We woke up at 4:00am in order to catch our 6:00am flight to Salt Lake, then on to Denver to hang with Iverson's and go to a BYU game. We met the cousins at the Meow Wolf museum downtown. I had been before with my sisters but I figured it was an experience my kids needed to have.
The strange art museum is incredible, overwhelming, and odd, and the kids loved it.
This tiny shark diorama was made inside an old radio with tiny plastic sharks.
We all loved what we called Elsa's castle.
It was Hattie's birthday but since Anna was gone for the night to a drama thing they were waiting to have the party on Sunday. But we still got to enjoy her favorite enchiladas for dinner and pleasant time talking and playing with Paco...
who seemed to want to be baked in the oven.
Saturday morning we headed to Brainard Lake and hiked over 5 miles into the lake and out again. It was perfect hiking weather, beautiful surroundings and great company.
When we got back we ate lunch and I laid down for a nap.
I woke to discover the girls making soap with Mel. Lily designed the purple and Emily the wave looking one. They loved learning from Mel and you could tell that Mel really loved doing it.
We got our BYU gear on and heading into Boulder, found parking and walked to dinner. The adults and Emily were thrilled with our Indian food, where Lily and Niels opted for Pizza Hunt, which turned out to be an odd experience. The employee skipped to the register and when I asked if they accepted Apple Pay they responded, "Nope. Just peach pay." Then when reading back our order they said anchovies on Niels pizza. I just ignored it and Niels didn't even hear it, but when Lily mentioned it he started to panic so he went back in to check the order. The short version is that he eventually got his plain pepperoni pizza even though I paid for a meatlovers, the pizza took way longer than our Indian food, there were no anchovies in site, and everyone agreed that the Pizza Hut employee was a bit quirky.
With full bellies we walked to the stadium and were impressed with the beautiful brick structure - this Picture in the dark doesn't capture it.
The Colorado University Buffalos are famous for their mascot, Ralphie, a bison who literally comes and runs around on the field before a game and during halftime. Some wranglers run with him and we were all awed by how fast they were able to run to keep up with Ralphie. I can't imagine how scary it would be to run that fast beside a bison. I'd be scared to trip. It was pretty cool.
Niels and the girls enjoyed the game and playing on each others phones...and mine apparently.
The game started out rough but in the end turned out to be a really good game with a final score BYU 24 - CU 21. We hurried out of the stadium, avoiding unhappy fans. In general people had been pretty great, which I appreciated, especially since I had littles with me. We said goodbye to Mel and Niels and headed to our hotel by the airport. On the way Natali let us know that President Nelson had passed away during the game. At 101 it wasn't a shock but we hadn't expected it. With conference only a week away we have a lot more to anticipate than usual.
We didn't turn out the lights till 1:30am and were up by 4:50 the next morning; we were all sleepy on the way home.
In Salt Lake we joined Greg in the Sky Lounge and felt bougie eating the free breakfast and sleeping on the couches. It was agreed that it had been a fabulous weekend other than not getting enough sleep. We all loved the time with cousins and the activities we did together. Guess we better come back to Denver another time!
