We made it back to Denver with just enough time to get some dinner and get the kids’ costumes on before heading over to “trick or treat street” in Olde Town Arvada.
It was super crowded with kids and parents roaming the streets and going into all the stores for their piece of candy.

He had a lot of fun with Mark getting candy in his pumpkin basket. Though I think he was a little overwhelmed at times.

Kaia slept almost the whole time. I was a little bummed that her costume was covered up, but once she did wake up I got her out of her seat and people thought she looked so cute. And little.

People kept commenting on Britton’s kangaroo costume. They thought it was super cute.
It was really fun having a place to go and get to see more of the businesses they have there. I love the Olde Town section. Golden, which is about 15 minutes away has a good one too.
Anyway, it was fun seeing Brit enjoy jumping like a kangaroo and have a good time…
More festivities tomorrow.

The next weekend we were back in Orange County. We were invited by Greg’s brother to go to “Pumpkin City” with his family.

A little less “farm” a lot more “activity”

Brit and Chez have pumpkin face!

Piles o’ pumpkins

Aren’t we cute?

Ride ‘em cowboy

As I was standing in line to buy a ticket for the boats, a guy gave me a bunch of them his family wasn’t going to use. Yay! I love free. Brit had a fun time driving the boats…for about the first few minutes. Then as it dragged on for at least 5-6 he started to look a little sick. Up and down, round and round not too good.

And he got to ride the train. He’s loving them at the moment, so I think this was the highlight of his time there. Couldn’t really have cared less about the pumpkins. Except for the Jack o’ Lantern balloon we had to have at the end.

It was interesting going to both kinds this year. I’m not sure which is better. This one was more “exciting” for sure. But I like the simpleness of the farm too. I guess we’re lucky we could enjoy both!

A couple of weeks ago we were home and got to go to Rock Creek Farm about 20 miles away in Broomfield.

It was a real pumpkin farm with acres of orange and green spread out before us.

Brit loved looking at all the pumpkins and trying to find the right one.

Yes, we actually cut them from the vine! Brit was a good helper.

Our pumpkin selection

How Kaia spent the day…all wrapped up in her carrier.

It was a lot of fun to pick our pumpkins at the source. Brit also ran around the hay maze and looked at some animals. Their pumpkin cake was delicious too!

We’ve been told now that we’re in Colorado we’d  better become sports fans or else. They take them very seriously here. And, with a professional team in all the major sports–football, baseball, basketball and hockey, I guess it’s true.

So, on Labor Day (which I was hoping would be true for me, but it wasn’t) we went to a Rockies game. They played the Cincinnatti Reds at a very packed Coors Field. We got free tickets for getting the Denver Post, and Mark’s office is about 2 blocks away, so we had free parking too.

Our seats were very high up, but we could still see really well. And, being in the shade was a definite bonus.

This was Britton’s first sporting event, and he did pretty well. Got bored kind of fast, but he did like watching the “tv.” We would point out that the guy was going to hit the ball with the bat, and was throwing the ball, running etc. and he liked that. He’s watched the characters on his favorite show (Word World) play baseball, and he likes to go around hitting balls with his “bat” (which is anything tube-like) and he holds like a golf club, but he gets the idea.

Mark took him out a couple of times. He got a hat from the kids store, which happened to be on the exact opposite side of the field from where we were, so they were gone more than an inning, but it all turned out well.

Sure it looks cute…if we can get him to keep it on more than 3 seconds!

The field is pretty cool too.

The green space at centerfield is full of pine trees and a little fountain. The fountain shoots high in the air when they get a home run.

Rockies won–by a lot–so that was fun to see too. We were talking about why we didn’t ever go to Dodgers games in LA, ’cause it’s pretty fun. Then we decided it was because it’s too much work. Getting to the field, the parking etc. way too hard. This was easy. We parked about 15 minutes after leaving our house, walked in and there we were. Soooo much better!

Maybe we will become sports fans after all!

There’s a zoo in the middle of the city! It doesn’t look too big on a map, but once we got inside we realized it was pretty big–at least the size of Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake.

We went after one of my doctors appointments, which took longer than I’d planned, so we were only there 2 hours before he was sooooo ready for a nap, and I was really tired of walking, but we saw about half of it.

They had lots of babies–giraffes, tigers, and monkeys. We’ll definitely have to go back and see the rest!

Brit and the baby giraffe

Brit and the Kangaroos. I’ve decided that they’re pretty boring animals.  Every time we see them…even in Australia they’re just lounging around. Ah well.

Britton hopping like a Kangaroo. Much more entertaining. We’re not sure where this came from, but he loves to hop around with his arms like this–they go up and down (I will try to figure out how to post the video we have, it’s hilarious) He says it’s hopping like a kangaroo. Ok, whatever you say!

Brit is sooooo done. But, I really liked this lion. She was sooooo big! And just stared right at us.

I like this zoo too, because it tries really hard to be environmentally conscious and is building more enclosures that are large and most like the animals’ true habitat. It claims to be the “greenest” zoo in the country. Yay!

