There's No Place Like Home

We're back.

The bags are unpacked, groceries bought, mail sorted, bills paid and bug guts washed off the windshield. After spending a week at the "Country Club for Pets", Ruby has now had her much needed visit to Pawsh Wash for a bath and pedicure. We're back to work, daycare and life as usual. And I am back to blogging.

This trip to Denver was unlike any other. I took 2 books along and didn't crack either of them. We didn't go shopping. We didn't visit Peter & Ryan (bartenders extraordinaire...you haven't tasted heaven until you've had one of Peter's lemon drops) at Morton's for date night. But it's not just Drew & I anymore. This was our family vacation. And it couldn't have been better.

We received good advice from our friends with small children - drive at night. So we packed what seemed like everything we own (testing the trunk capacity of the Passat to say the least) and headed to Junction City, KS on Friday afternoon. After a brief stop at Gram & Grump's new house for dinner, we got Jackson ready for bed and hit the road shortly after 8 pm. That left a 6 1/2 hour drive. Jack slept for a good portion of the drive, but needed me in the backseat with him to coax him back to sleep when he woke up. We arrived around 2:30 am Denver time. I can't imagine doing it any other way. Jackson is way too active, and not much of a fan of the restraints of a car seat, to attempt such a drive during the daytime. Fortunately, we made it safe and sound and had a whole week before we had to do it all over again!

Mom, Jack & I stayed around the house quite a bit, but we had at least one activity planned for each day so it never got boring. Drew stayed even busier. Over the course of the 7 days he played golf 5 times on 5 different courses and went to a Rockies baseball game. By Drew standards, it's pretty hard to beat that.

I took tons of pictures and will work on getting them online this week. For now, here are a few highlights.

Jackson met GG (his Great Grandma, my Nana, Gwen) and cousins Heather and her son Charlie.


Our family went to Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

We visited Papa's office.

Drew & I had an adults only day at Coors Field for a Rockies game.

We took a trip to Boulder to see Aunt Nikki.

We spent a little time at the pool.

And a lot of time in the courtyard.

And, best of all, got to hang out with Nana, Papa & Aunt Nikki for a whole week!

Fortunately, Jackson was a real trooper on the way home and we managed to do all 8 hours in one stretch (again, driving overnight).

So there you have it. As always, it was hard to say goodbye. And while our first vacation was a terrific one, and I already miss having my family around, I must admit there's no place like home.