Denver

Over the weekend we visited Jared on his Denver away rotation. He had two days off in a row (I can't wait for when that's the standard and not a special occasion) so we took advantage and made the four-hour drive. We arrived Saturday afternoon, and we had dinner at Jared's hotel where he's living for the month. The food wasn't great, but free breakfast and dinner are always appreciated! Especially in a big city like Denver where eating out can get real expensive. 

Our first evening there we walked around Denver's Central Park. I think it's actually in Aurora? There was a duck pond and some cute playgrounds. 

On Sunday we got up in the mountains to see all that beauty. We didn't last too long. Sleep-deprived traveling toddlers are grumpy. Who knew?

^^Red rock trails. It was so cool to find these enormous red rocks among all the other Rocky Mountain terrain. So pretty. 

^^Evergreen Lake. A little on the cold side, but still pretty. 

^^On our final morning in Denver, Monday, we really wanted to take Jack to his first zoo, but they only let a limited number of people in with Covid and we didn't make a reservation in time. So we decided to do the aquarium instead. We were lucky to get a reservation there, since they limit numbers too. It was . . . a huge bust. The first issue was that Jack was terrified of the loud ocean noises and dark tunnels they had weaving through the place. They randomly had a room full of real tigers and Jack was so scared that they were going to eat him, oops. So we ended up carrying him through most of it. The irony is that the highlight of our Denver trip for Jack was when we took him *for free* to Bass Pro Shop to see the taxidermy animals and fish swimming around. He much preferred that and spent longer there than at the aquarium. You win some, you lose some. 

The second issue was that me and Jared visited the Atlanta aquarium when we lived in Georgia, which is like the biggest aquarium in the world, so this one was kind of underwhelming in comparison. No whales or dolphins or big sharks. But we went for ice cream downtown afterward and it was some of the best ice cream we've ever had! We got Little Man Ice Cream's famous salted oreo flavor. I'm going to have to try and recreate it at home. Soooo good. 

^^The park across from the life-changing ice cream.

^^Honestly my favorite thing we did in Denver (other than the ice cream), was playing at a park in this cute neighborhood near Jared's hotel. Instead of a bunch of houses across the street from each other, there was an enormous, long park in the middle of the road between houses. Miles of gorgeous walkways and bridges over a creek, playgrounds, big logs and rocks for kids to climb. This picture doesn't really show how cool the neighborhood felt. But it does show how cool Jack looks in his socks and flip-flops (his pool sandals). 

^^And here is Jack in his big boy pants watching the Denver traffic out the hotel window. My favorite picture of all haha. He's a terror, but he's a cute one.