A Colorado Thanksgiving...

Matt, Owen, and I flew to Colorado for Thanksgiving this year. We met up with my mom, my three youngest siblings, and Lexie and her husband and we all stayed at our friends the Birds' house. My mom and Lynda Bird have been best friends for years, and all of the kids are right around the same age - we each had a buddy. When we were growing up, our families did everything together. It was so fun to go back and visit... I miss Colorado so much! We did TONS of stuff, so I'll just get right to the pictures... there are a lot!

Owen was SO excited to go on the plane. This is the first plane trip that he can remember.

Owen ended up not liking the take-off or landing... or really any part in between.  He closed the window so he didn't have to see the ground outside. He did like that they brought him free drinks and snacks, though.

Riding on the train at the Denver airport!

Waiting for the bus to our rental car... we hit almost every mode of transportation that day!

Sleepy boy in the car on the way to Longmont. We had to tie his head to the carseat. :)

We went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Owen got to dress up as an astronaut and sit in the cockpit of the spaceship!

Trying on some deer ears.

....and some moose antlers.

In the new health exhibit.... each person got their own card that you got to stick into each place in the exhibit and it recorded your results. This one told you how tall you were and how big your wingspan was.

They also had a wall of nails... kind of like the kids toy, but supersized. Each and every one of these faces and hands belong to Owen. Crazy kid. 

T-rex bones! Right after this we went into the room that had animatronic dinosaurs that roared, and that didn't go over so well. Owen was yelling "Get me out of here!" the whole time. We only stayed for about 30 seconds. :)

We went to Casa Bonita one day for lunch.... it's the worst Mexican food you'll ever have (really), but it's the coolest restaurant you'll ever see!

Waiting in line for our food.

Cute Lexie and Ryan.

The view from our seats... Casa Bonita has an indoor waterfall and pool. The whole thing is decorated like a Mexican town surrounded by jungle and caves. They have a cliff diver that does awesome dives off the water fall into the pool. That's what Owen is watching in this picture.

Two of the actors doing a gunfight.

Madeline, Kevin, Owen, and our cousin Maddy (who lives near Denver) exploring behind the waterfall.

Waterfall on the right, guy juggling fire on the left.

Matt watching the show from our table.

During one of the skits, this gorilla escapes and runs around the whole restaurant. It kind of freaked Owen out. :)

Exploring the restaurant... on weekends and nights this place fills up - they have hundreds of tables all set up in caves or Mexican houses or the jungle... pretty cool.

Another view of the restaurant.

Madeline and Owen being goofy while exploring.

More restaurant...

On our way out.

Maddy and Owen waiting for our tour of Hammond's Candy Factory in Denver.

Watching the cooks make candy canes.

Holding the samples they picked out after the tour.

We went to the town of Lyons (where my dad's office was in Colorado) and explored.

It's a tiny little town in the foothills of the mountains, but they've recently redone the whole downtown, so we went to visit. It took us about ten minutes to walk the entire thing, and that included a visit to the people in my dad's old office.

Owen jumping off his Thanksgiving dinner. :)

After Thanksgiving dinner we took a walk around McIntosh Lake behind the Birds' house. The two big mountains in the middle are Longs Peak and Meeker Peak. The two smaller ones on the right are the Twin Sisters. They are part of the Front Range, and are the mountains that I got to look at every day growing up. :) I miss them.

We visited Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder.

Can you see those tents in the background behind those lightposts? Yeah, that's the "Occupy Boulder" movement. There are about five tents. Bunch of hippies. I would have taken a closer picture, but I'm pretty sure the majority were smoking weed, and I didn't want to aggravate anyone. 

Playing in the coolest toystore! It had tons of old toys - ones that I used to play with growing up - plus whole sections dedicated to juggling, puppets, kites, build-your-own kits, and tons of other things. A bit overpriced, but it was fun to wander around in.

We saw Santa on Pearl Street! As you can see, Owen barely held it together. We decided he could write a letter to Santa to tell him what he wanted instead of having to talk to him. :)

At the Swiss Army knife store.

Owen loves Lexie and Ryan.

More Pearl Street.

Driving into Estes Park for their annual Christmas parade the day after Thanksgiving.

Estes is a beautiful town in a valley up in the mountains.

It is the home of the Stanley Hotel, which inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. Parts of the mini-series of The Shining were filmed here.

It was pretty cold and windy with clear skies when we got there, so we bundled up and found a spot to wait.

Waiting for the parade.

Calling grandma Farrell to wish her a happy birthday.

Ryan, Lexie, and my mom standing in a few flurries....

We started getting a little bit of snow, so Ryan decided to put on another coat.... this is my mom trying to zip up his coat backwards, so he can then put on another coat forwards. Yeah, I didn't get it either.

.....and just as the parade was starting, this happened. A huge wall of snow blew into town and blanketed everything in minutes. We all got soaked and were pretty darn cold, but it's our tradition to stay during the whole parade no matter what the weather, so stay we did! I had to put away the camera after this picture, though... it was too wet. :)

Driving back to the airport... love these plains and mountains. Those tall buildings in the distance are Denver.

The front range... I'll miss it.

The Denver Airport... the main building is covered by huge white tents that were built to look like the mountains.



Well, we had a great trip, and I was happy to be able to show Matt more of where I grew up. I miss Colorado already, and would definitely be happy to go back frequently. :) Thanks Birds for hosting us - we had a great time!