Aurora, Colorado and adventures in tending June 7-16

I flew to Denver on Friday the 7th of June to stay with Katie and Casey's kids while they went out of town.  We stayed very busy. We also watched a few movies--my tradition when I go to Katies . I got to watch "The Secret Life of Pets." cute. I saw the Lego Movie 2.  Lego Movie 1 (yes, in that order). Aquaman. I think that's about it. It was enough to get us into bed before 10 pm withOUT watching movies!  Just dinner and baths and cleanup took plenty of time each day.  Meals and more meals and dishes and then it was time to fix another meal.  I'd forgotten how needy little ones are. ha. Not really.  But it was a lot of work and a lot of fun.  Errands are challenging, to say the least. Laundry and dishes are non-stop.  Oh, and I had to remember to feed the dog, too!  I only forgot once. ;-)

We tried playing hop scotch. It wasn't a hit. The monster that I drew with chalk (at Hailey's request) was an attention-grabber.  Sorry I didn't take a photo of it.

I found this on the dining room table after a few days.  They are some good rules/expectations and consequences. I showed it to the boys one day. Hayden said, "Oh. Yeah, our Mom made that. We told her it was basically impossible."

HA!  I didn't laugh then, but sure did later! ;-)

Sometimes they just play so nicely. This is a shot from the upstairs balcony overlooking the family room area. Hailey carries around a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle backpack (she wears it), along with a hat. She plays and plays and plays with the contents of the backpack, which is mostly Paw Patrol stuff. She can play alone or with Quintin. She wants to have the back pack EVERYwhere she goes! It's really quite cute.

 And here are some fellows out enjoying dirt and holes and boards and cars. What more do you need?

 Quintin and Hailey watching the penguins at the Zoo. We didn't wait around to see them get fed. When we first got there, it was in "a little while.'  We waited. Then, " In About ten minutes." Then 10 minutes later, "at 3:30 (fifteen more minutes.)"  We didn't hang around. We were tired.

Quintin didn't turn around for the group shot, so we got this one of him on the little choo choo train at the zoo.  They liked the train. I was hoping for one that circumvented the entire zoo. Nope. We were on it for about 6 minutes or less and we saw the flamingos and pretty flowers. That's it.

 It was hard to find a shady spot to sit and WAIT for the Elephant encounter. It was worth the wait. We all liked it.  The Asian elephant swam in front of us, opened his mouth, ate fruit and veggies, knelt, laid down, got up. It was a nice display of elephant behaviors.

Popsicle selfie at the house.

One afternoon we went swimming at the pool in Troy and Ecstacia's complex. Both MJ (13 almost) and Alex(17) came with us to help and that was nice and necessary.  Hayden and Corbin are fair swimmers who need a bit more practice. I tried to teach Hayden how to tread water. I think I should have a GRANDMA camp for cousins and have swim lessons for those who need it.  Wouldn't that be fun? Only I don't have a pool.

Corbin

Hayden, Haily and Alex Gardner

Backyard car crashes.  Those poor kids were so bruised after playing in the yard with these little cars. They loved crashing and play/pretend crashing. This (above) is a pretend and posed crash scene, never fear. 

Another scen of mayhem and destruction. Posed for your enjoyment and shock value.

But overall, they did play nicely most of the time. Hailey sure had some scraped up feet, ankles and toes for not keeping those out of the way, however!  And bruises. They do play rough, that's for sure.

Quintin.  They play outside barefoot, yet I never had to dig out any splinters or stickers, amazingly enough.

We had a baby bubble machine for a while, too.

At the Natural History and Science museum there was a Discovery Zone for kids that included this dinosaur model to climb on, an excavation pit, puzzles, water play.

Corbin's head. He's so trusting.

Hailey.

Quintin working on a puzzle

We watched a 3D film on "Superhero Dogs" at the museum, too. It was pretty cool. The film was 45 minutes, but the twins only lasted for about 15 to 20 before I took them out.

Just chillin' at home. 

It was a full week of adventures and experiences.  Katie and Casey also had a full week and the kids were so glad to see them when they returned from their trip to San Diego.  Casey went to his first ever "Cisco Live" conference and Katie just got to relax at their hotel.  They also toured the Battleship Midway (carrier?) and had a cruise around the harbor in San Diego before coming home on  Saturday. They were gone a full week!

And these were the gorgeous flowers that were delivered to me--from Casey and Katie as a thank you!!