Gabriel's Birthday Trip to Denver

Oh my goodness, I really don't even know where to begin! This was probably the most interesting road trip I have ever taken. We left on Friday afternoon and things were going really well until we got to Fort Collins. Heidi and I were very excited to eat at Olive Garden, so we got all settled at our table and come find out Hadleigh and Gabe are both burning fevers. Being the prepared mom that Heidi is, she just whips out her infants Tylenol. Being the experienced Unprepared mother that I am, I eat really fast and tell Gabe to put his sweatshirt on if he is cold and then run to Walgreen's! I should mention here that Megan loaned us a GPS navigator that Gabriel named Miss Map and we would of been lost without her! She quickly got us to a Walgreen's in about five minutes.

Things went pretty smoothly the rest of the night, we got to the hotel, and the kids slept really good! The morning however was a different story. Hadleigh spent the first two hours in the hotel, projectile vomiting, but the fevers seemed to be well in check for the moment, so off to the zoo we went! The Denver Zoo is pretty awesome, with lots to do besides seeing the animals. We rode a train and a merry-go-round and got a nice big Icee! We saw every animal I think, with the exception of the bird building, which we slyly did not mention to Gabe, since neither Heidi or I are big bird people.

Gabriel seeing how tall he was compared to a polar bear


Gabe and I on the train in the zoo

From there we went on to Tiny Town( after another dose of meds for both the kids, since the fevers had returned!). I must say it is well worth the 30 minutes it takes from Denver to get there! It is a town built of miniature buildings, with a nice 10 minute ride on a miniature train with a real steam engine and caboose!
The Library in Tiny Town

Hadleigh at the hair salon

By the time we were done there, Heidi and I decided it was time for some grown up fun, so off to Cherry Creek Mall we went. After a fun trip to the candy store, Gymboree, and The Children's Place, we were all ready to go to the hotel and order some food.

The next day is where it got really interesting! The game plan was to head up to the Idaho Springs/Blackhawk area and tour a gold mine and show Gabe where he used to live when he was a baby. About 10 miles from the Idaho Springs exit off the interstate, the power steering goes out of the car and it starts dinging at me that the charging system has failed. Please understand this not a flat interstate, nor one where people are content to drive the speed limit. Cars doing 80 on a 60 mile an hour highway are zooming around me up and down a very large mountains. I take the next exit, trying to remain calm and not panic that it is taking every ounce of strength I have to steer the damn car around tight corners. We get parked, Gabe is in the back seat pretty much convinced that we are going to be stuck in Colorado forever, while Heidi and I get out and pop the hood trying to convince ourselves that it might be a really obvious problem or that maybe the half ass owners manuals that cars come with will give us a really easy solution. Ya right! So after staring at the engine for about 5 minutes, we figure maybe we should call Stephen. Of course he tells me right off the bat that we probably broke a belt (ahh, to have the knowledge that men have about cars!), and to look and see if we see any broken or missing. So me being the helpful person that I am, tell him I think I see one missing on the left side of the long shiny silver thing. He of course tells me I am completely clueless and that does not help him at all, but that we should be ok to drive down into town to see if we can find a mechanic. As soon as we hang up, a very nice young man pulls up to see if we need help. His name was Mark, I have never met one I didn't like! He tells us he agrees with Stephen that we should be ok to drive into town, and that he used to work with at a Jiffy Lube in Evergreen that is only about 2 miles away and that they should be able to help us. We get to Jiffy Lube and they tell us sure no problem, then tell us oh wait no we can't. Your tensioner (whatever that is) locked up and that is why your belt broke, you need to go somewhere else. Oh and that we can't drive the car at all! The very nice man calls us a tow truck and he tows us to Firestone 4 miles away. Firestone man tell us no problem, should only be a little while. Soooo an hour later the nice man comes back and says they can't find a part anywhere in Colorado, but not to worry they would think of something! We then decided maybe there was no point in worrying, so we should go for a walk, feed the kids and chain smoke so that it would appear like we weren't worrying. All the while we are making back up plans like

1. We could have Megan and Lewis come get us. He has a big truck and trailer and just tow the car back to Casper.

2. We could ask Lewis to just bring us the part from Casper, though I don't think that would of probably went over well.

3. We could call our cousin Trevor, have him come rescue us and live with him until someone could fix our car.

4. We could hope to find a hotel room, during tourist season, and pray that would not cost and arm and a leg to have the car fixed.

But by the time we had returned from our brainstorming session, the wonderful mechanic had figured out how to just fix the bearing in the tensioner and that we were good to go!

Waiting for the Tow Truck at Jiffy Lube

The Tow Truck. Come to find out this was Gabe's favorite part of the trip, getting to ride in it!

So on top of the world and 5 hours behind schedule, we headed to Estes Park, skipping the mine tour, but still cruising through Blackhawk. Estes Park was beautiful, as was the drive to get there, well worth the detour!
A tiny lake in Estes Park, where we stopped to let Gabe run around and gather pine cones, that he wants to plant at his grandmas so she can have trees.

Then we were off to Loveland praying that the outlets would still be open since it was Sunday. We arrived and decided to hit up Osh Kosh first, then to the Gymboree outlet (this is seriously what I had been looking forward to the whole trip) only to find that we only had 20 minutes to shop before they closed! So I am almost literally running through the store, grabbing everything in sight that is in a size 3T, 4T and 7. Thankfully I was able to find everything I really wanted for the girls and the ladies in the store didn't kick us out right at 6 on the dot. I could spend hours in there!

So, the moral of the story is never travel without a Miss Map in case you have to make random stops like Walgreens, Walmart, Starbucks, a mechanic etc, medicine, lots of blankets (at least 6) in case your baby decides to puke non stop, and always have a sense of adventure because it will be funny as soon as its over!