At home vacation!

Wow! it's been a crazy, fun, and busy week.  Doug took this week off as our family vacation.  We decided to not drive anywhere and just do a lot of the things around here that we have been wanting to do.  My parents wanted to come and visit us during the summer and we invited them to come during this time, to have some fun with us and also to join in the adult supervision.

Monday we started the week with a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  I had taken the kids a month ago, but the kid zone is always fun and it was less crowded this time.   We also had more time for the Space area and we looked at the dinosaurs again.  We also went up on the roof and saw a great view of the Denver area.   

 They had a Maya display going on, Damon makes a great stone face.

After the museum Doug and I stayed in town while my parents drove the kids home for quiet time.  Doug and I took a tour of the Pepsi Center.  It was pretty interesting seeing the visitor's locker room, the practice gym, weight room, 3 restaurants, and a court suite.  The tour lasted 2 hours and after walking around the museum all morning we were tired of being on our feet. 

 We drove back to the museum to watch an IMAX film on lemurs. We missed the one on Jerusalem.   Then we decided to have dinner closer to home and went to the HuHot at 144th street.  Doug and I had never eaten there, so that was a fun experience.

 We made it back home a little after 8:00, the kids were mostly in bed and we just kissed them good night.  It was a great afternoon and evening to spend together.  It also ended up being our anniversary date - since on the 9th would be our 13th anniversary.

Tuesday Grandma and Grandpa watched Chris and the girls while Doug and I took Damon and Tyler to Boondocks.  It was so much fun to actually enjoy those types of activities instead of just baby-sitting while the older kids played.

While we were gone the younger kids played and went to the park.

 We started out on the go-karts at Boondocks.  We kind of made Damon try it.  He really didn't want to do it.  He was crying and mad at us afterwards for making him do it.  But then we played laser tag and he felt better.  We played a bunch of arcades and a game of bowling.  We stopped for lunch and got the boys some hamburgers and fries and McDonald's.  It was tasty Tuesday at Cafe Rio, so Doug and I ate there ($5 for the burrito and salad, yum).  We had a lot of fun and stayed quite awhile.  It takes longer than you think to do all of the activities because of all the waiting in lines.

We got home around 3:30 and got an easy dinner ready, pasta and some left-over grilled chicken.  Mom and I went to Relief Society in the evening.  It was called 'Swap 'til you Drop,' I brought some clothes and toys that we didn't need and swapped them for some new things.  I got some clothes for the girls and some clothes for me.  It was a lot of fun.  My mom even found some things for her.

Wednesday we went to the splash park in Loveland. It is a nice park but very big.  I haven't dared take all the kids by myself.  I was glad for the extra help from Doug and my parents.  There is a canal that runs right by the park, so I feel like I have to keep a closer eye on everyone.

 The kids loved the covered sand area.

Tyler liked to climb around on the playground. 

 My mom and I stayed in Loveland and shopped for a bit.  We found some deals at Carter's, mostly clearance for the girls for next summer, also some pants for Chris and winter pj's for the girls.

After dinner we all went on a bike ride.  We borrowed a bike for my mom so that we all could go.

 We like to play restaurant - the girls served up lots of ice cream.

 Jenna climbed a new section on this trip.  Tyler was good to help at the top.

Thursday we were going to go on a hike, but I felt like staying closer to home.  Also my brother was in town for work and he joined us for the day.  So Doug and my brother went golfing in the morning.  

The rest of us went to the park and went geo-caching.  This was actually an activity for our Hogwarts summer school.  It was a lot of fun.  I downloaded an app and found that there were some caches right at our nearby park.  So we followed the dot and looked around and found two caches and added our names to the log.  They boys had fun on this real life treasure hunt.

I found a baby-sitter for lunch so that my parents, my brother and Doug and I could all go to lunch.  We went to the local Thai place.  It was nice to sit down and visit and enjoy some good food.  I liked my dish but it was a bit spicy for me. 

Then my parents had to go back to the airport and Doug and Marcus went into Denver to spend some time together (bowling and dinner) before going to a pre-season Broncos game. They had a lightening delay which was frustrating, but they had a good time.  My brother is a die-hard Broncos fan so he was really excited to go to a game even though it was pre-season. 

Friday we took a day off and just chilled at home.  I was getting tired from all of our fun.  We did go swimming after dinner.  This was the first time we had taken the girls to a rec center swimming place.  I just can't take all of the kids by myself so we have to wait and go when Doug is around.  They cried at first, but got better as they got used to it.  Jenna was a bit more nervous and wanted Doug more.  Damon and Tyler went down the slide for the first time this trip.  They really liked it, so that was fun.  The girls went down the little slide in the kiddie area and they liked that.

Saturday we did our normal cleaning and I ran errands in town.  Doug and I were going to go on a date for our anniversary, but we felt like our previous date and all of the fun things we had done during the week were enough for us.  We did watch a movie in the evening with some ice cream.

Whew! what a fun and busy week.  Thanks mom and dad for coming out and making some fun memories with us.  Now we just have one more week until school starts!