Broke into the old apartment...

This is where we used to live
Broken glass, broke and hungry,
Broken hearts and broken bones
This is where we used to live
-Barenaked Ladies, "The Old Apartment"

Three weeks since my last update?  Wish I had an excuse.  Life just intervenes with good intentions, I guess.  That or I was waiting for something interesting to talk about.  (Not that this promises to be all that interesting, but it's more interesting than "Woke up.  Fed kids.  Worked.  Fed kids again.  Wrestled kids into bed.  Repeat daily.")

For those who don't know, we spent the 2004-05 year in Ft. Collins, CO while Derek completed his large animal internship and I worked in Admissions at Colorado State.  (Why YES I do still measure my life in academic years, thankyouverymuch.  Side effect of a career in higher ed, I guess.)  We were surrounded by good people there, though I've never been so homesick as I was that year.  Derek would move back in a heartbeat.  But anyway ... last week the boys and I tagged along to visit old friends while the hubs went to Denver for a meeting.

The flight was far less entertaining than our last trip.  (Seriously, read it.  And this one, too.  Our in-flight adventures are pretty hilarious if they aren't happening to you.)  We ended up on separate flights this trip because we were trying to save a few pennies.  And I definitely drew the good end of that stick, taking Jay on my flight.  Entertaining a kid on an airplane is much easier when they have movies to distract and he's got his own seat in which to be entertained.  Oh, and Dear Derek's record is still perfect ... changing a poopy diaper on EVERY flight he's taken with kids.  I don't call him super dad for nuthin'.

We got there, found each other, and discovered our rental car upgrade - rockin' the minivan.  I mean, I don't want to drive one every day, but in a few short days I did come to love the sweet, sweet sound of automatic doors that open at the push of that adorable little remote.

So, what did we do?  We saw old friends and tried to catch up between two rugrats who were throwing crayons across the table.  We met new friends who are still probably talking about the fact that my kid needed four (count 'em FOUR!) trips to the potty during a one hour lunch.

We spent a day with Aunt Jamie checking out the dinosaur footprints at Dinosaur Ridge.  (Sidenote, this was REALLY cool, and even the grownups were pretty stoked!)

You could touch 'em.  

(Sidenote - I am definitely getting the Perry hands here - anyone else see my mom's fingers instead of mine?!)

 You could climb up the hill to walk on 'em, and then slide back down the hill.

 

 You could dig for 'em.  (They are digging up dino poo at this moment.  Boys and their amusement with poop...)

And you could hunt for fossils including REAL (okay, please don't be the one to break it to my kid that they aren't real!) shark's teeth.  Good times!

The next day we went to see my bestest Colorado bud who is expecting a beautiful girl on THURSDAY!  It's exciting times, but it's also scary times as she's having some medical issues that are complicating life for her and for baby E.  If you're in the praying mood, please lift up one for her.  And if you want to follow her journey, check out her little slice of the blogosphere.  It wasn't the completely quiet catch up time I'd hoped for, thanks to 2 failed naps and 2 rowdy little ones, but it was good to be together if only for a little while.

The funniest part of the trip was that I got to see the world's largest grasshopper collection which was residing in her front yard.  I made the mistake of hitting that sweet minivan sliding door button, and got a van full of grasshoppers and flies.  'Tis life in the country, I'm told.   Anyway, as I drove off, I turned around to check on the boys, and Luke had one garden variety housefly on each eyebrow and a grasshopper on the top of his head.  No I  am not making this up.  I screamed like a girl, pulled over, and swatted those things right out the window.  He just giggled.  Boys and bugs.  I will never understand.

And then when the hubs finally finished up his work, we got to spend a day just the 4 of us exploring our old stompin' ground in Ft. Collins.

We really did check out our old apartment, along with my old office, the old animal hospital, and our very favorite old restaurant.  Oh, Consuelo's.  How I have missed thee.  Luke, who had never before experienced the joy of good New Mexican food, was enthralled.  Everything soft and cheesy and full of beans?  Oh yeah.  Happy baby.  I should have gotten a picture.  He was all over it.


It was a fun trip down memory lane, a fun hike around Horsetooth Park, and a really fun day to spend with my 3 fave fellas.  And while I remembered the things I loved about living there, I must admit that I'm glad to be back in the heat and humidity of good ol' North Carolina.