Botanical Gardens

We spent the day visiting Grand Junction’s quant botanical gardens. 

They have a butterfly house that is just the perfect size for a 2.5 year old. 

They had maybe 10 butterfly’s flying around and Jaydon had a great time watching them. 

I’ve been to other butterfly houses that seem like mansions compared to this one (with stairs, multiple levels etc.) but this one was just big enough that you could walk around or sit and enjoy the butterflies and feel like you’ve seen it all before kids attention spans diminish. 

One Monarch butterfly was particularly well behaved. 

He sat on the rock long enough for me to get several dozen pictures, and a video. 

After we finished with the butterfly’s we explored the grounds outside that had some neat local art work that focused on the history of the area. 

They also had a special kids castle which was great fun but unfortunately we got to it a little too close to lunch time so didn’t spend as much time there as we could of. 

Jaydon was not too sure of this guy when he first saw him; Grandma had to show him that he was just a sculpture and wouldn’t move. 

He also had fun sliding on the dragon (the other side was the slide). 

And did some gardening with the kid sized rake and ho. 

Inside the castle was a chest full of dress up clothes, I think Jaydon is a bit too young to get into dressing up.  He kept asking Grandma why he had to have the bib on for the picture :)

3 months old

Tylor is 3 months old today. 

Grandma and Jimmy helped him celebrate and Jaydon busted out in song for him. (well after a little convincing that is:)

And yes Grandpa, he does get a birthday every month until he's 1 then he can actually eat the good stuff (cupcakes, ice cream etc.) and that when they only happen every year.

Apple Trees

For those of who don’t know, my parents grow fruit (cherries, apricaots, peaches, plums, apples, pears) in Palisade.  During our trip it was peach season and just the start of apple season. 

The orchard right outside my parents house has Akani apples which are basically a small Johnathan and are the perfect size for kids hands.  

A trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s house just isn’t complete without some fun in the apple trees. 

Jaydon loved climbing the ladder and didn’t hesitate a bit to go all the up to the top rung.  He had fun climbing in the trees and picking all the apples he could manage to reach. 

Tylor enjoyed being outside and watching his brother. 

We also ventured over to the plum orchard and Jaydon got to taste tree ripe blood plums which he loved (they’re my favorite kind of plum too but you never see them in stores). 

Jaydon had a fun time in the orchard but by the end he was getting a little tired (and was especially sick of all the picture taking) so gathered up his apple bucket and went home…

Tylor Update

Based on the pictures and stories from our trip you probably are wondering where’s Tylor…

he was there of course but it’s a tough gig being number 2 with a big brother like Jaydon who is an attention magnet.  Tylor absolutely adores his big brother; one way to calm him down if he gets a little fussy is get Jaydon to talk to him. 

He’s also become very in tuned with Jaydon which means if Jaydon cries Tylor immediately starts up too. 

Tylor has had pretty bad reflux (excessive spitting-up) and the doctor prescribed Dopridrone right before we left for the trip.  It worked like a charm but gave Tylor fairly bad stomach cramps.  

I started to do research on the drug and discovered that it’s not for sale in the US (only used in Germany and France) and is in a family of drugs that have a reputation of having some fairly severe side effects. 

My brother is currently in medical school so I got his opinion and he agreed that this drug was like using a sledge hammer to pound in a framing nail (or whatever that analogy is) – it gets the job done but… well anyway I decided to stop the medicine and try just changing what I ate.  I noticed a definite link to tomatoes so stopped all citrus and acidic items.  This helped but he was still waking up every 2-3 hours all night.  I continued research and many women on-line said that removing dairy from their diet helped.  Now I love cheese, ice cream, have yoghurt every morning for breakfast so no dairy was not going to be easy. 

I waited until we got home (couldn’t skip the vanilla ice cream with all those fresh peach pies and cobblers) but once I did it all of sudden Tylor started waking up only 1-2 times per night.  He still spits up a little but there’s no more full wardrobe change for either/both of us during the day so I think it’s been a success.  I do have to say though that eating is VERY boring when you skip the dairy but I’ll trade it for sleep anytime.

