Family Outing

Well, this three-day weekend is off to a good start.

Kate and I decided that we would take this Friday as a family day and decided that we'd head down to Denver to do...something. It was a toss-up between the Denver Zoo and the Children's Museum. We decided that this would be a seriously low-key outing, with no timetables or need to be somewhere at a particular point. We would just head south and see what happened.

We didn't even bother to truly decide where we were going until we hit the north edge of Denver. At that point I decided that I wanted to take Tessa back to the Zoo. We have a membership with the Zoo so it wouldn't cost us anything to get in. Since we'd been to the Zoo a few times this year, we wouldn't feel like we HAD to see everything and read everything and so on within the time of our visit. We would just pop around and see what we really like to see and call it done.

So if you've never visited a zoo when the weather is cool and cloudy, this is me advising you to give it a try sometime soon. The cooler weather meant that many more of the animals were out and active. (As opposed to the summer time when it often too hot for most critters.) We made a beeline through the Great Cats as saw the likes of servals, a leopard having a meaty bone for lunch (Tessa: "Big cat eat rock"), a several tigers. We took Tessa through the Tropical Discovery building - one of her favorites - where she was fascinated by fish, turtles, frogs, and komodo dragons (which she can now say). She was frightened by an iguana, and I watched another lizard fall out of its tree then lunge at the glass to try and get me.

We took a look at some of the arctic/sea creatures, and it was the first time I'd ever seen the arctic foxes up and moving. The sea lions were also active and we watched them from the underwater viewing area, though they made Tessa a little nervous. We popped over to see the wolves and watched a single white wolf pace the length of its habitat. We then doubled back because Tessa wanted to see bears. We paused at the giraffes and the lions...and the male lion started roaring, and Tessa decided she was done here.

We took lunch at the Samburu Grille, with Kate having a grilled cheese sandwich, Tessa having a pizza slice, and me having a chicken quesadilla and nachos. We then cruised through the elephants, a few hoofed animals, the monkeys and finally the bears. Oh, we'd also seen the mongoose pack and a pair of enormous African (Asian?) porcupines. And by this point it was getting on to 3pm and we were about done with the Zoo.

My other reason for picking the Zoo was that I was hoping we could duck over to the Museum for part of the afternoon as well. We waffled a little bit about paying full price admission for only two hours of time, but then we just went ahead and did it. I really wanted to take Tessa through the Museum because she's getting to an age to actually notice and be interested in certain exhibits.

We visited the Discovery Center first, where Tessa got to play with magnets, blocks, puzzles, a see-through piano, an air tunnel with mesh scarves, giant foam blocks, a dinosaur pit, and several types of tambourines. I have to admit that some of my favorite moments of parenthood involve just watching my daughter discover, explore, and play. There is really nothing quite like it.

When the Discovery Center closed, we took Tessa through the Wildlife dioramas, which she found more engaging than we initially thought she would. Lastly we took a quick run through the Space Center and let Tessa try out a few things. I personally found the infrared camera to be the coolest thing - it showed that Tessa is one hot-blooded little girl, as opposed to her somewhat refrigerated mother. :-)

We left as the Museum closed and headed off to our planned dinner at Sweet Tomatoes in Westminster. If you get a chance to try this place, it's just fantastic. It's a major league salad bar with a wide soup bar, plus some pasta, bread, baked potato, and dessert options. Very cool. Tessa gobbled down peas, beans, noodles, mac-and-cheese, cheese foccachia, green peppers, grapes, and raisins. I personally managed to have two salads and minimal pasta - for a change.

After dinner we headed back north to Fort Collins, where we put effort into keeping Tessa awake on the drive. We succeeded and Tessa was a relative snap to put to bed. The kid was actually really, really good all day. She had only one semi-meltdown and it was obvious that it was only because she was so tired at that point in the day. We were able to calm her down in just a couple minutes.

We also did the whole day without a stroller. Tessa either walked on her own or was carried by me or Kate. Less to lug around and maneuver, making us more flexible in what we did.

So I'm chalking this up to a really great day. We get so few chances to go out and do something non-stressful as a family. It was wonderful to give ourselves this opportunity.

Naturally, tomorrow we're going to try to get a few things done around the house, including grocery shopping and a Goodwill run. Plus some reorganization if we get the chance. If we can get our meager to-do list done tomorrow, it might mean another day of rest come Sunday...which would be seven flavors of awesome.

