At the very beginning of June, I decided to head to Colorado Springs to spend a couple days with Nicia for her 30th, and then jump over to play with Jodi and the cousins for a few days. (Look at me getting all brave and traveling by myself! Naw - the truth is that the trip to Co Springs seems like cake now compared to driving to Utah.)
The drive from about Sante Fe all the way up to the NM/CO border was terrifying. As in, I'm not sure I have ever driven in such frightening weather. It was a torrential downpour. I know, rain may not be a scary as black ice and white outs - but it WAS a white out! With rain... I have no idea what the proper term for that would be. For the most part I was able to see the tail lights of the car in front of me. But there was one section when there was NO ONE in front of me and the rain was coming down so bad I could not see a single thing. I didn't know what to do. I pulled off to the side of the road for a moment, but realized that I couldn't sit there forever. Normally I love rain, and if I hadn't been driving in it, this would have been the storm of the century. But circumstances being what the were... holy cow guys. Pierscen said several prayers for the rain to stop, and each time it would at least ease up enough for us to move forward. There was lightning everywhere. There was one of those metal windmills up ahead of us by a little ways and as we drew closer, I saw lightning connect with it. Sparks went flying everywhere. It was one of the coolest and most scary things I have ever witnessed. Lots of praying "please don't hit the car, please don't hit the car, please don't hit the car." Keep in mind that most of the drive in any direction is pretty spare. There is no where to stop for safety. So all I could do was keep going.
The rain stopped literally was we crossed the border. It started up again once we hit Co Springs, but it was nothing compared to what I drove through before.
When I got Pierscen out of the car we discovered something which I can't explain. Pierscen had placed his gum on his forehead for "safe keeping" and it had somehow gotten stuck in his hair.
Huh.
I'm grateful Nicia had peanut butter on hand so I could work it out! Yes, it really works. Don't cut your kids hair!
Our first outing with Nicia and family was to Focus on the Family. It is a Christian based group that has a fun kids show on tv and does a lot to help keep kids pointed in the right direction. I had heard about it on a previous visit, but neither of us had been. When you arrive, the upstairs looks like a normal museum of sorts. But downstairs in a whole wonder land of amazing rooms to explore and play in. It was really neat. And it's FREE!
This plane was really neat. When you get inside you can check out the cockpit, and there are some historic articles and pictures on the way toward the back. If you walk all the way to the back, it pops you out into a totally different area. Very cool, but kind of scary trying to keep track of kids. :)
We had a really great time. I would definitely go back. On the way home we stopped by Once Upon a Child. Yay!!! I love this place!!! I have very much missed this store. It used to exist in Albuquerque, but no longer does. Not sure why. Bonus - almost everything was 1/2 off. Yes!!! On average I think I spent about 1.75 per item. Many of them were .75 a piece. It was fantastic.
The next morning we decided to resurrect a long standing tradition of breakfast at IHOP for the birthday girl. For years, Nicia and I would kidnap the other early in the morning and head to breakfast. We love this tradition! And we ended up getting a bunch of extra food for free because the messed up our order. It was kind of awesome. Haha.
So glad we are introducing the kiddos to this fun! They will thank us someday, I am sure of it.
Once we were fed and cleaned up, we went for a hike. One of Nicia's friends let us borrow her backpack, which made carrying Devry much nicer. I did bring one of my baby carrier things, but the framed ones are lots nicer.
It was a great hike and the kids were troopers.
I had to include this picture of Devry because Nicia was super excited to do her hair. How she managed to do french braids is beyond me, but it's super cute!
That night Joe was a total saint and watched all the kids, including one of Nicia's friend's kids so that all the girls could go out to eat and celebrate some of the June birthdays they were having in the ward. Nicia has some seriously funny, awesome friends. I was crying I was laughing so hard through most of that dinner. Especially the stories told by the RS Pres! (Her own stories - not about anyone else, just to clarify). It was a really fun evening and I am so SO happy that Nicia has such a great support system and such fantastic friends.
The next morning I gave Nicia her birthday gift which included a huge bag of her favorite candies, Reisins, (I think they are nasty), a bottle of Martinelli, a gift card, and a list of 30 reasons I love her/favorite memories. As she read the list, it sparked other memories which we laughed and cried about. Then it was time to pack up and head to Jodi's. Her actual birthday was the next day, and I would have stayed for that, but I talked to Joe before I came up and learned that her friends had quite the party planned (including kidnapping her and taking her to a hotel for the night). I was invited to participate, and I know her friends would have been okay with it, but I didn't want to make Jodi watch my kids overnight and really just wanted them to do whatever they had planned without worrying about accommodating me. (By the way, she had an amazing time. Everything was perfect.) Love you Nicia! Thanks for being my BFF for 18 years!
Jodi and the kids had just recently gotten a kitten. P and Devry were so excited to meet it! Devry especially is a major cat lover.
Once we got settled and the kids away from the kitty, we headed to a park for lunch and to play.
Then back home to play with the cat. Okay, we all loved the cat, because apparently I have a ton of pictures with her! Ha!
The kids played outside in the water, the dried off on the tramp. Perfect summer activity in my book.
This picture is of Devry pointing at an owl in the kitchen. She was absolutely fascinated with it and said, "Whooooooo!" every time she saw it.
More outside time...
The next day we went swimming at one of the YMCA pools.
Though he could have used a puddle jumper that the pool had, he opted for this one piece hand-me-down from Jodi. It was definitely too small and really showed off his adorable little bum, but he was determined to wear it.
It was such a great couple of days with the cousins. That night as I was washing the kids, I broke the news that we would have to head home in the morning. You can see how well that went over. Cousin time is the best. I'm glad we live close enough to have this kind of trip be doable. While we lived in Casper, we saw Ryan and Jodi the least out of anyone. But now that I we live in ABQ, I think we may see them the most.
Snapped a picture of these cuties to let Ry know we were heading home. It was a really great trip, and thankfully the weather was much better on the way home.
And here's a few pictures of the grass and garden process. (Random ending, but what can you do?) All the plants had doubled to tripled their size since we planted them. We are so grateful to be able to plant a garden!
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