Last weekend, Jason, Ethan and I had a great trip to Denver. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but it wasn’t nearly as stressful as I imagined! I had the flu the day before we left and was terrified Ethan or Jason would get it too. Luckily we all made it through healthy. Here is a recap of the first 2 days.
Friday: Ethan had not been sleeping well the past few days, and he was in bed with us when Jason’s alarm went off at 3:45am. He decided he was wide awake and ready to start his day then. We quickly got ready and headed out the door for our 6:45am flight. Ethan fell asleep on the way there and woke up when we arrived. We parked and headed to check in, since we couldn’t check in online (apparently you can’t when you have an infant). We also got to cut in front of the security line! I brought quite a bit of baby food with us (we didn’t check any bags) and I was a little nervous about getting it through security. They had to open two of the containers to check for explosives, but other than that (and our million bags) it was pretty easy. We barely had enough time to get to our gate and grab breakfast and two VERY large coffees before we boarded. Ethan did great on the flight. We bought him his own seat so he could sit in his carseat. He slept for about 45 minutes and spent the rest of the 2.5 hour flight snacking, reading, and playing. We landed and were off to get our rental car and head to the hotel.
The rest of the day Friday was quite relaxed. We had some breakfast with Jason’s parents, Mike and Karen and his younger brother, Ryan. We then headed over to pick up Jason’s brother and sister in law (Stephen and Allison) and our nieces (Julianne and Lorelei). We headed over to Jason’s Aunt and Uncle’s house (John and Mary). We spent some time with his family and went to get some lunch (I was VERY hungry, as it was 2:30 Indiana time). After our lovely lunch at Chipotle (where they have brown rice!), we went back to the house where Stephen and Allison were staying to spend some time talking while the kids napped. Ethan took a monster nap while we spent time talking. Later in the evening we went back to John and Mary’s house for dinner. After we checked into our hotel (which was fantastic!) and crashed.
Ready to start the day at 4am.
Snackin on a mum.
His favorite sleeping position – he was tired!
Trying out a slide with Daddy.
Saturday: 4:15am Ethan was wide awake (6:15 Indiana time, so his normal wake up time). I assumed this would happen! I gave him a bath and got him ready for the day, then we went in the stroller to walk around the hotel. Luckily, the hotel was huge and there were lots of places to walk around. We got some banana bread and coffee from the coffee shop, ate, and walked some more. I discovered there that Ethan LOVES banana bread. I had to pick the nuts out of it, but he thought it was the greatest thing ever. We eventually went back to the room and got Jason up so we could get ready for the day. Of course Ethan was ready for his first nap when we were getting ready to leave, which worked out well so he could fall asleep on the way to our breakfast destination, The Original Pancake House. We put him in his stroller when we got there and he ended up sleeping for about an hour and a half. We had a great breakfast – I highly recommend the Banana Praline Crepes! After breakfast we headed to the Denver Zoo – by we I mean me, Jason, Ethan, Mike, Karen, Stephen, Allison, Julianne, Lorelei, Ryan, and Ryan’s girlfriend Liz, who joined us on Saturday.
Napping during breakfast – I got to eat in peace!
We had a great time at the zoo! Ethan really enjoyed looking at the animals and also checking out all the other kids. There was a little play area with a “splash creek” for kids to play in and he loved that. He mainly loved it because it was covered in mulch and he tried his hardest to eat it. He ended up taking a nap for a while in his stroller. After the zoo we went to get lunch at Noodles and Company. Jason and I both had pita sandwiches, not something we have on the menu in Indiana! We were all pretty wore out at this point but decided to take a quick trip to Ikea. Jason, Ethan, Allison, Lorelei and I headed over for a quick trip. We both ended up with cinnamon rolls and a few other small things. We then headed over to John and Mary’s for the family reunion. It was great to spend time with Jason’s Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and Grandma. There were lots of of little ones! After our dinner we headed back to our hotel with a very tired baby.
Playing in the splash creek with Julianne – they both ended up quite wet!
Mulch!
Cuddling with Uncle Ryan… so sweet!
Petting the lion cub.
Everyone at the family reunion!
Check out the rest of the zoo pictures here.