Colorado Springs and Utah...Again!

I think a little explanation is in order regarding the purpose of our Colorado and Utah trips. Jason is a member of a couple of planning teams at his office. The planning teams consist of members from three main locations: Oklahoma, Utah and Georgia. The teams meet once per month and they rotate the location of their meetings among the three states. When the meetings are not in Oklahoma, we travel with him. It is fun seeing other parts of the country. We love to travel and we love being together. Plus, we make a little money doing it!

September took us back to Utah - the place we love to go because the halfway point is Colorado Springs and home to the most amazing friends on the planet. Every time we've been to Utah, which is three times this year, we stop in Colorado Springs on the way up and on the way back home, which gives us at least five days of fun with the wonderful, relaxing, totally accepting, generous, people-loving Madrids. It couldn't get much better than that! This was our first trip with both children and we were so excited for Steve, Michelle, Danielle, Zach and Tricia to see Jackson and to meet Allison for the first time.

We left a few days shy of Allison turning six weeks. The trip there wasn't too bad. Jackson got sick the day before we left (congestion) and Allison was coming down with whatever he had as we were driving. She was a bit fussy, which slowed us down, but we still made pretty good time.

Since we've traveled quite a bit in our married life, we learned some valuable road trip lessons...lessons that work for our family. Before kids, we hardly made stops. With one infant, we'd stop at a restaurant to allow plenty of time for Jackson to nurse and to be free of his car seat. As he got older and more mobile, we'd still stop at a restaurant, but we'd allow him to run around with one of us while the other waited on our food. Then, we got smarter, or should I say more organized, and started packing our food to eat in the car so that the entire stop could be spent running around at a rest stop or playground (if we were lucky enough to find one). On this trip, I was determined to find playgrounds for him to run, climb, slide and jump. The only problem was that I didn't get food packed. We all know that finding a playground often means fast food, and I am no fan of fast food. Neither one of us are. But sometimes I've gotta let that stuff go and just enjoy life, right?! So we stopped at Sonic and it had a great playground.

Alli even got her first ride down a slide!

Maybe it's just me, but I think they look so much alike:

We got to Colorado Springs late Thursday night and didn't have to leave for Utah until Monday morning. As always, our time with the Madrids was relaxing and wonderful. They are the best people to hang out with and excellent hosts because they make things comfortable and don't get bent out of shape when things aren't perfect. It's so refreshing!

With so many people around, our children got lots of attention. Allison was in someone arms quite often. What a lucky girl she was!

Michelle and Allison:

Zach and Allison:

Tricia, Zach's fiance, and Allison:

Zach and Tricia are getting married next May. Jackson is going to be their ring bearer!

Danielle and Allison:

Danielle was getting all dressed up for a themed birthday party for one of her friends. I love her lashes in the preceding photo. Aren't they aweome?! And here she is all dressed up and ready to go:

What a fun party!

Jackson always has a blast with the Madrids. He loves their three dogs, Buddy, Bella and Daisy. Bella is his favorite. He calls her sweet Bella. It's precious. He loves to put them in and out of their kennels. He likes to take them outside and then bring them back inside the house. He loves petting them and telling them, "No!" When I see him with their dogs, I think, "He really needs a pet." But then I come to my senses and realize how much work I'd be signing myself up for...and I'd rather spend that time with my kids.

Here is Jackson with the dogs:

Jackson, Steve and Daisy:

Jackson also loves the Madrids freezer. He's fascinated with the ice maker and water dispenser. Last time we were there, he filled a cup with ice, took it outside, and dumped the ice in the dogs' bowls. Then, he'd come back inside and do it all over again. He probably did it 30 times over the course of the weekend. We tried to avoid that this time. Their freezer also has a neverending supply of popsicles!

Pure delight for our little sugar-toothed toddler:

Jason was in heaven both Sundays we were there. He got to watch tons of football with Steve! And if you don't already know, he's a huge fantasy football fan. He plays on two free fantasy teams. One is with my family and the other is with some friends who were stationed in Italy with us. Jason and Steve both play in both leagues. I like fantasy football too. Before things got too crazy with the kids, I had a team. Now, I don't have time to play. (Prehaps I should say that I don't have time to play competitively. I could have a team, but I'd never win because I don't have time to do the research.) Everyone in my family loves sports, especially football. I've been watching football since I was a little girl wearing my Oiler blue; but, I have to say that watching football is a lot different now that we play fantasy football. This is what game time usually looks like:

A lot of our time at the Madrids is spent hanging out in the kitchen or in their family room, which is adjacent to the kitchen. Both of our families love food and love cooking, so this set-up couldn't be more perfect! Way to go, Steve and Michelle, on picking out that great floor plan!!


Allison turned six weeks old the first Saturday we were there. When we woke up that morning, I realized we were both wearing the exact same thing we wore on her birth day. I couldn't believe she was already six weeks. I had Jason take a picture and I can't believe I am posting it!

I got her all dressed up to go shopping with the girls, and this is the only photo I got:

Steve, I am so glad you were holding her!

Later that day, we got a family photo:

Sweet baby girl spent lots of time sleeping on their super comfy couches:

We had her propped up on the boppy because she was pretty congested and didn't sleep well lying flat. Both of my kids were congested the entire time we were there. I have no idea how many tissues Jackson went through, but it was a lot. As gross as this may sound, we couldn't believe that so much stuff could come out of one little nose! And his nose wasn't even sore.

She's getting so big:

We arrived in Utah Monday night. Tuesday, I took Jackson to Hill AFB and we played on a playground while Allison slept peacefully. It was so nice to be able to play with him. My arms were free! While we were running around together, I felt that deep internal happiness that you get when life just couldn't seem better. We played some of the same games that we played when we were there in March. I have missed him so much. Since Allison's arrival, I haven't been able to give him as much individual attention as I'd like to. I know that's part of having more children and part of having a newborn; and, every day gets a little better.

Wednesday, I took Jackson to Ogden's Union Station. It's a train museum and he loves trains. He had a great time climbing in some of the old trains and watching the model trains ride around the tracks.

This is what he does whenever I say, "Smile."





Look at how tiny he is compared to that great big train. I couldn't believe the wheels were so large.




As much as he enjoyed the museum, what he really wanted was to ride on a real train. Later that night, we took a train from Layton to Ogden, had dinner, and then rode the train back. It made me feel like I was in Europe again- getting on a train, no car seats for the kids, walking to dinner, and then walking back to the train station - until we got into our big American car and drove back to our hotel.

Thanks to Jackson, Allison had here very first train ride! Before Jackson turned one, he had been every mode of transportation I can think of: car, bus, airplane, shuttle, train, boat...





Thursday morning, I drove to Salt Lake City and took Jackson to the children's museum. It is by far the best one I have been to. We went back in March and we couldn't wait to go again. Since I took so many photos last time, I videoed this time. These are the only photos I took. Once again, he was in love with the cars. He loved filling them up with gas and airing up the tires.


Thursday afternoon, we loaded up and headed back to Colorado Springs. Both the Exums and the Madrids had an eventful Saturday when we went to Santa's Workshop at the base of Pikes Peak. That post is coming soon!