As always, thanks very much for reading...and I hope you and yours are having a great day!

Busy Relaxing Weekend

I hate to tell my gaming buddies this, but not playing on the weekends is really helping me get stuff done around the house as well as spend quality time with my wife and kid.

Another pleasantly productive weekend. Saturday was pretty low-key where Kate, Tessa, and I spent the morning just hanging around the house. Kate got some cleaning down while Tessa and I played World of Warcraft. (Tessa is very concerned that my Tauren Warrior doesn't have any shoes, but she also thinks my Blood Elf Mage has big ears and jumps well.) While Tessa napped in the afternoon, Kate and I prepped a few meals for our friends Bill and Tammy, who recently welcomed a daughter into their family. We remembered when Kate's Dad visited with us and cooked three or four meals for us after we got home with Tessa...and it was a blessing not to have to do any cooking or cleaning. We tried for the same, sending a lasagna, a chicken tetrazini, a chicken and black bean casserole, and a dozen or so homemade dinner rolls to the new parents. Kate also put together a apple-cranberry crisp as a dessert for dinner at the Keyes' home.

Dinner was a "mole" chili that our friend Ron put together. Let me tell you, if you ever have the opportunity to have my amigo Ron cook a soup or stew for you, take the chance! It was a great chili, and everyone seemed to enjoy Kate's dessert as well. We gave the sizable leftovers (Kate made a double batch) over to Bill and Tammy in case their sweet tooth needs tending to.

Here's some pictures of their baby girl, named Felicia Irene Keyes:





Great hair, huh? :-)

That evening, I got to feel like a real father because Tessa wanted me to read her bedtime stories while Kate hopped into the shower. When Tessa started to whimper that she didn't want me to leave her, I pulled her into my lap and held her close, rocking and bouncing her gently. She nuzzled on in and within ten or so minutes, she had dozed off. That's right - my daughter fell asleep in my arms. I may have fallen in love with her all over again; I'm not sure. :-)

After Tessa was down, Kate and I played a couple rounds of our new expansion of the Dominion game. I have to say - this is a fun game. Many thanks to our friend Dave and Gina for introducing it to us!

Sunday morning was a lazy affair. Kate's lingering cough had kept her up part of the night so she wasn't in a hurry to get up. Fortunately, we had a couple of church services to choose from so we stayed in bed an hour or two longer. Tessa started to have a fit, but again Daddy was able to hold her close and calm her down. Yay me!

We went to church then ran some errands around town real quick. Then we brought Tessa home and with some effort put her down for a nap. While she was resting, Kate and I continued our weekly project - namely, picking a section of the house and totally weeding/organizing it. We've been working on our office/guest room and I've been mercilessly throwing tons of stuff out in an effort to trim down our stock of stuff and furniture. And I have to say, it's felt really, really good to do so. It continues to amaze me how much stuff I keep around that I really don't need or even want. And it's also amazing how GOOD I feel once I've gotten rid of it.

So Kate and I plowed through the office again, this time with the goal of consolidating our books and other materials from four bookshelves down to the three. We were more than successful, and we now have a large bookshelf ready to be hauled away for Arc or Goodwill. We're hoping to do the same with our computer desk next since it's really more desk than we need...but that'll be another weekend.

I also did a little weeding of my t-shirts and the books we keep in the hallway and bedroom. More decluttering progress!

By the end of it, neither Kate nor I felt like cooking the dinner we had planned. So instead, I fished out some money from my cash jar (my "allowance" - made up of the dollars we save by my taking the bus to and from Longmont instead of driving) and made a quick hop over to King Soopers to buy a discounted large pizza and some broccoli-cheese soup for our dinner. Boy, after a productive afternoon and evening, some high-fat, greasy chow sure tasted great! ;-) I also grabbed a cheesecake slice for dessert but it was getting late and I have work in the morning. So we're saving the dessert for tomorrow.

All in all, I gotta say that I'm enjoying these weekends. The work around the house not only feels good to get done, but it's also good time that I spend with my wife and Tessa. Kate truly appreciates the time together as well as the completed chores so it's a win in both our eyes.

Here's hoping we can keep up the pace. :-)

As always, thanks a lot for reading and I hope you're having a really great day.