Winter Break

As grateful as I am for Jay's job, having six radiologists responsible for covering three hospitals which require a minimum of four of them working per day, his hours make it hard for him to get chunks of time off, especially during coveted mid school-year vacations. Five of the radiologists, including Jay, currently have school aged children at home and so they rotate whose turn it is to take time off during those weeks. Winter break in the middle of February was not Jay's turn.  Nor is our upcoming Spring Break in April. How's a mom of four boys going to make a cold and dreary week of February fun for everyone? Leave!

Because Sam had a pre-surgery eye appointment in Grand Junction later in the week, the easy decision was to go to Denver for our break. Jay has two siblings that live there 'bouts and I'm very aware that we are visit heavy to my own side of the family. My defense is that I'm usually traveling by myself and of course I'm more comfortable visiting my siblings but I really do like Jay's family and want my kids to feel cousinly bonds with all of their cousins.

Daniel threw up all over me the night before we were scheduled to leave so I called my sister-in-law, Stephanie (married to Jay's younger brother, Clark), who has a three month old, to warn her that we might not come after all. Nobody wants the vomit machine to come to their house, especially with a precious newborn, and I wasn't about to invade her with our nastiness. She assured me that her own kids had been throwing up recently and wasn't too concerned so we threw caution and viruses to the wind and went ahead with our plans. We left Saturday morning-ish (I never do get off as early as the plan in my head) and as mean as this is to say, it was kind of nice that Daniel was feeling under the weather. He slept almost the entire time! The drive is about seven and a half hours and he was asleep for at least four and groggy for the other three. No toddler tantrums at all. We listened to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and while it's a stretch to say we didn't want to get out of the car when we arrived, it definitely kept us entertained throughout the drive.

Stephanie and Clark have three little boys of their own so it was a boy festival! I don't know about Stephanie, but it was nice for me to have a little feminine conversation throughout the day. The boys all had a lot of fun playing, wrestling, building, sleeping in a circle downstairs in their sleeping bags, swimming, and discovering at the children's museum. We got to see baby Quinn and his squishy cheeks for the first time and you realize how much a baby changes in one year. He is calm and adorable. We went to church with them and I discovered that as much as I wish our ward here in D-town would grow, its small size makes our meetings much quieter and much less chaotic. I was fortunate to go to Relief Society the Sunday Stephanie was scheduled to teach and was able to listen to her lesson. She is a gifted teacher and balances fun and spiritual perfectly.





Thank you, Clark, for playing "Boy".  They could do this ALL day. They often do.





We played a very fun game of Yahtzee Poker Deluxe that had me glad that I am not a gambler (I never won) and that it is illegal for Seth, because that guy is all in, all the time.  Look at that squishy Quinn!



Going to swim at the rec center! Cousins in a row!



The older boys were great to play with the little ones.



There were so many people there. With my crowd anxiety (self-diagnosed), I was in a near coma state just to cope!



Dinner at Noodles and Company because when you are feeding seven children, it is non stop food prep and clean-up. I wanted to give poor Stephanie a break and thank her for being such a kind hostess. It's a great place for kids. Kid friendly food that comes out fast, a fun soda machine and coloring! Plus, I didn't have to carry my food on a tray, so...double bonus.


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I have such fond memories of the children's museum when Seth was this age. I had a season pass and spent many, many afternoons there watching him climb this very bridge.







I never ventured upstairs all those years ago and it is quite the place.  A little young for Seth but he pretended to have fun and was great to help me chase after Daniel. Everyone else had a blast.



Eventually, they decided to build something while the younguns were at the rocket station.



I thought the fire fighter station was adorable.  This is dress-up deluxe style!



Hoses and all!



So, the coats were a little snug on Sam.



A phone I can push all the buttons I want for as long as I want and it makes noises back at me?  Yes, please!



We also wanted to spend a few days with Rex and Bekki and their kids in their new big home. Brooke and Erin had school all week so we drove to Denver for some fun during the day. When we lived there, I went to the Butterfly Pavilion once when Seth was a baby and it freaked me out. Being in a room with swarms of butterflies freely roaming gave me the heebie jeebies for the rest of the time we lived in Denver. I don't know what possessed me to think of it again but I knew Henry would love seeing butterflies up close so I braved it once more. My memory of the place was much worse than the reality. Sure, there were butterflies that could potentially land on you but they weren't everywhere like a butterfly version of Hitchcock's The Birds. I paid the extra dollar for the fold out guide that had all of the various butterflies names and Henry was content to run around the place looking for the blue one or the yellow one.  Sam wanted one to land on him to no avail and Seth was as creeped out as I remember being. I must have traumatized him as an infant. Maybe it was that much worse?




