Colorado Trip

Last weekend was another whirlwind weekend. We flew to Denver on Thursday afternoon and got in pretty late. Since they are an hour earlier than Minnesota, I was having some serious jet lag. (If that's what you call not knowing what the heck time it is and being extremely tired). Everyone keeps asking us how the flight went. One word: Horrible. No other way to describe it. We had read and heard all about giving Brynn a bottle to suck on to pop her ears and relieve pressure. The thing I didn't think about is NOT to feed her at the Minneapolis airport before getting on the plane. She was hungry, so I fed her. Got on the plane, went to take off. Yeah, she had absolutlely no interest in a bottle, thank you very much. So, I was a little panicky trying to make her drink and she was pretty ticked off cause she didn't want it. I don't know if she was screaming more from her ears hurting or me trying to force feed her. Either way, she was not a happy camper and EVERYONE on the plane knew it. It was an hour and a half flight. She screamed for the first half hour, slept for a half hour in the air (thank God) and then screamed for the last half hour. I was very hyper-aware of everyone staring and shifting and sighing, I was so tense and stressed when we landed, every muscle in my body hurt. Not a pleasant start to the trip at all!

We got to the rental car place and the very pleasant guy behind the counter says, "Vacationing?" We told him yes. He said, "Well, then SMILE!" I think he got the most half-hearted smile out of me that he's probably ever seen.

After several non-successful attempts to tell some bad jokes to illicit a real smile, he said, "How old is your little one?" We told him six months.

He said, "Whoa, I give you credit for flying with a little one. That's tough."

Thank you! Someone gets it! Stress level went down just a notch. Finally get to the car and the license plate looks like this:

How cool is that? Funny guy didn't even know her name.....

After and hour and a half or so of driving our 2007 Trailblazer, (nice ride) and some very cool scenery like this:

....we finally got to our destination of Woodland Park. It was way past my bedtime and Brynn's bedtime (even though she had taken a nice long nap on the drive down). Grandma and Grandpa Schad woke her up (I figured they would) but thankfully, she went back to sleep once we got out to the camper and got settled.

Friday morning we went shopping for Gary's sister Tammy's wedding reception Saturday night. That was pretty fun. I always like checking out stores in new places. Gary was all excited about all the "exotic" fruits and "stuff" that they don't have in Minnesota. I don't think he tried anything new though.

Friday evening we had family pictures at JC Penny's and then went to Gary's grandma Rochelle's house for dinner. Yum! I was another late night (remember time change) but I slept a little more than the 2 hours I got Thursday night. Brynn slept well again and was a real trooper!

Saturday we hung out at Gary's Aunt Linda and Uncle Rink's house while everyone was getting ready for the reception. It turned out very nice and I think everyone had a great time. Some people have a VERY good time. I think some people won't remember what a great time they had, but that's ok. We've got pictures to prove it to them :)

Gary and Brynn checking out one of Uncle Rink's toys

Andrew, Tammy and Mikayla at the reception. Little Trent was sleeping.

See.....

Val and Aunt Linda made this fruit bouquet all by themselves. Very impressive!



Cutting the cake. Yes, that's a ball and chain cake.....



And smashing the cake in each others face :)

Saturday night we stayed at a hotel on the north side of Colorado Springs so we could shave 45 minutes off our already long drive to the Denver airport. Up by 5:00 am, baby changed and fed, two adults showered, bags packed and on the road by 6:15 am. To the rental car place by 8:00 am. Through airport security by 8:30. Time to wait for the flight. We walked all around the airport looking for a BK for breakfast but couldn't find one. Searched 5 shops for a Colorado magnet under $8.00 for a coworker who collect magnets. Finally found one I could afford. Didn't feed Brynn before getting on plane and it went SO much better. She was hungry and willing to take the bottle like a champ. She didn't cry once. Thank God! The flight home was wonderful, magnificent, incredible. Pick your adjective. It was much better! And we had friendly people sitting by us too. That helped as well.

All in all, it was a fast but fun trip and we are looking forward to our next vacation up north in a couple weeks!

More scenery pics on the lower right side of blog......