Molly Piper

I snapped this one on the bus in downtown Denver. It’s so funny because I have about a billion pictures of Cadence with Whitsun. I have very few of one twin with one older sibling. Splitting up the set was pretty cute and Morrow loved riding with Cadence for a little while!

Abraham and I explored the area of downtown Denver called LoDo (which I think means “Lower Downtown”). What a blast! For you Minneapolis peeps, it’s kind of like a bigger warehouse district in looks, and more like NE Minneapolis in vibe. Super cool, basically.

We ate, we walked, we ate some more, then walked some more…

My favorite part of the night was discovering these little footbridges! They were lit with these blue lights, but then when you walked under them, there was a sensor that changed the colors and put little designs all over the ground! So cool!

This is how Abraham interacts with awesome bridge:

And this is how I interact with said awesome bridge:

I needed my little musical theater moment!

One night while we were in Denver we had a pretty insane amount of rain. Orison came bolting out to the garage, where Abraham and I were sitting to watch the crazy downpour. He was worried about a flash flood. We calmed him down, then asked him to sit with us awhile. He of course was very eager, because that meant getting to stay up after his bed time.

After sitting there for a few minutes watching the rain fall in sheets, Abraham said, “We’re gonna regret it if we don’t go out in this.”

So he grabbed his little sidekick and off they went running and jumping down the street. The water was flowing down the street like a river! Definitely memorable.

I love how vacation reminds you to lighten up a little. Let the kid stay up later. Enjoy the rainfall. Maybe even go play in it. I hope I can bottle up whatever that is about vacation and take it home with me!

[Instragram photo: Katie]

I told you I’d post more pictures, didn’t I?

Orison kept teasing me about how the water was warm and I should try it out. He loves playing tricks like that, and his face lights up when the person discovers the truth.

While I drove to the top of the world, I vacillated between excitement:

and pure panic.

Here’s my little mountain climber showing his muscles.

Katie somehow caught this one of me and Abraham at the top of the world.

And this one is for my girls (you know who you are).

[All photos via Katie]

For our Fourth of July celebration, we decided to drive down to Colorado Springs to do a little mountain exploration!

Funny story: on our drive here, as soon as we crossed the Colorado border, the boys were yelling, “Look! A mountain!” from the backseat. What they really saw were some slightly rolling hills, about 20 feet high. I suppose after driving across Nebraska, anything looks like a hill.

Anyway…after consulting with some Colorado dwellers, we decided to not go to Mt. Evans on the 4th of July (our original plan), because they thought the traffic might be horrible coming back. We took their advice and did Pike’s Peak and Garden of the Gods. It was an awesome day–really hot (but it truly is a dry heat, which I didn’t used to believe in, but now I do), beautiful blue skies, and amazing rock formations! The kids all traveled really well, too, so that always helps!

I won’t even try to do justice to Garden of the Gods with the pictures I took, but will put some up later of the ones Katie (our nanny) took. (P.S.: Katie took over 500 pictures yesterday. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!)

But here’s a funny little video of Morrow playing on the rocks. He told me last night while I was getting him ready for bed: “I’m good at climbing mountains!”

Then after our time at Garden of the Gods we had a little picnic in Manitou Springs (crazy little cute town that it is!).

Happy Fourth of July from Cay-Cay & Widget!

After our lunch we decided to do the drive up Pike’s Peak, which is over 14,000 feet! I drove the entire way up, and am happy to report that I only had to do lamaze breathing a couple times! It was pretty freaky at times, especially knowing that I had six other people (who are everything to me) in the car with me.

It was so cool to drive above the timberline. That was at about 12,000 feet. The trees just start dropping off and the ones that are trying to grow are all puny-looking, just because they don’t get the moisture and oxygen they need to grow up there. So amazing.

I was also a little obsessed with watching the temperature drop. Our rear-view mirror has the temperature gauge on it, and it was fascinating to watch the temperature go from 90+ at the bottom to about 55 at the top. Loved it!

When we got to the top, I definitely noticed a difference in the air. I even felt a little nauseated. We brought plenty of water and snacks so we were good to go after a couple minutes.

I kept proclaiming loudly, “We’re at the top of the world!”

And here’s a good one of my man with half of his brood.

So any of you experienced in Colorado, tell me: is the Pike’s Peak drive comparable to the drive up Mt. Evans? Is the Mt. Evans drive scarier? I’m just curious and trying to weigh our options for things we should or shouldn’t do during our time here, especially with kids.

We’ve been in Colorado for a full 24 hours now. I’m happy to report that all has been without incident (aside from one vomit in the van from the 2-year-old and a little altitude-induced headache).

This is where we’re going on Monday:

[via Rob Reiter]

We’re going to drive up Mt. Evans, which is apparently the highest paved road in North America! The drive up there sounds really freaky (lots of crazy turns, no guardrails, etc.), but I figure… I’m in COLORADO! Bring it on!

I’ll try to post some pictures from our time there. Stay tuned!