Denver Nature and Science Museum

We also went to the Denver Nature and Science Museum.  Since we had a pass to Discovery Gateway from when we lived in Utah we get in free here - but it is pretty far through some bad traffic - so this is only our second time.  It is not for young children like Discovery Gateway is - but my kids have liked it well enough both times.  They do have a "Discovery Zone" for hands on learning but its not very big - but they have really cool exhibits that my kids have enjoyed - especially a really cool one about gems and precious minerals and Egyptians mummies.

They do have a tiny little astronaut section for kids under 3.  Both the girls wanted to dress up.

 

 

By the time we hit the discovery zone it was about nap time.  Madison was VERY ready for lunch and naps.

 

You can dig for dinosaur bones.

 

I can always count on Megan to find the puzzle.

 

Noah built and kicked down towers.

And played with the magnet wall.

 

Brock, for the first time, seemed to be too "big" for most of the stuff.  He was kind of bored and wandered from one activity to the next.  I always thought I would be sad when they were in school all day and missed our activities - but truth is - he is too old for most of the stuff we do.  It is the natural progression of life I guess.

Bounce House

We have made some good friends here in Denver.  One of them is the Birches.  They are in our ward and had us over for dessert our first Sunday in the ward, and they had Jason over for Sunday dinner when I was in Salt Lake, and they had us over for Christmas dinner, and we trade babysitting all the time, and she makes sure I go to the temple once a month by setting up babysitting for stake temple night, and they have kids our kids age, and they are wonderful, and fun, and awesome, and, and, and... 

 

Anyways, we took the kids to a bounce house over spring break.  Me and the girls stayed for 3 hours (a record!) and then the boys stayed with Veronica for another 2 hours!  I guess we got our money's worth!

 

The kids had a lot of fun together.  Activities like this are always better with friends!

(Boy in the black shirt on top is not ours) Megan, Lucia, Madison on the top

Carmen, Harry, Noah, and Brock sliding down.

 

 

Madison would only slide down with me.  Here we are about to go down.  Then finally right before we left she went down by herself!

 

Having our snack.

Temple trip

There are a few things I miss so much about Utah it makes my heart hurt.  There are some things that my kids miss and they constantly ask for.  A few things (well, actually most things) on those lists overlap.  (In case you are wondering I don't think Jason misses one thing about Utah - except friends and family... and his mother's egg rolls.) 

 

Well one thing that is an overlap on both mine and the kids' list is temple square.  I hadn't felt so homesick as when I saw temple square on the screen at the General Woman's Broadcast.  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  That wasn't my home anymore.  I was far away.  Far away from my mom, sisters, aunts, and grandma - I was alone in a chapel hundreds of miles away - I was supposed to be with them.  And those flowers on temple square... will I never see those tulips again?  It sounds dramatic and I am SURE I will be back in the spring - but not every year and not THIS year. 

 

The kids had also mentioned how much they missed temple square.  So we made a trip to the Denver temple.  It is only about 10 minutes from our house (closest we have lived to a temple since Provo).  It is a small temple.  Small grounds.  And to be honest... they are not as nice and accommodating to children as Utah temples.  We visited many of the Utah temples several times and never once did I feel like we were unwelcome.  But we felt... well... unwelcome.  Regardless, I told Jason I will just have to change the culture of the Denver temple, because we will be back. 

They do have this Christus statue in their visitor center.  The boys wanted a picture in front of it - but the girls did NOT. 

Spring Break

We are on an adjusted schedule for our school - which means we have 2 weeks off for fall break and 2 weeks off for spring break and only June and July off for summer.  So far I think I love it.  I kept going back and forth about going to Utah for the break, but I decided to stay and really play a lot in Denver.  I don't want the kids getting used to going to Utah on every break.

 

We started out by going to the Littleton Farms.  We brought our neighbor Lincoln with us. 

 

 

It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.  I didn't bring a stroller which is starting to be our new standard.  We probably walked 2 miles - the girls took a great nap when we got home.