Cousin fun!

My sister Lara, her husband Josh, and their kids Ben, Grace and Emma kindly made the long drive from Minnesota to Colorado to spend some time with us. So.Much.Fun! A breakdown of the week:

Sunday: They arrived on Lucas' birthday; we had a grilled pizza party and smoothies (Lucas' request), and our brothers, sister in law and nephew joined us. Fun to hang out with 4 of the 5 siblings (missed you Kristina!) and let the cousins get re-aquainted; they hadn't seen each other in a year and a half. It didn't take long, and they were inseparable the rest of the time. That evening, Lara, our brother JJ and I went on a huge walk; it was a perfect and wonderful evening.

Monday: Lara and the kids came to SOS with us as we collected items for a women and children's shelter and practiced our patriotic songs to sing to seniors later this month. That afternoon, we headed to Boulder to see JJ and walk the Pearl Street Mall. Lara and Josh had their first sushi experience, and it was a hit! Yum, good stuff. The kids loved this park on the walk from JJ's place to Pearl Street:

Tuesday: we spent the day at Lily Lake and Estes Park. We hiked around the lake, despite ongoing tantrums from Mason, who wants to spend all of his time throwing rocks in water whenever possible. Lovely. Aside from that, it was a perfect day, despite the rapidly growing fire west of Ft. Collins. We saw the smoke, but couldn't smell it at all, thank goodness. We went into town for lunch and shopping.

 

Wednesday: Lara and I did some shopping in the morning, and mid-day we took the kids to a spray park. That afternoon, Lara and company headed down to Denver to spend some time with our brother Nate, who gave them their first Cafe Rio experience. My crew stayed at home, since Nate and Alli's apartment complex has strict guest rules at the pool and we didn't want to risk it.

Thursday: we packed a picnic and spent a couple of hours at the fabulous Fairgrounds park in Loveland, which has a fabulous spray park, playground, ginormous covered pavillions and sandbox, and a spot to play it along the Big Thompson River. Later in the afternoon, Josh, Emma, Ben, Connor and Lucas went go-karting, while Lara, Grace, Isabel, Mason and I hit the shops around Loveland, shopping for hours, and watching Grace get her ears pierced! I had to live vicariously, for Isabel has such body/pain concerns that I think she might never get hers pierced. She looked rather pale just watching Grace, who was a trooper and handled it like a champ. Isabel now insists she wants hers pierced for her 7th birthday, but when October rolls around I don't think she'll be willing to walk the walk. We'll see.

Friday: we went to Dinosaur Ridge, which was one of the favorite outings among the kids. We saw a huge bull snake, saw the dinosaur footprints, enjoyed the gorgeous views, played paleontologists in the sandbox, and more. Then we headed up to Georgetown with Nate, Alli and Aidan. It was much cooler up there, and I had forgotten the kids' sweatshirts. Good thing I had a bag of clothes in my van waiting to be consigned, and the kids had to don those. At least it kept them warm until the sun came out and warmed us up. I won't complain, though. It's been such a stinkin' hot June, that the cool temps felt wonderful. We had a picnic in the lovely gazebo in the center of town, played at the awesome park, walked around town, had a cupcake at the cutest little shop, Cake, and then ice cream cones (it was splurge day!).

Saturday: Lara and crew left in the wee hours of the morning, and my kids were devastated. It's so fun to watch the cousin bonds grow stronger as the kids get older. We had a great week, with plenty of down time and playing and hanging out too. Good thing we will all be together again soon! Here was the evening before hugfest, bad pics but good memories.