Last night we dropped the kids off at the rec center for date night. We all love using their babysitting. The kids get to play on the indoor playground, have pizza and a snack for dinner, watch a Disney movie, play in the bouncy castle, and get changed into jammies, ready for bed. Meanwhile Ben and I have four hours of conversation and quiet fun.
We had reservations at "the range" (lower case) in the Renaissance hotel. It used to be a large bank and they've made some fun renovations to the building, complete with enormous Native American murals and random vault doors with hand wheels and bolts. The furniture looked like it was selected by Tom Haverford. :-)
Dinner was delicious, we enjoyed the Restaurant Week 5280 menu. But I admit I had more fun wandering around beforehand.
It was freezing but we warmed up with hot chocolate and found an amazing tea shop! It's hard to find loose leaf herbal tea, but this place had an amazing selection of herbals and roobis.
Neither parents not kids wanted the night to be over :-)
Last weekend was extra long because Jack had a day off school. The weather looked good so I packed up the boys and took them to visit my parents in Grand Junction for Valentine's Day. It was a fun packed weekend, as usual. Lots of playing, lots of food, lots of attention for both of them.
I have more pictures on my photostream, but here are some highlights.
As soon as we arrived the boys ran a muck in their office. Their new space has a great kid waiting area. They also loved watching and feeding the fish.
That night and many other afternoons they played in the neighborhood playground. Sam is far to adventurous for my liking. Jack likes to play "Prison" with Grandpa. Sam laughed his head off when we played "Surprise Kick in the Backside" on the swings.
While the folks were at work on Friday a neighbor kid came over to play. I found Andy's old Ninja Turtles in the basement and they were fascinated.
The boys are really good at messing up a house in no time at all. Some of their favorite activities are:
Two hour long meals in front of the big TV.
Banging on the piano:
And fighting over a some obscure toy when there are literally hundreds of other toys around them. (In this case, a plain black rod that must be part of a frame to something larger)
They also took the chaos outside for tower building and chalk drawing.
On Valentine's Day they each got an obscene amount of candy. These boys don't mess around when it comes to enjoying a cupcake either.
Jack did the Lowes Build and Grow project with my dad while Sam and I and mom shopped for fabric for the musical. Then we went downtown for my birthday present - a bike and kid trailer! I was wondering if that might be a fun and easy way to get my kids around to schools and playgrounds once the weather is warmer. I HATE car seats, and while strollers are nice, Jack doesn't have much endurance for walking and there isn't much storage space on them. We went to Brown's Cycling to try some bikes with a trailer and it's actually so fun! We found a comfort style bike that's more upright and cushy (I hate traditional biking posture) and they had a used trailer on sale that we hooked up. The boys' faces melted into smiles when we pulled them around. It was surprisingly effortless too! Mom said the bike order is ready today and they will drive it up to me when they come out for the musical. I'm so excited to use it!
I had planned to return to Denver Monday, but there was a bad snow storm in the mountains and holiday skiing traffic to fight with. So we stayed until Tuesday, when we had an easy drive home. Jack was sad to miss a day of school, but by the end of the day was thrilled about everything we did on this "bonus day."
Bookstore trip with me to buy a couple new books
Dinosaur museum in Fruita
Lunch at Mickel Donnulls
Paddington movie with Grandpa
Cook orange marmalade with Grandpa
Fly a kite in the front yard
It was a wonderful weekend. Thanks Mom and Dad for all your help and love to the kids.
In case you wondered how the next couple days fared - was up all night Wednesday with Jack retching and having explosive diarrhea. Thursday was better, then Sam tangled my knitting and cracked my ipad while I was preparing dinner (a yummy variation of this). So, not great.
Can't wait for this week to be over. Hooray for Friday!
I snapped these precious moments for you all this morning.
What a week. Things keep falling apart. I keep telling myself that it could be much much worse, and that keeps me sane.
Bad thing
During our movie date Saturday Jack started vomiting. Continued through night. Good thing
He woke up completely fine, no one else caught whatever he had. Bad thing
The heat broke Monday. Good thing
It was a simple fix that only cost a service charge. Bad thing
I lost my wallet Monday. Good thing
The grocery store found it and called me to pick it up.
Bad thing
The van in front of me suddenly braked and turned. I slid in the snow and crashed. Cracked my bumper. Good thing
Very nice gentlemen, no damage to their car. Very minor, slow moving accident on almost empty street. No injury to me or Sam. My car still works.
So I think I've had my fill of bad luck for February. Bring on Valentine's and my birthday and happy times, please!
