We went out to Denver in October. It was a bit of a risky vacation weather wise, but we ended up with weather in the 80’s.

It took forever to drive out there. Baby H hates the car now. He screamed for a good portion of the trip.

Our first day of sightseeing we went to the Denver Botanical Gardens (for a little over an hour, but I could have spend tons more time there, just not with kids), the Denver Zoo (for four hours), and the Museum of Nature and Science (for two hours, but we needed more time). It was too much in a day! We were very tired walking around the large zoo, and ran out of time at the Museum. But we loved everywhere we went, and with the amount of time we had I wouldn’t have changed it much. (Also, we used this pass which made it rather inexpensive.)

The next day we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. It ranks low on my list of National Parks. Pretty good hiking, but the trails are crowded because we took the short easy ones, and it’s a national park. It is gorgeous, but one of the reasons I like to hike is for solitude. People taking selfies around you isn’t exactly solitude. There was also a pretty cool herd of elk there, that you can get pretty close to. We choose not to drive around the park either (see above), so we missed out a bit on that.

Final day in Denver was a trip to the Butterfly Pavilion. It was a zoo for invertebrates, very fun if you are into that sort of thing. (I did take entomology in college and might have been teaching a tidbit I actually remembered to a tour guide.)

I came across this quote in a book I read, and it really made me stop and think.

I will finish by leaving you with a word that I would like to see totally expunged from the English language. Ladies and gentlemen, may I suggest you let fun out of your lives? For it is, brothers and sisters, a mongrel word, an ersatz word, a fast-food bucket of a word! What does it mean? Consider the shameful usage: “I was doing it for a bit of fun,” or “I thought it would be fun,” or “I was only having fun” and, worst of all, the little bit of white on the top of this chicken dropping, “Are we having fun yet?”

Why have fun when you could have enjoyment, amusement, entertainment, diversion, relaxation, sport, a bit of a lark, and satisfaction and probably contentment.

Fun pretends to be about enjoyment, but is merely about the attempt. In search of fun, people pull themselves towards places that advertise fun, but they are probably to be avoided, since, in my recollection, fun means trudging around a soaking wet seaside town wearing plastic raincoats that, no matter what you do, always smell of fish. All right, maybe I’m only having fun with you? –Terry Prattchet,  A Slip of the Keyboard

Lately, I’ve been trying to stop asking myself and others if we are having “fun” and instead asking  if I am enjoying myself, if I am happy, content, or relaxed. So, randomly doing things in front of a screen might be “fun” but I’m not really enjoying myself. Trying to have a “fun” bike ride isn’t relaxing when oldest son hates riding bikes. Looking for fun gets me nowhere. But looking for happiness and joy can. Sometimes it comes at random times…watching my children wander around the garden and bring me strawberries. Getting the biggest hugs picking up my son from school. Finishing a big project, eating pumpkin chocolate chip bread with my family, making a surprise birthday present. None of these things are really “fun” but they brought me more joy.

(I know one of my categories is fun, and it’s on the tagline of this blog. But I’ve got a nice alliteration going, so it’s staying.)

Switching gears, we had that big deal about the moon a while ago. It was disappointingly cloudy, and these pictures were as good as it got for us. I still enjoyed trying to see it with the boys, and there was a slim time when you could see a tiny bit so I was happy we did.

I was in the parade with the Community Garden float. Which, by the way, won an award. My niece was up to visit and got to to ride the float.

Exhausted afterwards, I stayed home with napping baby while Joe took the kids to the carnival rides and car show. I was okay with that. There is only so much crowded events I can take. But the kids adored it of course.

I’m tired and grumpy today. But I still want to be semi-productive, so here’s a photo dump of Instagram pictures.

We had cousins in town who loved trains, and our weekend with them was spent with trains.

First we went out to Golden Spike National Historic Site. It’s been a couple of years since we went out there. The kids liked it a lot. I was a bit bored, still remembered it all from last time. This time we did also stop by the ATK rocket display. It was a just a smallish display of rocket pieces, but worth stopping by if you are going that far west.

(Here’s a comparison picture.)

On Labor Day we went on the Heber Valley Railroad. There were some violinists on the train, and Peter followed them around the train listening. He loves music.

PB went to his first day of kindergarten today. When I took him in to do his kindergarten assessment,  he was determined to be the best in kindergarten and is very excited. He tries so hard, I think he just might be the best. Other and I have just called him “smart”, but he is smart for a reason. Last night he spent a half hour trying to learn how to tie a shoe in one sitting, and wouldn’t quit until he felt he could do it. He didn’t really get it (I don’t think it’s something you can learn in just one sitting when you are only 5), but he tried so hard until he felt like he could do it. I’ve learned teaching that kid that he will get frustrated, be loud and cry, but he doesn’t want to stop. He wants to keep trying until he knows he can do it.

C arranged a bunch of letters in a line and told me it was a coconut tree. (If you don’t understand that you don’t read enough children’s literature.) We keep finding random caches of stuff like a few Legos, game pieces, balls and actions figures in a Halloween pumpkin–it’s little C. He loves to take all the pillows (in the living room there are nine) and pile them all up someone. He likes being comfy.

Baby H has started to talk. And he says crazy things like “outside” and “applesauce.” His only consistent words are yes, mama and dada, but he has a bunch of others he will say if you listen. My favorite is “love you.” He also claps his hands when he is happy and waves goodbye.

I used to keep track of art projects and crafts better. We usually do about one or more a week and they add up. So I stopped caring about taking pictures or keeping them. But this one was different and fun so I actually took some pictures.

Did you know you could paint with sunflowers. We have a bunch of them outside, and the centers work like a inked paintbrush and make some lovely purple patterns.

This year has not been a year of vacations. We’ve been trying to get the remodel in our house done, and we have a baby. We camped a couple of nights with my family up at Rock port. It was a bit cold and rainy. Still fun.

His uncle decided to give a marshmallow

I also had fun showing the Fairy Forest to my family. We had a bunch of little kids with us and they all loved it.

My sister has more pictures here. 

Within just a couple weeks, Henry started to crawl, wave, clap his hands, and cut three more teeth in. Someone is excited to grow up.

Summer is winding down. We’ve been playing at the pool and with friends. Sometimes I can convince Peter to ride his bike. He has a hard time trying new things, and even though bike riding has been available to him for a long time, he hasn’t done it consistently enough for it to not be a new thing. Piano, however, is a new thing that has stopped being a new thing, and he loves to go through his piano book. I think I might have to sign him up for lessons soon.

Peter does love singing. Lately he will go through a songbook and just sing the songs though. We’ve been getting renditions of Praise to the Man and Go Round and Round the Village. I love it.

Curtis is finally starting to talk a bit more. I think he will always be a bit quiet though. We are working on potty training though with very little success.

Pictures taken in June by Becki, Joe’s sister.