Have Children, Will Travel - Part 1

This summer, while Jon went to Germany to do a 3-week training for the military, I decided to pack the kids up in the van for a road trip to Colorado & Kansas. I figured that driving hours on end was more appealing than sitting at home as a pseudo-single parent, slowly going mad. ;) The kids were pretty excited because we were on our way to visit cousins they rarely get to see.

Before we left--the day before, in fact--my parents sent us a little surprise: a swing set! David & Jacob came over to set it up for us. Here is a video of the kids' reaction to seeing their very own swing set for the first time...

They even got to play on it a little before they had to go to bed. It was fun to watch...

We left early (-ish) the next morning and began our drive to Aurora, Colorado to stay with Netta & Bobby. I'm told I hold the Mortensen family record for taking THE LONGEST time to get from Logan to Aurora: 12 hours (I'm a pretty slow learner...it took me a while to figure out that you can't pull over every time one of the kids drops a toy or a crayon or their movie has ended). It's a title I'm pretty proud of. Haha! We finally made it, though, and had a great time.

There was a park a little ways away that we walked to for an afternoon picnic. Alex & Elise had so much fun running around with Dominick, Gabriel & Alana.

Bobby brought along some bubbles to blow for the kids and it was fun to watch them run around trying to catch them...

The kids rode in their cousins' mini cars to and from the park (we even had a wagon "hitched" to the tractor so we could pull another child and our picnic trappings along with it).

Our caravan...

Another day, Netta & I took the kids to a water park. The weather in Aurora was really interesting around this time (first week of July); it was beautiful in the mornings and then around 1 pm the black clouds rolled in and it usually began to rain. We were at the water park before the rain set in, but the clouds had already rushed overhead and it was a little chilly in the water, but the kids still had a fun time.

I think Alex was a little more content to play a little and then watch a little, though. He doesn't really care too much for cold water.

I think Alex was trying to warm himself up here. It was pretty funny because Dominick came up to him and said, "What are you doing?"

On the 4th of July, we took the kids out the the Aurora Reservoir. We rented a paddle boat first and then a water bike, which is something I had never seen before. The kids were very excited to take their turns riding with Bobby and me.

Elise got to go out on the bike with me first. I learned the hard way not to go too far out into the water. Not that it was scary, but it was QUITE the work out trying to get back to shore!

After I'd had time to rest my aching legs, Alex and I went out on the bike together. He really enjoyed himself.

There were a ton of people at the reservoir that day (not surprising since it was a holiday, after all), and there were lots of people doing BBQ & playing loud music. Bobby got a kick out of teasing me about being the minority for once. ;) We found a cute little playground on one end of the reservoir and let the kids play for a while. We managed to get a shot of almost all of the kids (standing still, too!), though Alex had about had it with our attempts by the time I got this one in. Love the smile, Alex. Haha! After that, we gave up and just let them play.

On July 5th, we loaded up the van again and headed to Wamego, Kansas (northeastern part of Kansas, for those who are curious) to visit Jen & Jared. Alex & Elise were very excited to get to see Grant & Jacob again.

In the mornings, Jen & I took the kids to a fun park a few blocks from their house. They had some pretty cool toys there, like this 4-person teeter-totter...

...and a REAL tractor (I think this was Alex's favorite)

Jen & me enjoying the shade.

We had a nice picnic at the park one afternoon.

Of course, you can't go to Wamego, KS without visiting their Wizard of Oz museum! We took the kids to look at all the Oz stuff and took their picture with the Tin Man.

Jen took us to this really cool new water park she had found in Manhattan.

It was huge! My favorite feature was the red pole shown to the right below. It had little tubes stuck to the top like shaggy hair that sprayed water everywhere.

The water was cold, but it was so hot that day, we enjoyed it.

Well, most of us enjoyed it. Haha! Alex and Elise played in the water a little, but they were more content to sit on the bench wrapped in their towels.

We came back to Manhattan another day to a park nearby. They had this fun twirly toy at the edge near the parking. I talked Jen into taking a spin so I could get a video of it. Unfortunately, I was holding my camera sideways (grrr!), so instead of a video, here's a still shot...

It looked so fun, I couldn't resist getting on and trying it out myself...

This was the muggiest day we had had yet, but the kids still enjoyed themselves.

Elise's favorite thing to do at each park we visited was to play on the swings. This park was no exception. She likes it when I run under her seat...

On the hottest day of the week, Jen & I packed all the kids up in the car to drive down to the swimming pool. It had rained a little that morning, but we called the pool before leaving to make sure they would be open. I think our phone call made the teens working there decide to close because they were shutting things up when we arrived. *sigh* So, we set up the wading pool with the swing set to make a water slide in Jen's back yard and had our swim anyway.

And then the kids got to dry off on their towels while they each enjoyed a popcicle. This is my favorite picture from our time in Kansas.

One evening, while we were out in the yard with Jen & Jared, the kids found a frog. They were all very excited and crowded around Jen to pet him...

"Helping" to pick raspberries.

This is a cute picture of Grant & Alex playing on the jungle gym at the school near Jen & Jared's house.

When our week was done, we drove back to Aurora & stayed a couple more days with Netta & Bobby. Then, on our way back to Logan, we stopped in Greely, CO to visit Greg & McKenzie. It was a great reunion for Alex, Elise, Kinley & Gavin. Alex & Elise had really missed playing with their friends.

Greg & McKenzie took us out to Windsor to show me the house they would be moving into shortly and then we went to this amazing park nearby so the kids could play.

While we were there, this enormous white bird (I'm not sure if it was a pelican or a crane...I'm a novice when it comes to birds) flew in and landed in the pond next to the swings.

Greg & Makell

McKenzie & Makell

There was a huge tower in the center of the playground with lots of slides coming down from various heights (hence all the slide pictures), and I dared Greg to go down the highest one. So, he did.

Then he dared me to go. It kind of reminded me of the movie A Christmas Story when Schwartz says, "I triple-dog-dare you!" Here I am at the very top...

...and here I am coming out at the bottom. The slide was so fast, you literally popped out! It was fun, but I think the other parents there thought we were weirdos for daring each other to go down this slide. :)

I was really impressed with how well the kids did on the trip. I remember trips from my childhood where I used to get mad at Justin for "sweating on me," and perhaps this wasn't like that because they weren't strapped together in the same seatbelt in a van with no air conditioning, but still...I didn't have to use the DVD player nearly as much as I thought I would. In fact, on the way back to Logan from Colorado, we hardly used it at all. They were content to color or watch the scenery...or sleep. :D

When we got home, the kids were excited to remember that they had their OWN swing set just like Grant and Jacob! So we got ourselves a cheap-o wading pool and set up our own water slide.