We had the most wonderful time this past week in Colorado visiting Sara and Ellie. Sara's work sent her to a week long class in Denver and Sara asked Addi and I to come down and spend the week with her and Ellie in Denver. Addi and I flew into Denver, Sara and Ellie picked us up and we went back to Colorado Springs for the night. We spent Sunday in Colorado Springs. We took the girls to Build-A-Bear. They both loved picking out their bears and dressing them. Addison helped Ellie put two hearts in her bear! (Unfortunately, my camera's memory card crapped out and I lost the first few days worth of pictures)
The next day we drove back to Denver. We went to the Denver Aquarium. We had such a great time. Ellie was totally into it. She loved it all so much. Addison was asking for "Nemo" the whole time. I was getting nervous, after spending a couple hours there and not seeing him. We finally found "Nemo" and "Dory" in the very last exhibit! Addison was afraid of the sharks until I told her that when she was little she loved the sharks at the Salt Lake Aquarium. Then she decided she wasn't scared! At the stingray tank the girls were a little apprehensive at first to touch the stingrays. Once they discovered they were nice and soft we couldn't drag them away! I was so proud of both of them. My little animal keepers!! We had dinner in the Aquarium Restaurant. We sat right next to the giant tanks and watched the giant blowfish and other fish as we ate. It was so much fun. The girls loved it.
This trip the girls took no time in warming up to each other. They were themselves as soon as we saw each other.
On Tuesday we sent Sara to school and the girls and I went to the Denver Museum of Science and History. I LOVED it, the girls however were a little bored! They enjoyed climbing on the displays and playing with the wagon and running around. There were literally 2,000 or more people there and I was so nervous I was going to loose one of them! People who say, "If you can handle one, you can handle two.", you are such liars!! They were always going in opposite directions with totally different itineraries! But we got through it and I tried teaching them as much as I could. Ellie loved the African area. And Addison enjoyed the North American Ocean Mammal area. She was amazed at the size of seals and walruses (as was I). Both girls ran to the Polar Bear and growled! It is an amazing place. I would love to go back and spend the day there.
When Sara got back from school we went to dinner at Bumba Gumps. I had crab legs...yummy. Addi was absolutely disgusted, her face got all distorted and ask "What is that?". I answered, "Mommy is going to eat these crab legs. Do you want to try it." The look on her face was utter disgust and she said, "Why? No." At this time Denver got hit with the most massive blizzard I have ever seen. The whole place was drowning in inches of snow in a matter of hours. It was really cool to watch. Our super sweet waiter offered to go broom off our car! We insisted we are Montana girls and we can handle it ourselves!
We sent Sara back to school on Wednesday! She called and said class was canceled due to the snow!! It cracks me up. The middle of Colorado, it snows a little and EVERYTHING shuts down. So we got a snow day together. We took the girls to the Butterfly Pavilion. Again, I loved it! What an amazing place. The first thing we encountered was a giant tarantula named "Rosie". We got to hold her!
I know...most people would run. But Sara and I and our girls were so excited. It was amazing. She so soft and light and when she walked across your hands you could feel each of eight legs stepping. Addi tried to "pet" her and the zookeeper quickly stopped her and explained that touching Rosie on the back would result in her releasing many irritating hairs onto Addi's skin that would cause a horrible itching sensation. Addison did not hold her but she was very interested and intrigued by her. She kept saying, "Big spider, nice." We wandered around gazing at amazing insect and spider species from all over the world. They had a butterfly exhibit. It was just like walking into a rain forest. The butterflies were free flying and everywhere. One even landed on me and the girls were very impressed. We spent a lot of time in there looking at the beautiful butterflies.
Later that day we took the girls to the Denver Children's Museum. Wow! We love our Missoula Children's Museum and go there at least once a week. But wow. The Denver Museum was incredible. It was a two story building of play. The girls dressed up as firefighters and played in a real fire truck. They were worms and bugs crawling around in underground tunnels. They were birds gathering food in nests. They cooked in kid sized kitchens, planted a garden and cared for animals in the vet clinic. They danced and dressed up on the dance floor. Both Addi and Ellie shopped in the kid sized grocery store and played the cashier and the customer! It was an amazing place. We all loved it.
