It started Friday morning when I had the opportunity to take the two little kids to Disney on Ice. We were offered last minute free tickets and couldn't say no. The kids loved it! And as much as I loved the show myself, it was even sweeter to watch my kids mesmerized by the skaters. The 2 hour program even kept Ryker, at only two years old, focused the entire time. He didn't talk other than to turn to me several times and ask, "Where Goofy go?" (I think Goofy was his favorite!) As for Sydney, she said her favorite was "all of the girls, but not the boys."
Friday afternoon our whole family packed up the car and drove 5 hours southwest of Denver to Montrose, CO to attend the holiday party for the local Down syndrome community on Saturday morning. Gilby was going as the RMDSA representative, so we decided to take everyone along. Although we didn't get to our hotel until 8:30, we still let the kids swim for an hour before bed. They thought that was the best.
Being that Friday was also Gilby's birthday, we stopped for a super fancy dinner at Burger King in Glenwood Springs.
The party was really fun Saturday morning; the kids ran around, played with new friends, and even got presents from Santa. Gilby and I had a chance to catch up with some of the nicest families. From the party we got back in the car and drove another 3.5 hours to Avon, CO where we happened to have a place to stay for the next two nights. The weather was gorgeous, so we took a slightly longer drive in order to go over McClure Pass, and I am so thankful we did. The mountain views were breathtaking and it was neat to see a new area of this beautiful state we live in.
We took it easy for the next few days in Avon with no real agenda other than to spend time as a family. We took full advantage of the 4 hot tubs and 2 pools at the place we were staying, and spent a lot of time swimming. We went out to eat, walked around town, watched football, a Christmas movie, and the kids kept themselves occupied playing (mostly nicely) together. We even let Myles miss school Monday, and came home Monday afternoon.
Overall, it was great to spend time with just our little family before the busyness of the holidays, but honestly, there are a lot of things about traveling with little kids that can be tough. First, there's the packing, then the actual traveling, the unpacking, the unfamiliar environment, not much sleep, the inevitable meltdown by somebody, etc, so for a homebody like me, I sometimes wonder if these little trips are worth all the energy and work for Gilby and I. But then I remember why we strive to create experiences and memories for our kids - there's the anticipation, the excitement over the littlest things (a hotel! a hotel bed! a hotel elevator! a hotel breakfast! a hotel pool!), the togetherness, and the bonding - watching our kids entertain each other for hours with only a few toys and big imaginations. These are the things that make it more than worth it.
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