Thanksgiving in Denver, 2018

We drove to Denver on Wednesday, November 21, 2018.  "We" being me, Mike, Mike's Mom and Mike's sister, Gayela. She'd come down from SLC on the Shuttle on Tuesday.

The photos above are in Vail. Pretty dry and not much snow around there!

We were there in time to have Pizza for dinner in the evening.  We took Berenice and Gayela to Troy and Ecstacia Gardner's home in Aurora. Well, we tried to, anyway.  30 minutes later, we managed to do so.  I tried using the directions on my phone, but those dang fat fingers typed in the wrong address and we ended up 30 minutes away from where they lived.  Oh well. We got there eventually.  Dropped them off and said hello and went to Katies. I made sure I had the right address this  time.  And every time after that.  Sheesh.

 Proof that Hailey actually DOES wear clothing on occasion.
Below, Mike relaxing on the comfy couch. Eric slept on that couch. He flew in from Las Vegas earlier that day.  He took the red-eye. He's so funny. Visiting with folks in the airport about "So, where're ya goin'"  he managed to snag himself a free ride to Katie's and Casey's home in Aurora at 5 am so Katie didn't have to get up and go get him.  So that was nice.

Katie had a lovely meal planned for Thursday. Typical Thanksgiving fare, but more was added by Troy's family. Two are Gluten-Free, so that might present a challenge. Being newly diagnosed with Cilac disease, 12-year-old MaryJane should avoid dairy, too. So Katie made LOTS of Casey's favorite food (mashed potatoes) with lots lots of butter and cream; Ecstacia also brought mashed potatoes without those ingredients (and gluten free gravy and a yummy fruit salad).  Of course, I didn't think to take a photo of the lovely spread of food.  But it was nice. We ate early because their 18 year had to go to work at 2 pm (Justin works for Amazon there in Denver).  But that gave us more time to play games, so we did. And clean up food... and eat food.

Below, Corbin loves to help his mommy in the kitchen. He's seven, can use the can opener, empty cans, stir things up really well, smoothed the top of the green bean cassarole.  Poor Katie. She was making one 2-can recipe of cassarole.  But there were going to be 17 people!  So I suggested she double it.  Well, she has lots of leftovers.  (That's important for Thanksgiving, yes?) Corbin helped with the candied yams, too.

Below. This little guy loves to color. And color. And color.

 Above: Katie enjoying the feast. I should have used a smaller plate. I was so stuffed!!

We had pumpkin pie and pecan pie(s) and apple crisp. Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, yams, green bean cassarole, rolls, fruit salad and creamed corn.

Above.  Quintin had so much fun for DAYS playing with Tenzi dice .He lined them up, stacked them, counted them, sorted them.  Non-stop for days. 

 Above. This is the dining room area. Katie had a fun paper coloring Thanksgiving cloth on the table. And she had a comfortable bed in the front living room for me and Mike to sleep on. It's their old Sleep Number bed.  SOOOooo comfy!  K & C got a new king sized bed. Those twins were really crowding them out of the queen sized one.

 Above: Mike is anxiously waiting in line to get his food on Thanksgiving . :-D

 Hi Eric!  It was fun to have him there.  He and Katie had fun chatting and visiting.  Eric played games and visited with everyone, as well as other friends he has in the area.

 Above: Alex loves to chase Hailey around. And Hailey loves to be chased around.

Above: Left to righ, Justin, Berenice, Ecstacia, Alex, Troy Gardner.

 Counting those dice.

Above: The Potato Guys. Or, rather, Pumpkin Pie. I thought it was a photo of them having potatoes, but I was looking at a teeny tiny thumbnail image and couldn't tell exactly what they were eating.

Below: 

Katie has been trying to refinish the banisters on her stairs.  The wooden oak finish is what came with the house and not her preference. The black and white on the right IS her preference.

 She and Eric were going to do some more painting on the other side, which has a "Juliet  Balcony" overlooking the family room. Since one cannot use a ladder and paint in a house with three year olds who like to climb the ladder, Mike and I took the kids to "Sea Quest" across town and spent a few hours looking at fish and reptiles and other fun stuff.

 Quintin and Hayden petting Iguanas (above)

 Mike wrangling kids to pose them in a canoe for a photo op.  It's hard to keep track of four kids!

 Hayden's favorite mammal is the Orca!  Who knew?  One of the few smiles I've ever captured with a camera. :-)

 A large Komodo Dragon [model]. Quintin is pointing out the end of the tail (below).

 Hailey was a bit unsure and kept her distance for a bit.

There was a Tortoise enclosure with a locked gate that the twins were desperately trying to UNlock.  But the turtle wasn't even there--it wandered around with the animal handler.  Sea Quest is far more than sea animals.  There were lots of reptiles.

And Birds!

 Lorikeet Experience. Mike went in with the boys and I trailed the twins.  Hayden got bird pooped on. Twice.  I nearly got hit from outside the enclosure--it kind of just shoots right out if they are hanging on the wire fence .

 Hailey was keeping her feet clear of the passing "Norman" the large tortoise.

 But they did have a fun time following it around later. I got a cute video of them jumping around when it walked past them.

 Corbin wasn't afraid of the big lizard!

 Near this tortois enclosure (left) were more reptiles and very large lizards that the twins are looking at, plus a camel figure.  They had a wallaby nearby, too. He was kind of cute. And a SLOTH!  It was hanging from the ceiling of his cage in plain sight, was large, and I actually saw him MOVE!. Cool.

 The koi pond was fun.

And so was the ray and shark aquarium.

 They had a cool topographical sand box the twins played in for a long time while Corbin and Hayden spent a LOT of time petting the rays. It took them a while to get up the nerve to actually put their fingers in there and touch them. They even touched the sharks.

We also put Hayden and Corbin in a Hurricane Wind Tunnel experience. That was kind of fun. I took a video of that, but have never had any luck posting videos. Plus, I turned the camera sideways, so you would have to look at it like this :-)  ha ha.

Down in the maw of this here shark is Hailey's PUPPY!  But she was brave and retrieved it.

I asked Hayden to give me his best pirate "Arrrrgh". Not bad.

That was on Friday.  Saturday was the twins' Birthday!  We blew up a lot of balloons for decorations and some pretty paper fluffies and decos in a rainbow theme.  We had cake and ice cream, they opened presents.  Happy third birthday, Quintin and Hailey!!

A rainbow cake!

Get coloring!  Quintin got markers and coloring books, Hailey got puppies.  She gave back the "Puppy" she'd taken from Corbin as soon as she opened the bag with "Stacie" in it. It was really cute when she did that. Then she reclaimed "Puppy" and really upset Corbin.   THEN she got a barking doggie (white poodle), too.  We'll see how it all pans out.

We drove home on Sunday.  It snowed on Saturday night, making for some snow-packed and slushy roads up over the rockies.  It could have been a whole lot worse and we made it home in fairly good time. I think we left close to 8 am and were home before 7, so that's not bad at all. No incidents, we stopped to eat lunch on the way and had plenty of potty stops, due to the massive amounts of soda that was consumed by the driver.  I'm just glad Mike likes to drive, though that drive was a bit stressful. I only drove for a hundred miles or so each way.