We just have so many pictures of Britton doing random things that don’t really fit into a “post” so I’m putting them together…

Enjoying the first Denver rain on our balcony. He LOVED it!

He finally likes his “cool dude” sunglasses. Stylin’

Throwing rocks and sticks into the lake in Georgetown, CO. It’s a super cute really old town in the canyon along the 70. He is really liking the outdoors here.

He seriously cracks me up. In the morning it’s “snuggle with mommy” so he snuggles with me for a minute, then asks to “play game” Oh my. But he sure looks cute doing it!

Story time with Daddy. He really loves it!

In other words, Rocky Mountain National Park.

Lucky us, our first weekend here Mark’s brother Paul and his daughter Julia came to visit. They’d had a trip planned for a few months, and we happened to be here.

Paul has been to Colorado several times, and has wanted to take a special road up to the top of one of the mountains for a while, but it’s only open during a couple of months in the summer. It just so happens to be August.

After helping us move some of our furniture into place–Thanks Paul!–We headed toward Estes Park, gateway to RMNP. It’s a beautiful drive, and while on the way, Britton learned how to be a “guppy” from cousin Julia. It’s hilarious.

Mark got lots of the scenic pictures…maybe I’ll get him to post them some day, but driving higher and higher on the mountain on a one-way dirt road was quite fun. We did see a waterfall and creek…

Britton has a hard time looking at the camera. When we say “look at me” he looks up in the air way too high. Not sure where this comes from. He’s also saying cheese…

Finallly, we made it to the top. It’s known as an Alpine Tundra or something like that. Up at 11,000 feet, it’s winter most of the time. But it makes for gorgeous scenery!

Wow. So beautiful. Yes, that is snow still clinging to the hill.

And, I guess this will do for my 36 week belly shot too.

We had a great time at the park, driving over the continental divide and seeing so many lakes and streams. Paul was a great guide and we’re looking forward to going back. Now that we’re Coloradans I guess it’s a requirement.

Britton had a lot of fun with Julia. She was a great helper too.

Sprout Shell had a trade show scheduled the first week of August. It kind of fit in perfectly with the moving time line. We weren’t super excited about it though, since it did cause a lot more stress and coordination.

Back in May I scored a great deal on our hotel at the Golden Nugget. The north end of the strip doesn’t get as much attention, but this place was really nice and had a great pool–complete with shark tank in the middle and tube slide running through it.

Anyway, the trade show ended up not being what we had hoped or planned for. I did find some bedding for Kaia, scored some adorable Squeakers shoes for a great price, and we got a few orders, but that was about all.

Here’s our booth though…

So, we packed up and enjoyed the rest of our week doing this:

Chillin'

Reading

Drinking Coke

Trying on M&Ms hats

And SLEEPING!

Seriously. Our room got so dark with the curtains drawn it we wouldn’t know if it was 2:30 am or 2:30 pm.

Britton insisted on sleeping with me all week. He NEVER does that. He just rolls around and tosses and turns whenever we try it. He usually has to be in his own bed. Maybe he was traumatized from me being gone all day Monday, ’cause he was clingy all week too.

Our last night in town we went to a brand new restaurant–like, opening night–Max Brenner.

It’s a chocolate restaurant. Not everything has chocolate on it, or in it, but some things do. And especially their desserts! Oh my. We shared dinner so we’d have room for all the things we wanted to try.

One of the rare moments that Britton cooperated…until dessert came.

Our dessert spread

Dip your own ice cream, chocolate apple streusel with caramel sauce, Smores Sundae and Chocolate pizza with marshmallows. It was SOOOOOO good. We will definitely have to go back and try more of the chocolate deliciousness.

So, despite it not turning out like we planned, it was actually a very nice week. But, I was ready to get out of there and on the road to our new life.

Before we left we got together with a few of Mark’s former Napster co-workers (and friends, of course) for dinner at Chakra. It’s a great Indian in Beverly Hills for those of you in LA.

It was nice visiting and catching up since I don’t get to see them very often. Luckily the restaurant has a water wall that Britton found fascinating.

The Napsterites and friends…

Both Britton and Missy were unhappy at this point. I think for different reasons though. Missy–we’ll be sure to send you some Halloween pics, then you can photoshop yourself in.

The whole group. Thanks guys! It was great to see you.

So, when we flew to Denver to find a place to live we realized it was also our last little getaway before Kaia gets here. Britton was with his She-She (new name, we’re trying it out), and I missed him terribly, but we had a great time.

We went to see Inception–great movie. Though, I don’t know that it was entirely necessary to pay $17 for IMAX. Mark would disagree. We drove A LOT, had ice cream at Bonnie Braes, slept in, found a place to live (will take pics and get those up someday), visited the Temple grounds and generally enjoyed getting to know the area.

Since we’re super awesome, we didn’t take pictures except this:

and this:

The sunsets here are gorgeous!

On my way back to LA the clouds were awesome. I had to get some of them too.