Colorado!

We took a last minute road trip to Colorado last week to visit my brother Ryan and his wife Becky and their two girls! We are so glad we decided to go. We had a blast! R and B thanks so much for having us come and for all the fun!! Unfortunately Justin was too busy with work and school stuff, so it was just us girls.

 First off I should explain that there is a reason you buy a filter for your lens! So you don't get smudges on it!! Of course my cleaner was at home, so sorry you have to deal with the smudge right in the center on every picture! It makes me so mad but I guess any picture is better than none, right? I think Ali got her nose right up on it. Oops!

 The girls had all sorts of fun with this water table!

 We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (near Colorado Springs) and it was a really neat zoo. We all had a great time! The giraffes were first up and you could feed them! I have never seen that at a zoo!

 Shay was the only brave one. Check out her face! The giraffes have the longest tongues!! We were feeding them lettuce.

 They were this close to you!

 They had the most giraffes too. I couldn't believe they had so many!

 Look at these cute monkeys hanging out!

 Taking it all in.

 Lexie is the cutest. She poses for everything! It's so adorable.

 I loved this owl bench!

Grandma and Grandpa came on Saturday. My dad left Sunday but my mom is still there! I was so glad she came. Ali was so clingy the first few days and I pretty much had to hold her the whole time! She wouldn't go to Ryan or Becky (and they definitely tried) so when my mom came she was really excited! And I got some relief :)

 The zoo is located right next to the mountain and there was such a beautiful view at the top! You can ride the chair lift up, but our girls are too young we thought.

 Ali was in the stroller for the first half and once we got her out she couldn't have been happier!!

 Thank you smudged lens!! Ahh!!

 Ali wanted to walk everywhere all by herself.

 The girls all wanted to ride the carousel. This was the first time that Ali and Molly rode by themselves! Molly didn't want me to touch her! She wanted to do it all on her own. I was a bit nervous with Ali, so I held onto her, but she loved it!

 When our turn was over I practically had to drag Ali away! She wanted to go again and again.

 They had chickens too. They had a ton of animals including bears, elephants, a moose, tigers, lions, hippos, tamirs, wallabies, alligators, cranes, etc. and some that I had never seen before!! I'm really glad we went. It was a really fun zoo! The girls loved it.

Becky and I also made some jewelry for our girls!! She is the master mind behind these darling gumball necklaces!! If you would like to buy your own, visit her blog and/or etsy shop here! http://jujubstash.blogspot.com/ and jujubstash.

We also made bows. This was the damage we made in her craft room. Do you think we had fun?!!! We totally did!

Unfortunately I didn't take my camera with us to everything, but we also went swimming at a really fun place. They have two shallow pools that are 1 foot and 1 1/2 feet deep with a slide going from one to the other. My girls loved these pools! Remember that Molly has been so afraid of swimming? Well she had NO problem here. She is clearly afraid of deep water. Anyway, we had a blast that day!

We also hit up Target for a few things and I bought like 6 pairs of shoes/sandals for me and the girls on clearance! It's hard to pass up $2 and $3 when they are so cute! I will keep them for next summer.

We also went to the Antique Barn in Castle Rock that is a really fun boutique. We went to the outlets one day as well. We let the girls play and we watched some fun movies at night and of course we had EXCELLENT food!

The drive was 8 1/2 hours but it was well worth it. We stayed just short of a week. A lot of people thought I was crazy going by myself, but it's all freeway and the weather was perfect. I forgot to put the picture on here, but we had one meltdown on the way there in Denver, so about 40 minutes before we reached their house. I had given the girls some fruity marshmallows and Ali had spread them all over her face, hands and feet and was so mad about it! I had to pull over and wipe her down. For the long drive they really were so good! I was lucky! Ryan and Becky are in a brand new house so it was fun to see it plus we haven't seen them in months! Molly is right in between their girls and loves them so she was so excited we were going and she had a great time. We were really happy with how well the girls played and got along with each other. Every time it gets better and better as they get older and learn to share better! Thanks again R and B!!