D-Town Goodies.

Well, that was fun.

We are back from Denver, and we had a really nice time. We got to see the family, and we got to show off the newbie. It was stressful at times, but fun over all. What family visit isn't?

We started off Thursday night with a massive pile of luggage and two car seats that needed to come with us. The boys behaved very well on the airplane, and Jackson was very excited. He's still talking about it. Joey just fell asleep. Jen and I are a good match, sometimes in ways that I never imagined. Case in point: Neither of us get sick to the point of throwing up on airplanes or boats, but we both get mildly nauseated. For some reason known only to airplane people, if you are travelling with an infant, you have to sit on the right side of the plane. So the way the tickets shook out on out teeny tiny little plane, Jen was in the window seat on the right side, then there was a big fat guy next to her, then the isle, then Jackson and I were on the other side. The Dude in the isle seat was eating this massive sandwich that he brought from home. He kept adding packet after packet of mayo and mustard the whole time he was eating it, and it was making our collective nausea that much worse. Blegh. We were happy to get off.

Friday, we just bummed around town visiting various people, mainly to show off the kids. We had some lunch at Angelo's after hanging out at Pablo's most of the morning. We did get to meet Jeremy's new girlfriend, who is awesome, and he should hang onto that one. :) Then we had to go back to the house in the sky, as Jackson calls it, for a nap. Travelling with children is very very different than being on your own. Basically, you have the morning to get anything done. Children wake up at ungodly hours in the morning, but they need a nap in the afternoon. So our little schedule usually requires everything to stop around 1:00 so we can get Jackson fed and down for a nap, which lasts at least an hour and a half, giving us just enough time before we have to start dinner to not get anything done.

We went to the White Fence Farm for Dinner with Jackson's pseudo-cousin Emily and her family. They make farm food there, meaning that if anything is remotely healthy, they either deep-fry it, or add mayonnaise, nipping that shit right in the bud. Yummy. The kids got to feed sheep and get that "farm experience" That we could get 50 feet from our house. It did have a playground out front, though. So they basically ignored the food and played. Friday night we went to Sputnik, and had a lot of fun. We left fairly early because we were both tired, so it you didn't show up, there is your out next time I see you.

Saturday we collected my dad and his wife, and went to the Children's Museum. Holy cow, did Jackson have a fun time there! If you didn't know, one of Jackson's great loves in life is trains. Making complicated track systems, then making the trains go along them are some of the most fun he has, as it feeds his OCD* the equivalent of comfort food. He just zones out on it for hours. Well, The Children's Museum has a whole room dedicated to this purpose. He had such a good time, that when we tried to show him other parts of the facility, he would duck out when we weren't looking, and run back to the train room. We had a lovely lunch, and some naps. We shopped a bit on the 16th Street Mall.

Saturday night, Tim took me and Aaron Taylor to the Hockey game. I can't even say how cool this was. I'll try in increasing levels of coolness: Hockey - Avs on TV - Avs in playoffs on tv- Avs in person - Avs in playoffs in person - Avs in playoffs in person in club level box - Avs in playoffs in person in fully catered club level box - Avs in playoffs in person in fully catered, including booze, club level box - Avs in playoffs in person in fully catered including booze club level box with a TV showing the Avs game!!!! They won. They advanced to the second round. I won. Everybody won. Except Jen, who had to stay at home with my Mon and not eat a real dinner because my mom's on some diet. Jen didn't win. Sorry, sweetie.
Sunday, Tim and I took Jackson over to Millennium park and to the kiddie Park on Speer. Jen went and had a lovely breakfast with Turner.

Sunday afternoon, we hung out with my Dad, who has a train set in his basement. Yay for Jackson. We then went to a Pizza place off Leetsdale for dinner, where there was a train set. Yay for Jackson, who refused to eat in lew of there being a train set there.

Monday we basically packed and went home. The trip home was a bit more of an ordeal. After the crew was delayed on an earlier flight, we sat on the tarmac for a while while they looked at a mechanical problem, which didn't go away. We had to de-plane(just as Jackson fell asleep), wait an hour, and get on another plane. We got home 2 hours late. oh well. at least we are home.

A good trip, but I wish I had more free time to hang with friends. Whenever we bring the boys, I feel obligated to let the grandparents spend as much time as possible with them, and I don't yet feel comfortable leaving the boys with them without one of us there too. As they get older, that will ease a bit. I hope.

So, yeah. Pics here.



Enjoy.



-JP



*Jackson does not actually have OCD.