Thursday, 18 July, 2002

Chris’ family–Larry, Linda, Jenni, Becky and her baby Andrew–arrived late on Monday evening.  Amy had to give up her bed and room and has been sleeping on a mattress in our closet while they have been here.  She thought it was great fun the first night, but I think it is losing its appeal.  They are leaving tomorrow though so she can go back to her own bed soon.

On Tuesday, they just hung around here for most of the day until about 4.  They drove to Chris’ work and the girls and I joined them later, both of the girls had late naps.  We then went to Boulder and walked up Pearl Street.  It has a lot of interesting shops to visit and a variety of interesting people to watch.  They had a fountain for kids to play in that shot water up into the air.  We peeled them down to their diapers and let them play.  After Pearl Street, we went to the Olive Garden for dinner.  We wanted to treat Jenni and Becky since they had both had birthdays, and Chris ended up paying for everyone. 

Wednesday we spent the day up in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.  They have a lot of fun shops to explore, and we spent much of the morning looking.  We got a quick lunch at McDonald’s and took it to a park to eat.  The girls and Andrew had fun playing on the toys and expended some energy.  Amy and Alicia were asleep within minutes after we left to drive up into the national park.  We spent a couple of hours driving to one of the highest peaks, but noticed as we were coming down a lot of smoke in the sky.  A forest fire had started not too far from where we were.

On the way home, we stopped at Walmart in Loveland while Chris’ family headed on home.  Becky and Jenni weren’t particularly happy with our choice of activities for the day.