Visitors!- Sarah and Skip

We had houseguests this last week. After Tyler Place, I came down with a terrible sinus infection and laid listlessly around the house for days while Michael was out of town and the kids were at camp. I felt very sorry for myself. I counted the days M had been out of town since we moved. (24 out of 37!!!)
Then Thursday evening arrived and we got guests! I was so happy. Sarah and Skip flew in on a direct flight to Denver with their two children. They picked up a rental car and drove out to the house. We had such fun. The kids immediately made friends and their little girl fell in love with Holly.
Friday was a recovery day as we were all exhausted (me from sinus stuff- them from a sleepless night as their three year old had a pervasive all-night cough.) But Friday afternoon Michael came home and we all rallied! We went and saw the kids' projects from their music technology camp at their new school. They had learned to play instruments and record them and make music tracks and loops and harmonies. They learned to jam and to overdub movies. Samuel made a soundtrack for his stop motion lego movie! It was great fun and very impressive. I was also very happy that the kids got to spend a week in their new school before their first day.

That evening we stayed in and let the kids play. I made dinner and we drank wine around the coffee table and caught up. Sarah and Skip stayed in the bottom two floors and I think it made it very private and comfortable. Their older son stayed up on the kid floor. It worked well and I was so happy to see how well our new house works for visitors.
The next morning we drove out to Chatfield Botanic Garden for the Lavender festival. I love all things lavender and I love all things festival so this was a good match for me. The kids played on the world's tiniest rock wall, rode a kid train, got balloon animals, sampled lavender jam and played on the lawn. We listened to some great bluegrass and Michael and I danced a bit and sampled local wine and played bean bag toss. It was hot and sunny, but not humid and it was pretty great.

After lunch at the food trucks, we drove on to Dinosaur Ridge. This was an interesting stop, but a bit of a disaster. The weather was HOT by then (not Texas Hot as there was no humidity, but still 99 degrees!). We stuffed ourselves on a tiny bus with no air conditioning and then they asked us to hold our kids on our laps to make more room. We made it one stop before the three year old declined from riding any further. Sarah and I decided to carry her back down the mountain and the boys all went on to the tour. The kids really liked it and learned a lot. Sarah and I died a little carrying a sweaty girl down the hill, but we made it and counted it as exercise.

We came home and showered and ditched the kids with a babysitter and went out to the Alamo Drafthouse. We saw Mike and Dave need Wedding Dates, which was not so good to me, though Michael loved it. I did love being at the Alamo and eating amazing food and drinking amazing drinks and being with my friends on a double date. We came home and ate chocolate gathered around the dining table and listened to Downtown Julie Brown on the sonos and laughed some more until bedtime.
Sunday we woke up and had coffee and had a lazy morning. Skip and Michael and I took the kids to the local park on their scooters and let them play. After lunch, we drove to the park and ride and took the light rail into downtown. It was an experiment that Michael and I have been anxious to try and it was a success. Even better, we realized that the train drops us off right in front of the performing arts center where we have our new Broadway series tickets. Bonus!
Downtown, they had closed 16th street for a weekend long festival with shopping and activities. The kids spent quite some time riding bikes over ramps at a mountain bike adventure booth. Then we made our way down to Union Station. Union Station is gorgeous and has great food. We were all hungry and so we had treats before heading out front to check out the Busker Fest. Michael and I had been to a fabulous busker fest in Ottawa and high expectations. Unfortunately, this did not compare. There was a drum circle and a guy on stilts with a hula hoop. Sigh. Still, the kids enjoyed both. We thought of continuing our downtown journey to the park, but it had been a long day for the little so we called it a day and headed home.

I made bean bowls that evening and then we put the kids to bed and had a grown up game of Catan with wine. It was excellent except for the part where Michael won. Then we went out and laid on the couch on the upper deck and watched the lightning in the sky and felt the cool breeze and talked and talked.
They had to leave the next morning, and Michael had to go back to work, but we felt satisfied with our fun weekend.
It was so nice to be with friends again. Sarah and Skip are old friends, and wonderful friends and it was such a treat to get to spend time with them again.
Who wants to come visit us next?