The Kennedy Ballpark Tour checked off our 10th ballpark this week with a visit to the Mile High City! Here is a look back on this tradition that started seven years ago:
Day 1 (Sunday, June 17th): Flying to Colorado and seeing the Holsts
Although Emmy has flown on a plane once before, I wasn't sure what to expect with a 19-month old (vs. a 7-month-old). Children under 2 fly for free, but they must sit in your lap; they do not have their own seat unless you purchase one. The best I could hope for was that Emmy would sleep for most of the 3-hr flight. If not, I was armed with all kinds of snacks, books, and small handheld (but quiet!) toys. The flight was at 3:30PM that day, so we spent the morning packing and playing, and then we headed to the airport around 1PM. Emmy would usually be taking her nap at this time, so it was a gamble to push that back until the flight time. Luckily, Emmy was so fascinated by things in the airport, she played and explored until we boarded the plane. We decided to check our bags (a Kennedy first!) so that we could have more hands available for keeping up with her. Even without our suitcases, we still had to keep up with the stroller, Boomer's laptop bag, the diaper bag, and my shoulder bag with the Ergo carrier. One of us would usually stay with the stuff, while the other followed Emmy around the terminal. When it was time to board the plane, I used the carrier to keep Emmy close. She didn't like that very much, but it made for a hands-free boarding of the plane. Once on the plane, Boomer started feeding Emmy some Cheerios and other snacks, and just as we were taking off, she fell asleep! I have to admit, one of my favorite parts of the whole vacation was having her asleep on my chest. She slept for close to 2 hours, and when she woke, we went back to eating snacks and then reading books for the duration of the flight.
After landing, we picked up our rental car and made our way to the Holst's. When we got there, we had such a wonderful welcome and a yummy dinner. They have a beautiful home in the Washington Park area, complete with a guest suite downstairs in the basement. It was the perfect set-up for our family of three! With the 2-hour time difference, it was close to 9PM (11PM North Carolina time!) when we put Emmy to bed. She was a trooper all day and pretty much fell asleep immediately. We stayed up just a bit later with the adults. Overall, it was a very smooth travel day!
Sunday was Father's Day, and although traveling didn't really allow for a special celebration, it was mostly special to be spending the whole day together. I am constantly amazed at the man, leader, and father that Boomer is for our family. He effortlessly juggles work, school, and home, and he makes his girls feel very loved. Happy 2nd Father's Day to the best man I know!
Day 2 (Monday, June 18th): Museum, play time, and pizza
We woke up to a foggy, chilly morning in Colorado. Our initial plan had been to go for a hike, but we opted for an indoor activity instead. Christina has a membership to the Museum of Nature and Science, and so she got us all in for free! The museum has a lot of fun activities for children, plus exhibits of still animals and wildlife from all the different regions of the world. Levi, Ethan, and Emmy especially loved the dinosaur pit, where they could dig around for fossils in the small rubber rock chips. After the museum, we got lunch at a Colorado fast food chain called Good Times Burgers and Custard. We especially liked the 'Wild Fries' with the wild dipping sauce. That afternoon, while Helen and Emmy napped at home with Boomer, Christina and I took the boys for a stroll around the Washington Park neighborhood. The sun had come out, and it was a comfortable mid-70s. The kids then played out in the backyard before it was time for baths and dinner. We picked up pizza from a local restaurant called Homegrown Tap & Dough. Dave and Boomer got to have their favorite, Meat Lovers, while Christina and I shared a Margherita pizza, and plain pepperoni for the kids. After dinner, Christina and I went for a run, while the daddies took care of bedtime. It was a nice 30 minutes of mommy girl-time. The whole day seemed like the kind of day we would have if we lived there. It was so fun to be a tourist but have friends that know all the things that locals do.
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| Denver skyline from the Museum of Nature and Science Arboretum |
Day 3 (Tuesday, June 19th): Hike and Colorado Rockies Game
The weather on Tuesday was a bit better for a hike, so after eating breakfast and getting all the kiddos ready, we set out around 9AM for the town of Morrison, just about 40 minutes from where Christina and Dave live. Morrison is known for the Red Rocks Amphitheater, an event venue with lots of natural red rock formations. We didn't actually see the amphitheater, but we did see a lot of the large red rocks. The landscape and the mountains are a little different than in North Carolina. The rock is more reddish, instead of the grayish sandstone I usually see in NC. Some of the mountains have the similar pine trees, but some of the mountains seemed more bare. The homes and tourist locations have a different architectural look to them, too. For our hike, we did a kid- and stroller-friendly trek called the Castle Trail at Mount Falcon Park. There were beautiful views, and at the top (approximately a mile from the parking area), there were ruins from a large, stone home that caught fire in the early 1900s. The kids enjoyed climbing and exploring the remains of the old home. On our way back to Denver, we stopped in Morrison for lunch at the Country Kitchen. During lunch, there was a big rain storm with hail! Christina said that hail is quite common in Denver. Our timing seemed to be perfect; thank goodness we weren't caught outside in it! After lunch, we managed to keep all of the kids awake until we got home for naps.
