Well, it happened. It took some finagling, but working together we all made it come together... Nash, Alyssa, Raegin and Lyrik - our cousins from Titusville - finally made it out to visit!! Raegin and her son, Lyrik (same age as Van) came to stay with us, and Nash & Alyssa stayed with Kurt & Lindsay. They all arrived at various times on Saturday before July 4th.
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| hiking at Chautauqua |
On Saturday afternoon the boys and I took Raegin and Lyrik to Boulder to check out Chautauqua and Pearl Street. We started out at Chautauqua, hiking up Bluebell-Mesa trail. It was a bit of work getting up to the peak but once we did the boys got to show our guests how to build cairns! After a good hike we needed to refuel, so we went to a Boulder staple: The Med. The boys each had what turned out to be giant pizzas, while Raegin and I enjoyed some sangria with our fabulous meals. From here we ventured up to Pearl to check out the sights. The boys each found a super cool hat at the cart by the courthouse, awesome toys at Into The Wind and ice cream samples at HaagenDas. We caught some interesting street shows and the boys got to climb on more rocks at the play spaces along the mall (what else do boys love more than climbing on rocks?!)
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| exploring Pearl Street Mall |
The next day Nash and Lyssa were here and we all went to Water World! We hung out at the wave pool, floated around a lazy river, journeyed to the center of the earth with dinosaurs and zoomed by mummies in a giant inner tube - and that was all before lunch! (pics below) Both Van and Lyrik were brave enough to try The Wave - a big, fast wave that you try to boogie board across. They did a great job! Both mommas were very proud.
Monday was the 4th of July and the Weagraffs were hosting a big shindig at their house, complete with fireworks over the lake. But before that went down we had the day to go explore a bit more of Colorado with our cousins. Kurt & Linds, Nash & Lyssa drove up with us to the Wild Basin entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Our goal was Calypso Cascades - an amazing water fall about 1.8 miles up (but given that we parked a mile from the trail head we did a 5+ mile day). It was hot and dusty, but totally fun for everyone with lots of smaller falls along the way!
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| Rocky Mountain National Park, Calypso Cascades |
Kaity and Abe threw a great 4th of July bash! They smoked & grilled wings (wow - they were the best!), dogs, and had tons of great food. The corn hole game never saw a break and there were lots of explosions - big and little - throughout the night. By just 11:00 the boys were absolutely done - Van was found passed out in the living room (that
never happens!) - so we figured it was time to call it a night. It was an absolutely killer 4th!
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| Water World & July 4th |
The boys decided Lyrik really needed to experience the Denver Zoo on his visit, and he agreed telling us how much he loved zoos, so that's what we did on his and Raegin's last day. The Denver Zoo's pretty big, and we didn't make it through the entire thing but we did quite a bit! We saw the elephant show, the reptile house, fed the giraffes, saw the rhino and tapirs, and watched the baby sea lions swim with their daddy. I'm pretty sure Lyr's favorite part was either the elephant show or the flamingos along the train ride. Both were pretty cool.
On their last night we had a pretty spectacular night planned. We'd gotten (a sitter for the little guys and) tickets to Flight of the Conchords at Red Rocks, and reserved a party bus to get us there and back in style! The bus ended up being a little late to the Longmont pick up but we got there in time to see the main show. It was a beautiful summer night - perfect for a night out at Red Rocks. Our faces hurt from laughing so much - Bret and Jemaine are hilarious! - and the bus ride was nothing but laughs. It was a perfect night to say goodbye to Colorado on for Raegin. Nash and Alyssa would stay another few days and do some back country camping with Kurt.
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| Red Rocks |
We all felt so blessed to have our family come so far to visit us, and really tried to show them all our favorite bits and parts of our corner of Colorado. There is LOTS more to see and we'll work on the list the next time they come.
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