Peach Festival

We arrived in Palisade just in time for the big yearly event of the Peach Festival.  It has gotten so big that they now make everyone park offsite and bus people into the park. 

Jaydon loved the idea of riding a bus (he’s been on commuter type buses but not ‘yellow’ school buses) and he was the first one to get on when it arrived. 

He also made everyone smile by singing the wheels on the bus song while we rode along.  Jaydon loved the peach festival and Tylor enjoyed the time outside. 

Jaydon got to have his very first pony ride on Freedom and he rode him all by himself. 

Next activity was the train ride. 

Then the bouncy castle, actually it was a dragon not a castle. 

While Jaydon was jumping another boy joined and guess what his name was – Jaden too. 

We all had so much fun at the festival that we went back the next day. 

First we had get Jaydon his souviner 'Peach-a-boo' shirt and then got our complimentary peach (they had run out the first day we went). 

Next activity was visiting the Alpacas and Llamas.  Jaydon loved the Alpacas and spent 30 minutes just petting them, feeding them grass and talking to them.  The owner was just sure that he had found an Alpaca farmer in the making. 

The only way we could get him away from his new friends was by heading back over to the pony and train ride. 

This time the train had a few more kids on it to ride with Jaydon. 

And the pony he rode on was Tucker this time because Freedom “was taking a break” as Jaydon says.  

Then we headed home and Jaydon helped make a peach cobbler.  Though I think he did more eating then helping.  By the end every peach Grandma cut up had a few Jaydon bites taken out first…guess he takes after the birds.

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's

The highlight of visiting Grandma and Grandpa’s house was definitely having the pool in the backyard and a Grandma who was happy to swim whenever Jaydon had the urge. 

He started by just hanging out on the stairs but as he got more and more comfortable he had fun jumping in and scooting around the pool in his water wings. 

In addition to the pool, there was always something new and fun to do.  Jaydon got to have his first taste of corn on the cob. 

He thought it was pretty good stuff and after we showed him how to eat it without getting too much of the cob he had it almost every night for dinner. 

Tylor loved having some new faces to look at and be cute too. 

When we decided to venture out of the house we would head down to the Riverbend Park to enjoy the playground and splash around in the Colorado River. 

The water was probably the coldest Jaydon has ever been in so he stayed close to the shore which was good because it is running high and fast this year. 

One morning while we there, a group launched out on rafts and while they were getting set up the youngest showed Jaydon how to shoot his cool water gun. 

It was a bit big for Jaydon to handle but the boy was very helpful and patient and Jaydon had a blast!

Last day in Denver

Our last day in Denver we spent the morning shopping at our favorite US store Target to stock up on various items that we either can’t find in Doha or are too expensive.  The boys were both very well behaved and Jaydon had a great time in the toys section. 

After shopping we took the boys on their first visit to Denny’s (it takes one quick scan of the menu and it’s prices to understand why Americans have a weight problem - I actually found myself having a bit of culture shock from it all).  This was the first of many American experiences for the boys. 

The next being their first visit to a brewery. 

That evening we met up with Matt and Beka for dinner. And they got their first taste of things to come since with having the little guys around.

Our hotel was right on the 16^th street mall in Denver so we had a lot of great places to choose from.  They also have carriage rides which Jaydon absolutely loved.  Steve and I had to take turns all through dinner escorting Jaydon over to pet the horses so after dinner we had Buttercup bring us back to the hotel. 

The next morning we piled into the car for our drive to Silverthorne to meet up with my parents.  Tylor screamed about 45 minutes of the hour drive and was relieved to get out of the car and see his Grandma. 

In Silverthorne, we said bye to Steve (he went back to Doha the next day)

and drove to Palisade with Grandma and Grandpa.  Again Tylor screamed for about 90% of the 3 hour drive but that night he did sleep for 6 hours straight for only the second time in his life (the first time was after getting all his meds for Chicken Pox).