That afternoon, we went into downtown Denver for the last two nights of our trip. After checking in at our hotel, we walked around with Emmy in the stroller. Our hotel was located on Welton Street, very close to 15th Street, which seemed to be a major road in the city. We explored the Union Station area and then made our way to the game. The initial game time was 6:40PM, but the temperature had been dropping since that storm during lunch and there was a tornado watch. Once we got to the ballpark, the first raindrops started to fall. Boomer had surprised me with club-level tickets, so the area behind the seats was enclosed. Luckily, we stayed safe and dry, and we even found a table to park at while we waited out the storm. The new start time was 8PM, and it was a cool 57 degrees. Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of the game because of Emmy's bedtime, but we did get to see the exciting back-to-back-to-back homeruns by the Rockies in the 3rd inning. Emmy loved sitting on Daddy's lap as we watched the game. Daddy is definitely raising her to be a baseball fan. The Rockies ended up beating the Mets 10-8, and the Kennedy Ballpark Tour checked off Coors Field!
Day 4 (Wednesday, June 20th): Denver Zoo
After a pretty full day on Tuesday, we were all a bit tired. It was tempting to sleep in, but we also didn't want to waste our last day in Denver. We ventured out for breakfast at a place called Sam's No. 3 on Curtis Street. It's a diner and grill that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives several years ago, and it was within walking distance of our hotel. Boomer got the steak and eggs, and I got the Denver omelet. Both of our meals came with a side stack of pancakes, which Emmy loved. We ended up taking her eggs and blueberry cake to-go, since she was much more interested in eating the pancakes. After breakfast, we met back up with Christina and her three kiddos at the Denver Zoo. We spent the first hour or so together, and then we stayed a little longer after saying our goodbyes. It was easier saying 'goodbye' knowing that we will be seeing them soon back on the East Coast. They will be moving to the Raleigh area in late July, and we are so excited to have them in NC again!
After the zoo, we opted for a 'light' lunch of ice cream. For my birthday in April , Christina sent in the mail some "Bonnie Bucks" to be used at a local Denver ice cream shop, called Bonnie Brae's. Boomer had the Amaretto Peach, and I had the Black Walnut. It was worth the two-month wait!
We went back to the hotel for Emmy to get a nap, and the downtime was nice. We then got cleaned up and went to a popular Denver restaurant, called ChoLon. The restaurant was only about three-quarters of a mile from our hotel, and it was a nice evening for walking. A girl I went to high school with, Dani Craig, is the general manager, and she was so helpful when I reached out to her to initially plan our trip. During our emails, she invited us to eat at her restaurant, and so I was sure to include it on our itinerary. The restaurant is a top-10 Denver restaurant that specializes in Asian-style food, and it did not disappoint! We had a little bit of everything: shrimp rolls, potstickers, pork belly buns, beef skewers, their specialty - soup dumplings, spicy chicken sliders, and spiced donuts and coffee ice cream for dessert. Emmy did great throughout the entire dinner, even trying some of the potstickers and shrimp rolls, probably her most adventurous food yet! Our final day in Denver was a fun one. We packed a lot into our day and our bellies!
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| Notice Emmy doing the sign for 'more' :) |
We had an early morning (4:30AM!) on Thursday to catch our flight home. The morning passed by quickly as we checked out of our hotel, returned our rental car, checked our bags, went through security, and boarded our flight. Emmy again slept on the plane, and everything seemed to go so smoothly. Maybe we've got a hang of this traveling-with-a-child thing! When we arrived in NC, Meg was there to pick us up. I was so glad to see her, but I was also sad for our trip to come to an end.
Like with my blog from last year, I'll end with a few things I learned about traveling with a little one:
- set realistic expectations. If you have low expectations, then it is easy to exceed them!
- pack a lot of snacks! TSA is actually quite lenient on the food you can bring with you onto a plane.
- build in downtime for naps. It is tricky sometimes in a hotel room to find a quiet, dark place for the crib...you just may have to hide in the bathroom until the crying stops!
- try to keep some normalcy to the routine you have at home. I brought a few small books with us, and we read them at night before bedtime. I think this helped signal to Emmy that it was time to go to sleep.
- lastly, it's hard being stylish in the city with a dress and diaper bag!
- lastly, it's hard being stylish in the city with a dress and diaper bag!
It is always fun to travel and see new places, especially when it also means catching up with best friends. I truly love this tradition we have for our summer vacations. We are thankful for all the memories we made, and we are also thankful for home. Emmy was all smiles during bathtime last night as we settled back in to our regular routine. The Kennedy Ballpark Tour counts on -- we are already looking forward to next year!
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