Out of the mouth of....

We spent our Thanksgiving Day holiday and long weekend in Colorado this year.  Cole had never met Dave's sisters and families (four cousins).   It meant another Denham road trip which we are near experts at executing. This time it was 15 hours each  way including stops.  There wasn't much to look at in Iowa and Nebraska other than vast farmland but the weather was clear which we were thankful for.  Cole and Tucker both are such road trip warriors.  They have spent many many many hours and miles having adventures criss-crossing the country.  This was the first time though that Cole began with "are we there yet? are we in Colorado?  This is taking a lonnnngggg time!" 

For this getaway and to make things easier we stayed in downtown Denver at a dog-friendly hotel.  We had quite a few hours to fill between visits and a whole morning on Thanksgiving to ourselves.  This year, many stores were open and surprisingly (to me) the parking lots were full.  We took advantage of this odd change to holiday tradition (as it seems fewer and fewer people actually get holidays off anymore) and walked around the HUGE Bass Pro Shop Lodge.  Wow, talk about an experience.  Dave and Cole were like two kids running around.  Cole wanted to sit on every ATV, climb in every boat, play with the monster truck display, race cars in the kid's area and sit in the tents.  I was more of a shopper and decided to splurge on a nice windproof jacket.

We drove around a lot to find parks for Cole and Tucker, headed up to Boulder to see the town and have lunch, and spent time with Aunts Katie, Kelley, and Uncle Sean, Dan and the kids, along with of course enjoying a yummy Thanksgiving dinner (green chiles and cilantro under the skin of the turkey, best bird I've ever had) and lively conversation!  We also enjoyed an evening at the Denver Zoo walking around under the festive holiday lights. 

As we headed out early to begin our trek back to Minnesota, we were trying to get things situated in the truck before leaving the hotel garage.  It was dark, cold and we were all tired.   After a wee bit of grumbling, we got on the highway and watched a beautiful sunrise with the snow-capped Rockies bathed in the morning glow.  Cole was all chatty and being quite funny.  Dave and I had been talking and Cole kept coming up with witty remarks.  Dave goes "you have all the answers huh?" and without a moment's hesitation Cole volleys back "yes, that is what I do".