Trip to Denver!!

Warning: Lots of Pictures

Once we got the fair over we went on vacation!!

It started out with a trip to the Ogden Temple Openhouse. It was gorgeous!

The next stop on our vacation was a stop at Primary Children's for Kelli's Arthritis appointment. It didn't go as beautifully.

We then took off toward Denver via Wyoming. We drove to Rawlins where we stayed for a swim, sleep and free continental breakfast! It's windy there. The next day, we drove to Greeley where we stopped by an old friend of mine, Annie Whitehead. We had lunch and some much needed leg-stretching.

In the afternoon we drove into Clayton and Sheila's!! We went to the Rockies baseball game that evening!! It was great.

See the rainbow behind the girls?



The next day we went to a cool place called Miner's Maze. It was lots of fun with lots of adventure!

This picture is of Derek on the bungee trampoline.

Brady had a great time, he is trying to stand up in these big beach balls!! 

 

Left to Right: Kelli, Quinn, Alison rock climbing.

My favorite thing to do was the ropes course. It was really fun, and challenging. My arms were sore. But it was great! Derek is rocking one of the hardest sections.

Alison is on the hard section and Derek (#7) is pulling himself across while standing on a skateboard.

Here is a great shot of Kelli (left) at the top!

This picture will go inside our souvenir Christmas ornament!!

Some more cool things we did there was a maze, a train ride, and panning for rocks and gems. Where Brady declared that he's rich 'for real life', because he found gold.

 

Here is Kelli on the Ropes course.

 

Clayton and Sheila have a great pool in their neighborhood. We went there several times. We used their grill and had hamburgers one evening!

 

Sheila taught me how to do laps in the pool. I loved it!

 

 

Sunday was a great day together. The kids didn't stop playing and got along amazing!

Kelli and Alison had very similar outfits, but Derek and Quinn looked like twin brothers. We didn't plan any of this, it was funny how it worked out.

Clayton and Sheila have a beautiful new house and even more amazing kids. Brady had fun floating between playing with Eliza and the boys. But the kids played a lot downstairs all together.

 

On Monday, Alison, Quinn, and Eliza had school. But we weren't ready to leave our amazing vacation just yet. So we took a personal day and went exploring Denver. We tried to get in the Denver mint, but it was full. We went to the Butterfly Pavilion where several of us held Rosie the Rose-haired Tarantula!!.

Derek was particularly fasinated with the beehive?! I think he liked the opportunity to look at the bees and not be stung by them. He watched them a lot. 

Lola loved to 'find Nemo' and pretty much every fish was 'Nemo'. 

 It wouldn't be a perfect vacation without a tantrum or two. Brady didn't think the butterfly room was that cool. He must have been hungry and tired!

The butterfly room was actually really great. There were thousands of butterflies. All sorts of colors and sizes.

 Jake and I got to take a tour of Clayton's new plant. It was amazing. It was hard to comprehend all the milk that goes in and out of there.

We got up early and drove home in 1 day. The driving went great. The kids were well behaved. It was truly a fantastic vacation! Thanks Clayt and Sheila for letting us come!