Denver Round 2- Papou's house

The second half of our Denver trip was spent with Papou and Jillee Bean. Again, we hit the ground running with trips to Wash Park, Tiny Town, American Girl store, Estes Park, Waterworld, and the mountains to see trains. Whew... a whirlwind for sure

The first day we got over to their house the kids were antsy so we walked up to the park and let them play on the playground there.  The park has a really cool old boathouse that rents all sorts of things... paddle boats, rickshaws, bikes, etc.  Someone had a brilliant idea that we should rent a four person bike and bike around the park.  The kids and I made out pretty well in the deal, we sat and enjoyed the scenery.  Papou and Henry on the other hand were the pack mules of the bunch and peddled us around the park.

We headed into the foothills to go to Tiny Town, a place that's exactly as it's name implies, tiny. The whole town is made up of miniature buildings that are super cute and perfect for kids. They also have a train which made Carter VERY happy. A week after we were there the train derailed so I'm not sure if we will be doing that again, but it was fun that day.

Georgetown, Colorado has a train that is awesome to ride so Wednesday afternoon we drove up into the mountains to ride the train.  So did 80 of our nearest and dearest friends and by the time we got there all of the tickets were gone.  I'd like to think it was divine intervention because not 5 minutes after the train left the station (open car mind you) it started to pour and the temperature dropped down to 50.  We would have been freezing!  So we watched the train take off, walked through the museum and drove up to Buffalo Bill's grave which is apparently in the 1000 things to do before you die book.

Addie was dying to get a "friend" for her bitty baby Caroline, and Jill was on the hunt for a birthday present for her so we went to the American Girl store for Addie to pick out a friend.  She choose one of the bitty twins and named her Emma.  The best thing about Caroline and Emma is that they can wear the same clothes!

Being kids at heart, Jill, Henry and I were itching to hit WaterWorld, the world's largest water park.  We went and got there shortly after the park opened and easily stayed all day.  The kids did great, no meltdowns, and we adults had so much fun!  Addie and Carter could ride all of the rides with a solid bottom raft so they went on several big rides with major drops and after it was over they would scream AGAIN!  We will for sure be making this an annual stop on our visit.

We were able to celebrate Carter's birthday again with Papou and Jill, along with Sara and Jon.  Carter is VERY into anything with wheels so the cars and trains were perfect gifts.  I think that whoever invented Thomas the Train was a genius and I wish I could have thought of marketing wooden trains to kids.  Carter hands down loves these trains more than anything else.