My "weekend" started at 12 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon when my sister and nieces got into town. My oldest niece, S, was on Spring Break, so my very brave sister packed up the car with both girls and made the trek out to Denver from South Dakota to visit us! I've been looking forward to their visit since they were here in February for Duke's baptism, so I was thrilled when they showed up!
Early last week, Duke started to come down with his first cold- awful cough and congestion- and I was worried that he wouldn't be his normal, happy self while my family was in town. THANKFULLY, our boy is such a trooper and managed to be his smiley, adorable self the whole week(end) despite the coughing/sneezing/faucet nose. So without further adieu, let's recap our awesome extended weekend!
{Wednesday}
As mentioned, my sister and adorable nieces arrived at noon on Wednesday. Immediate snuggles were necessary. Followed quickly by A pulling out every single one of Duke's toys. She is a firecracker and I love it!
Duke and A were due for a nap so my sister held down the fort while S and I took Capone on a walk. My apartment complex doesn't have a children's playground, but we do have a mini dog park with funny obstacles so S wasted no time in making that her domain.
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| She wanted to jump in slow motion for the picture. Ha! |
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| Capone has more fun climbing on the benches for the humans than the obstacles for the pups. Go figure. |
I was impressed by how comfortable S was with Capone because she usually gets pretty freaked out by him. It made the walk/visit a lot more fun and she was happy to take over leash-holder duties as long as Capone was walking slowly. ;)
When the kids woke up from nap we loaded up the car to go over to my other sister's new house. We attempted to beat traffic but it seriously seems like every hour is rush hour in Denver these days so it took us almost an hour to get there.
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| Seriously so excited to watch these two grow up together! A is absolutely enamored with her little cousin. |
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| Mini Godfather |
Wednesday night, my sister cooked us a delicious meal of chicken/mushroom/broccoli Alfredo and we played 3491724 games of Telephone- my nieces new favorite game. Duke and I spent the night on Wednesday so we could make the most of our time together on Thursday.
{Thursday}
None of us got a great night sleep on Wednesday night due to lots of room sharing and a couple sick kiddos. Every time Duke or A would cough, it would not only wake up us mama's, but also the dog who would proceed to wake up my other sister and her husband in their room. We decided Thursday would be super low key and filled it with lots of snuggles, games, and a little park picnic. We played lots of Uno, blocks, and pirates outside on the swing set. S and I looked all over the yard for treasure and then sold our loot to anyone looking for a good rock treasure collection.
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| My favorite was the 'choice' cards my niece made- Draw 5- and how she apologized every time she gave me a bad card. |
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| We love sunshine! |
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| "My hold it?" |
Our whole crew met up for dinner at
La Sandia in Stapleton and chowed on yummy tacos/cheese dip/chips and delicious margaritas.
{Friday}
Friday morning, Jen, Ryan and Dennis all had to work so Michelle and I decided to take the kiddos to the Denver Children's museum. They got to play vet, dress up like firemen, shop in the market, blow a million bubbles, and make a hot air balloon float. Needless to say they LOVED it and we had a lot of fun watching them explore everything.
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| This guy wasn't terribly impressed- his cold was in full force and all the activity made napping rough. |
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| Grocery shopping is serious business. |
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| Mini firefighters! |
When we got back to my sister's house, some serious snuggle time was in order. Friday night we stayed in and all ate dinner at the house once everyone got home from work and then we watched the kiddos put on a pretty killer talent show. I have to admit I'm amazed that we're all old enough to be the ones watching our kids put on the talent shows instead of starring in them. #butseriously
{Saturday}
Saturday was Zoo Day! We all met at the zoo before 9:30 a.m. and got $5 off our entry price. I was beyond impressed we all got ourselves in gear in time and after we stopped to fuel up on coffee, we were off. The weather was perfect and we took our time checking out all of the animals. We stopped for lunch at an awesome BBQ stand (no idea what it was called) and by the time we left, we couldn't believe we had been there for 6 hours. I'm usually not a huge fan of the zoo, but this was a great visit and the kids not only enjoyed it, they behaved which made it such an enjoyable day for the adults!
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| Ages 11, 5 1/2, 2, and 4 1/2 months. |
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| Family selfie! Sisters and our munchkins. |
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| This black bear was awesome and kept playing with that half-circle thing next to him. There was a mirror on top and he would move it so the light would reflect on the wall next to him. |
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| Nursing mama! By far my favorite thing of the whole day. My sister got video of her patting the baby's bum while he was eating. |
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| Peacocks everywhere! They were beautiful but I kept freaking out that one would attack us because they got so close! |
{Sunday}
I was beyond exhausted when Sunday morning rolled around. We weren't hit too hard with the daylight savings switch because Duke was also exhausted and getting his sleep but the poor guy would have coughing fits every few hours which woke me up every time. We went to brunch and did our weekly grocery shopping trip as a family and then headed home for some much needed naps by all. Dennis made homemade chicken mac n cheese for dinner and we invited his parents over to eat and watch Steve Harvey's new show, Little Big Shots. It was so cute and the kids are seriously talented!
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| The belly. The thighs. Everything about this picture makes me swoon! |
We ended the night with an episode of Scandal and I headed to bed to read
Little Bee. Book review will be coming as soon as I finish it! I slacked in February but I'm back on track with my
reading goals this month and so far this one is awesome!
Hope you all are having a great Monday! Until next time...
-T-
Labels: family, Mom Life, weekend recap, weekenders
