Family Fun Fall 2017

This is a collection of random pictures from the fall that won't make their own blog posts.  They aren't necessarily the greatest pictures and you may not see my kids' faces in many of them, but they document some of the things we did and places we visited.

We really love the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  This was a trip in August before heading back to school to see one of their traveling exhibits "Nature's Amazing Machines".  The kids and I really enjoyed this exhibit.

We spent quite a bit of time exploring this exhibit.  There was even a spinning office chair where they gave you "wings" and you could flap them and make yourself go in a circle.  There was a good line for that but all of my kids took a turn (but I only have videos).

No trip to the DMNS is complete without a trip to the Discovery Zone for Bree to play.  This particular day they had a wind tunnel with scarves to make fly.  Bree loved it!

Just a couple of days later we had another last minute summer trip, this time to Sky Zone.  

I love how you can see Bree in the background of this picture.  And look at just how much taller Kai has become in comparison to Finn.

Painted rocks have become the trend in our area and Finn was excited to find two right next to each other outside of the Children's Outpatient Specialty clinic when he went in for his late August CF clinic visit.

Over Labor Day weekend we finally made it to the new Briargate Park, John Venezia Park.  The kids love this spinning "Christmas tree".  It terrifies me.  See Finn in the orange shirt on the outside of the ropes?  Yes, he climbs all the way to the top whenever we go to this park and he does it on the outside of the structure while it is spinning and the kids are yelling "Faster, Faster"!  Ahhhhh!

There is a fun sand area that Bree enjoys playing in at the park.

And the splashpad is awesome--even if the water is really cold!

A trip to the zoo in September let the kids meet the tree kangaroo up close and personal.  Isn't he cute?

And who doesn't love watching the Grizzly Bear go fishing in his pond?  See Finn knocking on the glass??

Kai really liked the moose.

Our Cubmaster this year planned some amazing pack meetings.  This was his first ever pack meeting and he arranged for the Flight for Life team from the hospital he works at (as an ER doctor) to fly into the church parking lot and talk to the boys.  It was exciting for sure!

The last weekend in September we attended the JDRF walk in support of our friends, the Gearharts.  They often walk with us at Great Strides and we have been wanting to join them and we finally got to.  This picture may not seem like much, but this is Finn actually high fiving someone dressed in a costume!!  He has been terrified of characters and costumes since he was a toddler and so we have been worried about taking him back to Disney while he still struggled with this fear.  Reid offered him some money to reach out for a high five and we walked by and Finn took him up on the deal and ended up realizing that characters and costumes aren't that scary.  It was a major breakthrough.

Also at the walk was our good friends, the Burnhams.  They have a little boy Finn's age that has type 1 diabetes.  Finn and Keene were in Pre-K and Kindergarten together but I doubt they will ever be put in the same class again simply because of their health issues.  But Keene's little sister Evie has become a friend of Bree's.  They were so excited to see each other at the walk!  Looking at this picture, I can't believe how big Bree's shirt was on her at this point.  So funny!

On a trip to the brand new Dollar Store in Monument Bree found a painted rock.  It was an awesome find for her!

This.  This is the face that she makes at me when she is coming to ask for something.  Seriously.  How am I am supposed to say no to this face?  And the thing is, she knows it!  I'm going to be in so much trouble as she gets older.

The Friday before Thanksgiving I checked the kids out of school early and took them on a surprise.  We had tickets to ride the Santa Train out in Royal Gorge (about an hour and a half from out house).  It was a lot of fun.  There were games, hot chocolate, cookies, and of course, Santa.  Remember Finn's discovery just a couple of months earlier?  Well, it paid off here when he happily greeted and spoke to Santa for the first time in his life!  In this picture they are anxiously working on their Christmas Lists.

There is a "North Pole" set up along the route and we went out on the open air car to get a good look.

Presenting their lists to Santa.

Family Picture taken by one of the fun elves.  When we bought the tickets they tried to sell us a dinner package.  It was overpriced and not a lot of food my kids would eat so we declined.  What I didn't realize is that half the fun on this trip is eating.  Everyone else was ordering food, drinks, etc.  We had just stopped and McDonald's on our way and filled up so we didn't need anything.  I felt bad because the elves were our servers and I'm guessing they were hoping for a tip from our two tables.  But um....yeah.  Not paying $25/person for food after already dropping serious cash on the tickets themselves.  Oh well.  We still had a great time, I just felt a tad guilty.