Grand Junction

We were having such a great time with the Bradleys over our Christmas break that we decided to pack up the car and travel 4 hours to Grand Junction to see even more Bradleys.

This picture shows Grandpa Bradley with his youngest "sons." Brian is Grandpa Bradley's youngest son, Michael is his youngest grandson, and Sawyer is his youngest great grandson (we'll see how long he gets to hold that title!) I don't know who realized this, but it's pretty impressive.

Lots of great things happened when we visited Grand Junction. Avery and Michael bonded over the I-pad

Uncle Brian secured a place of adoration in each of my kid's hearts .

We spent time with Kyle's sister Rachel and her husband Tim. With their help a new game called "spin ball" was created.

Rufus made incredible catches with the frisbee.

Avery smelt a recently burned candle and got soot all over her nose,

and a nice ring around her mouth. :)

And we visited the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, Colorado.

Avery tried her hand at paleontology.

Sawyer was on the hunt for fossils.

And Kyle's dad was mesmerized by the crushed walnut shells used in place of sand.

Austin, Kyle's mom, Rachel, and Tim kept a safe distance from that stuff (which was a good choice, Avery's diaper had a goodly portion of little walnut pieces in it.)

We made dinosaur tracks.

I comforted Avery about the dinosaur animatronic that would shoot water out of its mouth at the viewer. We still talk about the "spitting dinosaur" on a daily basis.

Fortunately there was a great water table to distract the kids,

but we quickly called it a day when Avery kept trying to drink the water.

Not too bad of a museum for a town with less than 13,000 people living in it!

Batman and Superman

While we were visiting Kyle's parents, we found these little treasures.

Apparently Kyle and his older brother Sean used to wear them and have epic battles.

And now my kids wear them and have epic battles.

And that is the definition of the "circle of life" folks.

Giraffes

We went to the Zoo and that was great.

But the greatest part were these giraffes.

Now many of you might not know much about giraffes. I was a part of this group until very recently.

First thing I learned, giraffes make funny faces.

Second thing, giraffes have fancy things they can do with their fancy tongues.

Third thing, when you see these fancy tongues you think Wow! Those tongues are pretty long.

But friend, that is just the tip of their tongue. Those tongues can be twisted into every direction, especially the "out of their mouth" direction.

They are so long that Sawyer nearly lost his forearm to one of them.

And when you get two tongues going, that's where the magic really happens!

Which is evident from the strings attached to both of Sawyer's hands. 

But even with those crazy tongues, Kyle fed the giraffes from a safe distance.

Avery fed them while exposing her own tongue.

I fed them (even though they tried the "up the sleeve" trick.)

And Sawyer fed them . The "twist and tug" of the tongue was surprising!

Which is probably why Sawyer had second thoughts about feeding the giraffes,

and decided to just feed himself.

So long, you long tongues!

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

We went to the zoo after Christmas and I l-o-v-e-d it. I miss my Indianapolis Zoo something terrible.

Although, it was an arctic tundra there.

But if the African lions could brave the freezing, so could we!

And we did! Avery and Sawyer enjoyed the elephants.

 

Sawyer was adopted as a bear cub for the day.

We loved on the meerkats.

Watched the otters be darling.

Saw some kind of big pawed bobcat (seriously, those feet are HUGE compared to its body!)

 

And made friends with a gorilla (who refused to flip us off.)

And when the animals weren't being interesting, Avery made sure she was.

 She can just hang indefinitely from poles like this.

 She just kicks her legs,

and shouts, "Avery SO strong!"

She was especially entertaining when she came barreling around a corner trying to tackle this skunk. Unbeknownst to me, a zoo keeper let the skunk out and said it was fine for her to chase it. But you better believe my heart went berserk at the prospect of my daughter getting sprayed by that little critter.

Shoulders were used as the main transport for our children.

Oh...Kyle's beloved Broncos sweatshirt...I think he is still hurting from the Superbowl...

Although there was an occasional stroller ride,

or lone walk,

or the sobbing carry,

or the "not so" sobbing carry.

And that is how we enjoyed the Cheyenne Mountain zoo in December!

Christmas Morning

We celebrated another Christmas morning at the Bradleys and it was perfect. It had all the elements you could wish for.

Time with family,

small children (they make Christmas magical,)

a bleary eyed husband,

presents to open,

and gifts to fall in love with.

I love his astonished face with this truck

She ADORES Curious George.

A highlight of the morning were these amazing hats Kyle's Mom crocheted.

Monkey Avery

Penguin Sawyer

We have a good life! :)

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

It's expected/anticipated/tradition for us to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science when we visit Colorado.

The expected part is to have a blast.

The anticipated part is riding the fancy escalator that allows you to see inside of it.

And the traditional part is trying on the mule deer ears.

Unless you are feeling grouchy, then you can be a sulking turtle for a little bit.

But that's not all the museum has to offer.

There are lots of things to point at.

There is a fossil lady that will not only let your kids maul her display, but will smile about it (even though she was packing up shop right before we got there.)

There are happy visitors.

There are windows to look out.

There are railings to scale over when your Dad isn't paying attention.

There are places where you can pretend to talk on your phone.

There are puzzle blocks to solve,

and fall through.

And, most importantly there are dinosaurs!

But hey, if that's not your thing, there is an awesome Myth Busters exhibit.

We found out if we get wetter walking or running through the rain.

Here's the walkers:

And the runners:

You can be the judge of who looks wetter.

We saw someone throw a playing card into a dart board.

Kyle saw how fast he could dodge a bullet.

Which was faster than me.

But was slower than Sawyer. I think Sawyer suffered some whiplash from this...parent fail.

And if one kid looks cute on a swing supported by telephone books,

than two kids just about does you in.

Austin amazed us with his tablecloth skills.

Kyle saw how long he could hang from a ledge.

So the Denver Museum of Nature and Science is all around good family fun.

Well...all around good family (plus Austin) fun. :)

December

December was chilly enough at times to warrant coats and hats inside the house

I gave away this beautiful creation at a White Elephant gift exchange (thank you "Curious George Rides a Bike" for teaching me how to make this.

We had a blast making Christmas goodies.

Avery for the first time, eating her cereal with milk in it.

And we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary! We watched Hunger Games, (because I have a mild crush on Jennifer Lawrence....well more like mild-moderate...it's not weird...I just want to be her...so yeah...mild-moderate sounds about right) wore new socks, (you seriously can never have too many socks) and put together a new puzzle.

And to cap off the month, Sawyer had FINALLY started sleeping routinely through the night. I can count on my two hands how many nights Sawyer had done this in his first 14 months of life. Words cannot express how grateful I am to not have to hear him cry from 2-4 AM every night. :)

Oh and Sawyer now drinks his milk with the spout upside down 50% of the time. :) It's the cool thing to do.