we got to meet Madelyn when we got to Grandpa and Grandma Larsens!

And of course, even though it was late, the girls headed right outside.  Abigail said, "Fire ants" when she went in the grass and Grandma got to explain that they don't have those in Colorado!  You can play in the soft, green grass all you want!

That night, unfortunately, I came down with mastitis.  Ugh.  I was miserable by the next morning.  Luckily, my doctor in Texas called in a prescription that I picked up in Broomfield.  While I was home dying, Grandma and Aunt Kelly took all the girls to the park!  After I went to the store to get my antibiotics, I stopped by to watch the fun!

Air rockets!

The girls couldn't get enough of Maddie!  We've all be a little deprived in the baby-holding department lately :(

A nice lady was playing with her dog at the park and let the girls smother him in love!

Cute little thumb sucking baby!

That afternoon we took the girls swimming at the rec center.  I was still feeling miserable, so sat out.  

Abigail kept attempting this slide, but never made it past the stairs.  

She'd just stand there and back up traffic behind her.

Good thing she's so cute!

Aunt Kelly took each of the girls on the big water slide and they LOVED it! 

Playing in "Mermaid Lagoon" with Aunt Kelly - Grandma had to leave to go start dinner, so it was literally Kelly with all six girls in the pool.  She handled it like a champ!  

Finishing out their swim in the hot tub!

A few minutes of play time at the indoor playground before heading home!

Friday night pizza dinner!  A Larsen family tradition!  And the girls got to pick a mug for the homemade root beer!

Watching the opening ceremonies for the Olympics (they were weird).

Halle made it about 5 minutes.

Eve made it longer so got to go outside for a ride on the tether ball pole!

Abigail had a turn too, but smacked her face on the pole.

The next morning we headed up to the mountains for a visit to Estes Park!  No small feat with all these bundles of energy.....

Eve got carsick on the way up, riding in Aunt Kelly's car, and even Abigail told me, "My tummy hurts!".  Luckily, we made it with no throw up....

We strolled through the town doing lots of window shopping:

Watching a hand blown glass making demonstration.  Abigail was like a bull in a tea shop, so she got to wait outside with Grandma and I.

Lunch as it started to drizzle.  

But a little rain couldn't keep these girls off the playground!

I had promised the girls a treat, but it got a little cold for ice cream, so I found these chocolate pebbles in a candy store.  I told the girls I got them a treat and Eve said condescendingly, "I don't eat rocks."  When I convinced her to try one, and she realized it was candy, there was no stopping her!  All the girls loved them!  Kelly got larger jelly bean rocks - also a hit!

We stopped on the way out at an overlook and there were ground squirrels everywhere!  The girls had only moderate success feeding them with the goldfish I had in the car.....

But some nice ladies there shared their peanuts with the girls and things really picked up after that!

Abigail tried so hard, but it was difficult for her to hold still long enough to get one on her lap.

This is about as close as she got....

Just missing Cora (sad face!) and Maddie (in the car) - look at all these cute girls!

Whenever you're with Kelly, you're bound to have a fun-filled time - and we did!  

We got back from Estes Park, regrouped, then headed to Lakeside for the evening, an amusement park near my parents house.  

Holy cow do my girls like rides!  I mostly stayed in the kiddie section with the younger girls and Grandma, while Kelly, Eric, and Grandpa took Eve and Reagan on the big rides.  

Eve was crazy about the big roller coaster!  She went three times and loved it!

The Baldwin family met us there and it was so good to see them and meet their little Dallin, who's just two weeks younger than Cora.

Halle and Abigail loved this little roller coaster, although the first time around Abigail's face was priceless.  She seemed in shock, not quite sure what was happening.  But as soon as it ended she was shouting, "Again, again!"

So fun that they could go on the big rides together!

I was feeling oh so sick still, so didn't go on any rides and by the end was huddled up on a bench.  But Kelly was kind enough to take Abigail on the merry go round, which apparently she's not scared of anymore!  Either that or Aunt Kelly makes her feel brave?  

I guess I lied about not going on any rides - we all went on the 12 minute train ride around the lake.

It was super slow.....

At the exit, there was a hornets nest and Reagan got stung twice :(  Then Halle tried to follow her out, so I jumped to grab her and ran my finger along the wooden railing and got a huge splinter up under my nail.  I'll take that over hornet stings any day!  And I did manage to keep Halle from going through the exit and getting stung too.....

Back to their favorite ride and Daryn!

Uncle Eric is so strong!

The last ride of the night - these airplane things spin around and around and go super high.  Eve rode by herself and while I watched in terror that she would fly out, she loved it!  Halle round with Uncle Eric and Abigail with Aunt Kelly so I didn't have to worry about them.  

And that was our trip!  We drove home on Sunday, but not before Halle managed to fall and cut her ear open on the floor vent.

On their way home, Aunt Kelly and the girls got to stop by the newly completed Fort Collins Temple and sent us this picture.  It's beautiful!  So sad we'll miss the open house, but look forward to going there someday!

All in all, we had a wonderful, quick weekend in Colorado and Andrew and Cora managed to survive the weekend together (really, Andrew survived - Cora had a blast, I'm sure!)