Denver Trip

11-19 to 11-21

We spent three days and two nights in Denver at the beginning of Thanksgiving break. I found a cheap hotel on Hotwire so we paid $65 for a super nice hotel with a pool. Yep! We left on Sunday after church and stopped in Castle Rock to do just a bit of shopping. We got to the hotel by 4 or 5 and swam for an hour before going to Chipotle for dinner. On Monday, Matt took the kids swimming in the morning and then we spent a big chunk of time at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We swam some more in the evening, of course. On Tuesday, we did the Hammond's Candies tour (fun! and free samples!) and went to Union Station to see the big Christmas tree. We drove home that evening. It was a great little getaway - we just needed to get out of town for a few days. Why is that? Does that happen to anyone else? 

 The hotel pool area was big and open, which may be the reason why the water was a tad chilly and it was really cold when you got out of the pool. Pretty though!

 Having a snacky lunch before going into the museum. 

 Alanna and the City Park Pavilion with some mountains in the background. 

 In the museum, there is a great section of hands-on type activities for kids. We spent a chunk of time there digging for fossils, playing in the water tables, etc. It was so neat!

 Digging for fossils with her paintbrush. 

 And testing out the water tables. 

 This was a really neat thing, kind-of like a giant LiteBright with a light behind the peg board and then colored plastic tubes to plug the holes and light up. Charlie was trying to spell his name! It was super cool. 

 CHAR...

 There was a traveling dinosaur exhibit set up in one area so we walked through that. We also went through an Animals of North America section as well as another traveling exhibit on motion and movement. It was busy but not so busy that it wasn't fun. I was fearful in the beginning because the first exhibit closest to the entrance was one about space and it was PACKED. Thankfully, the farther into the museum we got, the less busy it was. Additionally, several school groups cleared out after a bit. 

 Apparently Alanna thought it was too bright??