Into the Wild
We woke up Saturday morning to some rustling and snatches of conversation coming from the kitchen. Liz popped up out of bed, threw on her robe, and shuffled toward the noise with a handful of cash. Female voices whispered back and forth with vague familiarity as footsteps drifted toward the door. It creaked open, farewell tones were exchanged, and then the door softly whumped closed.
I was awake after that, so I joined Liz and her mom in the kitchen as the sitter drove away. Over some cereal, Liz and I discussed our plans for the day: we wanted to take the girls to a wildlife preserve, followed by a trip to an indoor waterpark. We figured we would break up the two activities with lunch in between; we decided to meet up with the others in town for that. Other than that, everyone got a break from the Lau family for the day, which I’m sure was a delightfully quiet stretch.
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge was a lot of fun to tour. We were able to drive around the massive property, getting out at a few spots to see some waterfowl and a couple indoor/outdoor ferrets. Everything else we saw (fairly up-close) from the safety of our car: elk, eagles, bison, and loads of free-range prairie dogs. A great audio tour accompanied our drive, filling us in on the history of the park (it was actually an arsenal during WWII, and some bunkers remained intact) and the wildlife.
Munch, Splash, and Crash
We zipped back into town for lunch at Buffalo Rose, a cool enough spot for vaguely Tex-Mex food. We joined up with the rest of the family there and shared an assortment of appetizers and dishes, from street tacos to burgers to the much-raved-about Colorado green chili.
Fueled up from lunch, the Laus struck out again for some more family fun, this time headed to the Apex Center. This fitness complex has a full gym with rock climbing walls, ice hockey rinks, and an indoor water park. We spent the afternoon splashing in the multiple pools, riding the water slides, and chillin’ in the hot tubs. It was a great way to get out some energy on a rainy, windy day.
When we returned to the house, there was some debate about dinner plans. Liz’s parents offered to watch the girls so the "young couples" could get a date night out on the town. This seemed like a fun idea at first, but the four of us couldn’t agree on where we wanted to eat. I wanted to check out a Nepalese place in Boulder, but Liz was pretty wiped from all the running around and was more keen on take-out. Liz’s cousins wanted to hit up Denver again to bar hop and just get food wherever the mood struck. We didn’t want to hold them back, so the Laus stayed home. We also had a much earlier flight the next day than them, so it made sense for us to just lay low, pack our bags, and eat leftovers.
By around 8PM, the girls were sound asleep on the air mattress and Liz and I were ready to turn in as well. We had hoped to say goodnight and goodbye to her cousins that evening; we didn’t want to disturb them at 4AM when we would be heading out, but they ended up not coming home until close to midnight. Instead, we left them a note saying we enjoyed hanging with them in Colorado, and to please take out the trash and do the dishes before leaving — a “last one out gets the crap jobs” situation.
Rise Up
Despite decades of being a night owl, I now no longer have trouble getting up early. Liz is willing enough to rise early if she has to, but we were concerned about how cooperative the girls would be — it’s tough enough getting them out of bed at 9 on the weekends, let alone predawn. I figured we would just load everything up before waking them, and that I would probably end up carrying one kid over each shoulder and slumping them in the backseat at the last possible minute.
The kitchen was a quiet hive of activity in the early hours of Sunday, my in-laws heavy-lidded but smiling as Liz and I shimmied past them to pack snacks and fill waters and tidy up what we could. As always, I was happy to play the role of Sherpa, more eager to lug bags out to the vehicle and load them with Tetris-like precision than to have the hassle of actually packing said bags or doing any of the other finer details of cleaning.
When it came time to get the girls up, I knelt by their bed and debated who I would sling over my shoulder first – my oldest is the heavier one, but the little one is more wiggly. As I rested a hand on the air mattress and the girls rose a bit from the shift in pressure, a brilliant idea struck me. I pulled the plug on the mattress, sending the air whooshing out. The whole thing slowly caved in, with the girls rolling toward the center. “Oh no!” I whispered in fake concern. “What’s happening? You’re sinking!”
The girls, collapsing in a jumble of blankets and limbs into the middle of the bed, began to giggle and squirm. I leaned on the bed to force the air out faster, playfully jostling them as “the ship” went down. Thank God that plan worked; instead of two grumpy girls resisting everything they needed to do that morning, they climbed out of the rumpled remains of their bed with giddy energy and happily got ready to go. If only I could pull that stunt when they need to get up for school every morning…
Soon enough, it was time to hit the road, the chilly morning air chasing away any last remnants of fatigue from my bones. We got in the SUV, set the GPS for the rental return, and headed toward the airport under a dark blanket of stars. The highway rolled right under us without interference, and we dropped the vehicle off with time to spare. From there it was a shuttle, a train, and a plane ride back to PA, everything running like clockwork.
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