Denver - Part 3 - What we did to entertain ourselves

 It was an adventure being in a new place for an extended period of time.  We wanted to explore as much as possible.  Here are some of the things we did . . . .

Golfing

 

Picnic and Hiking around the lake

 Pirate's Cove Water Park

 Local park where we road a train around, played on the play set and Rhett played in the stream.

 

 

 Rhett and I had ridden our bikes to Chic-fil-A for lunch and a storm came in.  We raced home on our bikes and got sprinkled on but luckily made it under the awning before the down poor!  We stayed under the awning watching the rain and making faces in the camera.

Denver Children's Museum

 Miniature Golf

Blue mouth from a Sonic slushy.  We made LOTS of trips to Sonic!!!

 Chuck E. Cheese

 Downtown Denver

Some other things we did that aren't pictured, summer movies, riding our bikes on the bike path, Denver Zoo, lots of games, movies, painting, reading, the mall, and lunch dates with Dad. 

Denver - Part 2 - Home Away from Home

We choose to live in our trailer for the time we were in Denver rather then stay in a hotel.  We liked that it allowed us to cook meals rather then go out for 3 meals a day.  We also liked that we could bring our bikes and scooters and more things to entertain Rhett.  It was the right choice but it still came with it's issues!  First, it was A LOT more work in the beginning.  It also meant we were a little farther away from school, which was hard since we only had one car.  However, it was nice to have all the activities for Rhett and I to do during the day and evenings when RAndy was studying.  And having our bikes was a LIFESAVER!  We were close to a movie theater, Costco, Target, Chik-fil-A and McDonald's (both with play places).  On days when Randy had the car we were able to ride our bikes to these places and on the bike path and have things to entertain us.
This is our set up in the trailer park. (Don't worry we didn't feel low class at all!!!)

Denver - Part 1 - The Drive

In pursuit of furthering Randy's education and broadening his career opportunities, he attended an eight week education course at the Medical Sales College.  The first four weeks are at home with course work, online quizzes and conference calls.  The second four week session is in Denver at the school.  We wanted our family to be together and so we all set off for an adventure in Denver.
We left on a Friday afternoon and with Friday Vegas traffic and pulling our trailer (aka: home for the next 4 weeks) it was slow going!
We made it to Cedar City late that night, actually 2am Saturday morning.
Saturday we started at 9am and drove all day.  We got to our last stop in Eagle, Colorado for dinner and gas before the heading into Denver.  We were about 2 hours out.  Randy pulled into the gas station, put the car in park and opened his door to get out and I looked up and we were rolling backwards!!! AWESOME!!
Due to the time, parts stores were closing and no dealers were open the next day, Sunday.  We had to make it to Denver by Sunday because Randy had to be in class at 8am Monday morning.
Randy figured out that the wiring that connects the gear shifter to the transmission was burned through and so it wasn't communicating the correct gear the car was in.  Randy disconnected the wires and manually shifted the car by crawling underneath while I sat with my foot on the brake! DOUBLE AWESOME!  Randy convinced me we were safe to drive the rest of the way to Denver.  I reluctantly agreed knowing we really needed to get to Denver and not jeopardize school and trusting his mechanical knowledge and we left for our last leg.
It's okay, that that leg was the toughest climb of the whole trip going through Vail.  We climbed 11,000 feet in 60 miles.  I was a nervous wreck!!!  I couldn't have been happier to pull into Denver at 1am that night, safe and sound.

Rhett was a champ for the 26 hour total drive!  We watched movies, sang, had dance parties, played with activity books, farting floam (huge hit but quite messy)  and did anything else we could think of!!!!  He earned a new toy from Target when we got there for being soooo good!

ER

After we got home from Arizona we noticed a lump in Rhett's throat!  Of course, it was 9pm on a Saturday night.  So, off we went to the ER.   We were there a couple of hours, they ran some tests and everything came back fine. The lump was a swollen lymph node, a sign he was fighting an infection. He was given antibiotics and we followed up with the pediatrician on Monday. Thankfully everything turned out fine!

Arizona

My sister Erin slipped and fell and broke her knee cap right in half!  She had to have surgery to put it back together and needed a couple weeks of recovering using a walker.  I was able to go for 10 days to help take care of her, the kids and the house while her husband Jeff went on a business trip.
We had a good time hanging out, going to the movies, the park and lots swimming and hanging out at Noni's.
Rhett got sick while we were there and puked all over me (in the face)!!  He would be fine during the day and then in the evening he would spike a 103degree fever!  It was so sad!

(Didn't do a very good job of documenting this trip so these are just random pics I happened to take)

Rhett and Fallon relaxing. 

Jumping off the diving board and Noni and Papa's

Gilbert Temple in progress

Rhett with all of Porters shirts on!!

Ready for some serious swimming.  LOVE the swim cap!