Our Denver Trip

The last week of September our family took a road trip to Denver. Michael needed to go for work. He is changing careers and teaching seminars instead of hiding in the basement on the computer. The kids and I played. We didn't see much of Michael except in the evenings, so most of our pictures are of what we did while he was busy all day.
One of the places we visited was the Children's Museum of Denver.  http://www.cmdenver.org  The kids had so much fun. The exhibits are best described as interactive playscapes. It was amazing to see each different area and the many adventures my kids could have as they played with everything.
At the Museum, Emily loved the Market area where she could push her own shopping cart around the room and fill it with a variety of plastic food. She also loved the Assembly Plant where she could use real tools to construct items out of recycled materials. The basketball court, and magnetic board with tons of letters, words, and picture magnets to line up also kept her attention. Miriam loved the Market and Assembly Plant too. While Emily was busy elsewhere, Miriam put on a smock and painted two huge pictures with acrylic paints. We had to wait for them to dry, but it felt like no time at all because there were plenty of things to see and do. Miriam also enjoyed climbing up on the real fire engine. Adam really loved the train room. There were hundreds of track pieces and train cars to assemble and rearrange.  Adam also liked the Market, and had fun pretending to be a veterinarian. It took a while, but we finally convinced Adam to climb up into the fire engine. Once there, we couldn't drag him out. Joshua loved doing what everyone else was doing. He pushed shopping carts, he lined up letters, he threw basketballs, and stole Adam's trains. He had a lot of fun and we wore him out. It was a really good thing Grandma Griffith went with us. In fact, she came with us on all of our adventures all week. I am so grateful for her help with my 5 small kids!

Another fun place we saw was the Littleton Historical Museum  

http://www.littletongov.org/museum/default.asp  At the Historical Museum, we toured an 1860's farm, and an 1890's farm.  The kids saw farm animals (horses, cow, pigs, sheep, chickens), houses of each time period, one-room school house, blacksmith's shop, and gardens.  They couldn't find bathrooms in the houses, and were shocked people used to use outhouses.  The kids didn't like the geese that roamed free, but loved the animals behind fences.  In fact, the kids loved it so much, we spent 2 mornings there.  They wanted to go back.

One afternoon, Irene (Grandma Griffith) and I took the kids to a park.  Next to the park is a small creek with lots and lots of sand brought in for a nice bank.  It reminded meof the day we roasted hotdogs in the mountains when my 4 oldest kids ran towards the water and started throwing handfulls of sand into the water.  I guess they couldn't find any large rocks.
Of course, the kids loved playing with their Griffith, Cook, and Farmer cousins.  We kept busy all week and it was a nice break from the normal routine.  



See more of our fun pictures on the slideshow:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I shouldn't put this in, but mothers of little boys might get a big laugh.  The night before we were coming home, Michael and I were busy talking to Michael's parents.  The kids were all playing nicely - or so we thought.  Evidently, the last girl to have a bath didn't let all the water out of the tub.  My little boys climbed in the tub - clothes and all -  and took the toilet brush in with them.  The thought is still so discusting!  So we got them out of the tub, and out of their wet clothes (Joshua's diaper soaked up about 40 lb. of water), and Grandma cleaned the tub while I kept the boys from running away.  (she also got the picture)  When she was done cleaning, I bent down to rinse out the last of the bubbles, and start the real bath water.  While I wasn't looking - you guessed it! - Joshua peed on my socks!