Colorado Trip

We took a quick trip to Colorado in the middle of August. We flew out on a Friday afternoon.

The Phillips picked us up since we were going to be staying with them for the first part of the trip. Roger's parents moved to Arvada which is about 45 minutes away from Aurora where my parents live, so that makes our trips to Colorado a little less convenient. We loved when our parents both lived in the same ward a couple blocks away from each other. We had 3 tired kids on the drive to Arvada.

Saturday morning we got up and met my family in Denver for breakfast. Jared and Cailey were in Colorado, but were leaving Sunday morning and were busy most of Saturday with Cailey's family, so this was the only time we were going to be able to get the whole Ririe family together. We ended up eating at Einstein Bagels since the place we were planning on had too long of a wait. 

The 3 girl Ririe cousins.

After breakfast the Hobbs invited us to go to the aquarium with them. They have passes and were able to get most of us in for free. We had been to this aquarium before, but it was when Corbyn was barely a year old and I was pregnant with Peyton, so it had been awhile. We got to see the mermaid show which was new to us.

Rog put Logan in the splash zone for the flash flood and he was a little bit terrified!

I find it a little random that they have a tiger at this aquarium, but it is fun to see.

These three are good buddies. This just warms my heart.

The Hobbs' passes include a temporary tattoo, so the kids got to have that done. Logan got a dinosaur to match his shirt.

Peyton picked a butterfly.

And these boys got matching skeletons.

We spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday with the Phillips. On Sunday we had dinner at Rex and Edda's new house. Corbyn was happy to sit and watch Sam play something on his Kindle Fire.

Peyton was the odd one out with none of the girl cousins around, but she usually does fine playing with the boys. And Logan kind of played with Cooper (Rex and Edda's youngest).

After dinner we went to my parent's house and stayed there the rest of our trip.

Monday morning Rog flew back to Portland and got there just in time for the eclipse. He saw about a 99% eclipse although he was riding MAX home at the time, so he didn't quite get the full experience.

It was pretty ironic that many people planned trips to Oregon just for the eclipse and we accidentally planned to be in Colorado for it. We saw about a 92% eclipse which was still pretty cool.

Rog had gotten two eclipse glasses from work, so we kept one in Colorado and he took one home with him to Portland.

We had to take turns viewing, but were just glad we got to see it at all!

I had started this puzzle when we were in Colorado for Christmas and I was determined to finish it while we were there this trip.

Monday night we went to dinner at the Denver Biscuit Company with my parents and the Hobbs. We were extremely disappointed that they were out of biscuit cinnamon rolls for the day since that is what they are famous for.

Right by the Denver Biscuit Company is Sweet Cow, an ice cream place they like, so we picked up a couple pints of ice cream there to try when we got home. The kids all had fun playing on these cows.

Even cute little Grey!

On Tuesday we picked up lunch to go from Wholly Cannoli. They forgot my sandwich, so they gave the kids a cookie to enjoy while they made it for me.

We had Peyton and Skyler wear their matching outfits from grandma, so we could get a picture.

Blake had already gone back to school, so on Monday and Tuesday we left Corbyn with Diana and took Skyler with us when we took Logan back to grandma's house for his nap. That way the girls got to play and Corbyn got to play with Blake as soon as he got home from school. 

We tried to cram in a little too much Tuesday afternoon and things got a little crazy. Diana was teaching a yoga class at 5:30 that I wanted to go to, but we wanted to go swimming before that. The pool didn't open until 4:00, so my mom and I took Peyton, Logan, and Skyler there right when it opened. Diana was supposed to be bringing the boys and Skyler's swimming suit, but she was running a little bit late. Grey wasn't feeling too well that day, so she was waiting for Jason to come home to stay with him.

The boys and Skyler were only in the pool for a couple minutes when there was some lightning and we all had to get out. By then it was almost time for me and Diana to go to yoga, so we dropped all the kids off at grandma's house and headed to the class. My dad was working in the temple that afternoon (my mom had gotten a sub), so my mom had all 5 of the older kids by herself while me and Diana were at the class.

After we got home and things settled down a bit, we went back over to the Hobbs for an ice cream party for Grey's birthday. We all got to enjoy the ice cream, but since the birthday boy was sick, they waited to do his smash cake. We were sad that we missed it! Diana had dipped waffle cones and made a few really good flavors of ice cream and purchased a few others, so we all ended up eating more ice cream than we really needed.

We had to get a picture of the boys in their matching shirts from grandma too.

The next morning Grey was feeling a little bit better, so Logan helped him try out this new double stroller he got for his birthday.

I had made sure I finished my flag quilt before going to Colorado, so Dixie could quilt it for me while I was there.

She brought it over Wednesday afternoon before we had to leave to catch our flight home. We took a picture of my quilt and Dixie's quilt side by side. It's fun to see how two quilts made using the same tutorial can turn out differently. That's the beauty of quilting - it allows your personality to shine through in your creations!

I was in charge of a Relief Society activity Thursday night and then had Hood to Coast Friday and Saturday, so we flew out Wednesday afternoon. Diana had borrowed our Wizard of Oz Halloween costumes and we had been slowly bringing different pieces of them home each time we visited. This time Corbyn wore Rog's scarecrow hat home and he was cracking me up every time I looked over there and saw him in it. He was brave and sat by himself across the aisle, so I could sit by Logan and Peyton.

I love this view of Mt. Hood and all the beautiful greenery surrounding it when we fly into Portland on a clear day.

It was a quick trip, but we packed in a lot. It's always nice to visit family if only for a few days.