Welcome Home DADDY!

When I flew back to Denver to drive home with Randy, Rhett stayed with family in Camarillo.  He had a great time having sleepovers and playing all day with the kids.  He was pretty happy to see his Daddy though!!! 

Denver - Graduation

Randy completed the eight week course and graduated from Medical Sales College.  I was able to fly back out to be with him for the presentation and drive home with him.  It was so nice to see each other and be able to spend that much time together since we had been apart for a couple of weeks. 

Denver Interupted

After only a few days in Colorado, a couple with out a car, I knew Rhett and I weren't going to make it the full four weeks!  Randy was in school from 8am to 5pm and had 3-7 hours of homework/studying each night.  We had no idea what it would be like so we didn't know he would be gone so much and that it would be such an intense program.  We found some cheap flights and booked them for Rhett and I to go home about 2 1/2 weeks in.  We felt the full four weeks would have been too long to be apart, we were able to be together for Rhett's birthday and explore Denver so we weren't sad we came but now this time would give Randy the opportunity to buckle down and finish with out worrying about us being back at the trailer waiting for him.  Rhett and I flew home sweet home to So Cal and were pretty darn happy about it!
Rhett was so happy to have friends and cousins to play with, he went to Camarillo with Nana and Grandpa and I don't think he came home for 3 days!

Rhett enjoyed the flight MUCH more then the long drive and so did I!  Even though it was a 5am flight and Rhett was in pajamas that were WAY too small (by his own choice) and we had to pack in shipping boxes because we didn't plan on flying home and so we had no luggage.  I am pretty sure we looked homeless but we didn't care!

Rhett's 4th Birthday!

Rhett is 4 years old!! Happy Birthday to our big boy!!! We love you so much and are so grateful to have you!

Rhett is really into Avengers right now!  He has never seen the movie he just thinks super heros are cool.  He is an excellent bike rider, great at riding his scooter, kicking a soccer ball and has an amazing throwing arm! He has a great imagination! He dresses up, does voices and plays pretend.  He is very coordinated and loves to play anything physical.  He is smart, energetic and a pretty tough kid.  His Dad is most definitely his best friend! 


We were still in Colorado for Rhett's birthday so we took him to a Rocky's game.  We first went to a cool park that had fun stuff to play on and had a couple of lakes and a huge walking/bike path.  Rhett choose to rent a big bike we could all ride and we rode around the park.  Then we got dinner and went to the game.  The best part of the game was the kids batting cage.  Rhett hit off a T for the first time and did a great job! He loved it!! We went back every couple of innings.

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!