We took dinner back to the hotel. We watched movies and jumped and danced on the bed!
Thursday was "scary Walgreens Day!" Addi was sick with a horrible cough all week. I finally wanted to get her some sort of medicine. I got the girls ready and into the car and typed into Sara's GPS "Walgreens". It told me the nearest Walgreens was five miles away or so. Okay, so I drove there. It led me into a very scary neighbor hood. Ellie was fast asleep and Addi was crying so hard because she didn't feel good. I drug them both into the store and got Addi some "natural" honey cough medicine and some allergy medicine and got the heck out of there! After a quick drive through lunch I took the girls back to the hotel and they both took a nap!
Addison felt better after sleeping for a few hours. Ellie was as precious as ever and woke up from her nap only to fall back asleep in my arms for a while longer. I soaked as much of her as she would let me! We met Sara downtown and visited the giant Blue Bear outside the convention center. It wasn't as cool as advertised! After that we went to the Denver Flagship REI store. The sights were BEAUTIFUL (hahahaha, Sara)!!! Sara wanted to shoplift just to get a closer look!!! The merchandise and climbing wall were impressive also! We drove to Castle Rock with the intentions of hitting up the outlet stores. After a fun dinner at Red Robin, it was too late so we headed back to the hotel.
On Friday, Sara's last day of class and our last day in Denver, I took the girls to the Denver Zoo. We were there for hours. It is a huge place full of wonderful animals. It was cool and cloudy so the animals were very active. Ellie loved the Crowned Crane who responded to Ellie's attention by pecking his beak on the glass! Ellie got such a kick out of it! We saw adorable grizzly bears and hippos.
Addison loved seeing the Pygmy Marmoset because her hero Diego saves them in many episodes! It was fun watching her relate the real animal to the animated one. We found the gorillas at the end of the day. The girls were so tired and it was cold and rainy. Ellie said, "night, night" and sat down up against the glass of the gorilla encloser. Addi went and got a blanket out of the wagon and her and Ellie curled up under the blanket and said there were going to take a nap with the gorillas! It was so sweet. Ellie was calling the gorillas monkeys! Addi kept correcting her saying, "No, not monkeys. Gorillas!" That's my girl!
We met Sara down town and pick her up after class and headed back to her house in Colorado Springs. We ordered a pizza and soaked in the new hot tub!
On Sunday, Addi and I's last day in Colorado, we hung out at Sara's house playing. Around 1 we headed back to Denver. Sara loves the Denver commute! We picked up lunch and went to Washington Park to eat. It is a beautiful, huge park. We were hoping to let the girls play at a jungle gym, Sara found a perfect parking spot but was unable to successfully parallel park so we settled for a spot near a muddy, fishing hole pond! After that we went to the airport and said goodbye. After almost being too late to make our flight, well not really, but I was panicking! Addison stayed will Sara while I checked our bags. We had a hard time meeting back up in that giant, horrible airport. Addison said, "Too many people." Addison did really great on the airplanes, both ways. She loved playing with the air vents and windows. She was amazed during the take off.
It was so hard to say goodbye this time. Ellie is so amazing and I was able to spend a lot of alone time with her this trip. I love her so much and wish I could see her everyday. She is hilarious and like Addi, does things on purpose to be funny. Her tiger growl is so adorable and so is her smile.
Addi and Ellie are so much fun to watch together. One second they are holding hands and hugging and the very next second one of them is biting (we know which one that is!) or pushing the other one down. They actually get along really well unless they are both tired at the same time. Then look out. They are equally stubborn and hard-headed. They both very much know what they want and will stop at nothing to get it! On the other hand, they are equally loving, sweet and generous.
Sara and I kept up road trip traditions by singing, perfectly in tune, our favorite songs! Somehow, the girls are able to sleep through the performance! I feel so lucky to have Sara and Ellie. I know they will always be there for us. We have so much fun on our trips. I look forward to the next one. Love you mine sister. Love you mine Ellie-Bellie.
For more trip pictures: LINK
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