We traversed the wilds of Oklahoma and Kansas to finally reach the suburban homestead of the Flinders. This is where our company divided. Gabriel and Elijah were picked up by their Opa who took them to Disneyland and Legoland with some of their cousins. Meanwhile, Marc and I and three littler boys stayed in Denver to do Denvery things with uncle Marcus and aunt Rebecca. We were a little nervous about sending the twins on away on airplanes for several days without us but by all accounts they were pretty well behaved.
Our first little side trip in Denver was a small historical museum which included a little outdoor town. While we were touring the various buildings, some sheep escaped their pen and started running down the main pathway. There were no employees about so I took it upon myself to herd the sheep back into the pasture and close the gate. From now on, I expect people to address me as "shepherdess".
Our next mini-adventure was to a place called "Tiny Town". It is what it sounds like... a town made of tiny buildings, more than 100 of them in fact. There is also a real steam engine that will take you for a ride to see more whimsical structures that can't be seen from the walking paths. The little boys loved it! It didn't hurt that there was a playground and soft serve ice cream. Beware the gift shop, however. Everything in there is outrageously priced, even for a gift shop. We just walked through it to see how much an engineer's hat would be. The answer was $20, which was too much for a child's hat even though they were cute. Unfortunately, while we were in there Tobias bumped into a plastic snow globe which fell on the floor, cracked and started leaking. You can find this quality of snow globe at any dollar store but we had to pay $10 just to throw it away. I hope you enjoy our generous "donation" tiny town. Anyway, we did have a lot of fun playing in and around the miniature buildings. Our favorite was a little greenhouse complete with a search and find puzzle hidden in the intricate details.
Of course, we also had to hit the zoo while we were there. We saw several baby animals, fed the lorakeets and watched the hyenas during feeding time. The boys were fascinated by so many of the animals. Here are some of their favorite things we saw.
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| Mommy and baby leopard. He was nursing when we first came in. So cute! |
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| The green mamba, a snake Marcus became acquainted with on his mission in Cote D'Ivoire. |
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| Benjamin is utterly unconcerned by the presence of a deadly snake. |
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| Seahorses... "those don't look like horses Mommy." |
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| The Komodo Dragon, the hardest kind of dragon to train. |
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| It's a hip-hop-o-potamus, his lyrics are bottomless. |
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| The boys could have watched these penguins forever. |
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| David John found this convenient place to rest his map, if only it was a little bigger he is sure he could figure out where to go. |
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We're glad we paid the extra bucks for the wagon. By the end of the day we were all jealous of his supine position.
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Marc hit a Rockies game while we were in town and got this cool shot of the stadium.
Happily, the twins did make it back from their California trip and we prepared to make the long drive home to North Dakota. Our last stop was to see our dear friends Carla and Kevin and their new baby Luana. For Tobias, it was love at first sight. He didn't want to stop staring at her and kept begging to hold her. I can't blame him, she is a doll. We played at the park and had a very sophisticated meal at McDonalds, the boys had seen a McDonalds with a playland and were desperate to go. It was so good to catch up with some of our Cleveland buddies.
And thus ended our insane summer road trip of awesomeness. We all made it home in one piece and lived happily ever after.... or something like that.
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