Sam isn't afraid to try anything, including having a tarantella crawl on his hand.  I took this picture too early and didn't realize it hadn't made it to Sam's hand yet, but it did crawl over! He got a sticker for his bravery to wear the rest of the day. No one else wanted a turn.



But, Henry did want to touch the sea creatures, which surprised me.



Seth didn't. He is all me.

Then, it was onto the butterfly room. I am not normally a taker-of-picture of beautiful things. That sounds bad, but I just don't have the artistic skill to do it justice so I take a picture in my heart instead:) But, some of these butterflies were so cool looking I thought I'd try. Meh. You get the idea. They were cool, though.





They do land on people. But, I'm so glad they didn't land on me!



Don't know what this is but I think it's pretty!







Daniel was pretty bored in his stroller. Most of the butterfly action was happening above his eye level. I swear, there used to be more of them!







Seth tried to appear interested. I would have taken a picture of Henry but he was running around with the butterfly poster.









There is a play area as part of the pavillion and this was definitely the most fun for Daniel. He was free to walk around and touch things.


Seth, as usual, helping me out with Daniel.



My beautiful almost butterflies!











"Hey, mom, don't take a dorky picture of me."



"I'll look cool instead."



"Wait. I can't look cool on a plastic caterpillar. I'll go for purposely dorky instead!"  He seriously makes me laugh.

We also managed to see a Nuggets game at the Pepsi Center. Bekki and Erin were kind enough to watch Henry and Daniel that night and Seth, Sam, Brooke and I had a blast cheering agains the Celtics. It really was a fun night and I scored some cool mom points in the process.  Sweet!









So...we didn't have awesome seats.



But, it was still a lot of fun.










I cannot wait for Sam to be done with these prisms so I can have pictures of him non-crossed-eyed again!

In addition to the basketball game and Butterfly Pavillion, we also toured the US Mint, which was awful for me. Again, Henry loved it because he got to see thousands and thousands of pennies and golden dollars being made, but security is so tight there that the only thing allowed through the door is you and the clothes on your back. No purse. No stroller. No snacks or sippy cups and no cameras. I think Henry's age, 7, should be the minimum allowed inside. It simply isn't engaging enough for anyone younger and certainly not for a busy toddler who wants to touch everything, especially the displays that say, "Please, Do Not Touch!" Later, we went to see The Life of Pi and everyone but Henry loved it (you see the theme of this trip. With this age spectrum, it is hard to please everyone). Sam said it was his favorite movie of all time, Seth asked the philosophical questions afterward and Henry said, "That was WAY too violent for me!" Daniel slept through most of it but I did have to stand with him in the hallway with the door creaked open for the last twenty minutes. I figure I saw the most visually stunning parts of the movie.

We spent our last evening with the whole family, even Michael who is patiently waiting to leave for his mission in Columbia and is without his twin, Jacob, who has already left for Russia watching "Here Comes The Boom" and funny skits from Studio C. I had never even heard of it and loved the clean, witty content. My kids loved it too and I smugly smiled when I saw Henry snuggle up to Brooke on the couch.  Cousin bonding mission accomplished! I enjoyed all my visits with Bekki and think it's hilarious that Jay's brother, Rex, calls Henry "Hank" and he loves it. It's like he knows that that's what Uncle Rex calls him. I guess I'll allow it but only for Rex. Hank is one of those nicknames that don't make sense for me. It is a completely different name from Henry. Like Peggy for Margaret. How?



Unfortunately, when it came time for that all-important eye appointment in Grand Junction four hours west of Denver, there was a major winter storm that was a beast to drive through. The roads were awful, traffic was intense, and we saw more than one bad wreck off the side of the road. It took a couple of extra hours to get there but we made it safely and in time.  Then, we got to add even more hours in the car and took the long way home to avoid the really scary mountain passes. My sister Sarah came to spend the weekend with us so the whole week was blessed with family fun.

All in all, a great winter break!