CO over Labor Day

We were #blessed enough to drop Kate off with my parents over Labor Day weekend and then drive 7 hours to Colorado to spend some fantastic catch-up time with our college friends who live there, Caitlin and John, and another couple from Lincoln, Mikayla and Brendon, and their little baby Lucy. It was rather impromptu, super relaxing, and involved the only three things I really wanted to do: a trip to IKEA, a visit to a brewery, and a hike. Oh, and adult conversations without a toddler interrupting us every 2.2 seconds.

Cora was as well-behaved as a baby can be, with two days of 7+ hours in the car within a 4 day period. The way up was great -- she slept or was mostly quiet most of the time. Of course the next couple days she woke up at her normal time (aka early for Colorado time) and had some scattered naps, so she wasn't an angel, but one kid is a breeze in comparison to 2.

IKEA was our first stop. It was a dreamland as per usual, with me wanting to purchase almost everything they have in stock. What can I say, I'm a millenial, and they have some killer minimalist furniture at a decent price. They were unfortunately out of stock on the nightstands I wanted, but we got everything else (toy storage furniture) and Cora chilled in the sling when she got fussy and it was grand. Minus the Denver traffic after.

We spent Saturday hanging out, and mainly watching Cora's new trick which involves us saying "sooooo big!" and her thrusting her hands as fast as she can into the air. You can see her demonstrating it above although it's lots harder to do when you're laying on the ground than it is when you're sitting. Baby problems, am I right?

Lunch was at Breckenridge Brewery, which was super amazing and delicious although I had a cold so I didn't have any beer. Although let's be honest, I'm not really a beer person. We annoyed our waiter by all showing up in Husker gear except for Caitlin (haha), and funnily enough he also worked at Husker bar in Denver as his second job so he gave us some grief. #worthit

Later that night we went to Mass, and then afterwards watched the Huskers marginally squeeze out a win against Arkansas State (ughhh) and I had a Denver Beer Co beer, this Princess Yum Yum, which maybe is the all-time best name for a beer. And I actually liked it!

The next morning we went for a hike and I think David realized how out of shape he is. Although, how in-shape can you feel with a 22+ lb baby strapped to your back? I felt pretty good which was nice in comparison to past vacations where I felt crazy out of shape during hikes.

We even took a sweaty baby family photo (minus Kate!).

We went out to a delicious Mexican place for lunch that I didn't take any photos of, and then had dinner al fresca (?) in between naps, games of pitch, and a fierce competition of The Resistance. It was awesome.

Cora was considerably less happy driving home, mostly because she couldn't get to sleep which is bizarre and then was just too tired and also tired of being in the car. But we survived AND got that cute photo of her in the front seat while I made a coffee pit-stop so win-win!

A huge thank you to John & Caitlin for opening up their home to us and dealing with a crying baby way too early in the morning and feeding us tons and just all-in-all being fantastic hosts.

It was an amazing weekend and I want to go back, like, immediately. Although let me catch up on laundry first, please.
HG