Sunday, July 31, 2011

Denver: The Drive

We finished our marathon cardiology appointment and hit the road.  Destination: Denver.  Five days and four nights of family time, interrupted only by the continuing education classes that brought us here in the first place.  Time to rest and relax.

I had been instructed earlier in the day by the Nurse Practitioner to sit where I could see Daniel while we were driving.  He would still be affected by the sedation, so an adult needed to be able to see him the entire time we drove to ensure that his head didn’t flop forward and cut off his airway.  What a comforting thought! 

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The drive itself was long, but enjoyable.  The kids were happily distracted by their Denver surprises we had carefully packed the night before: colored pencils, coloring books, activity books and new books to read.  The novelty of the activities lasted longer than I expected, and we only had to use the DVD player for one movie toward the end of the drive.

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The extra-early morning and lack of exciting scenery made for some good naps.  It’s always amazing to me how exhausting it is to drive for extended periods of time.  Who would have thought that sitting would be such hard work!

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Good music and “The Chronicles of Narnia” on MP3 helped to pass the time as well.  

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Of course there was a lot of construction throughout Wyoming.  We never had to stop because of it, but it did slow us down quite a bit.  It got to be pretty annoying getting stuck behind a line of semi trucks moving at a snail’s pace up hill after hill.  Every once in a while, we’d see a load of something interesting, like gigantic tires!

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Our favorite sites were the seas of windmills used to generate electricity.  Simply put, they were awe-inspiring.  Like giants guarding the landscape, they stood tall and still, while their blades moved effortlessly in the wind.  Amazing!

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We followed the path of a double rainbow for quite some time.  We enjoyed talking about what we would do with the money if we were to find the pot of gold at the end of one of them.

We pulled into the parking lot of our hotel at 11:11 p.m., exhausted and ready for bed.  Due to overbooking, the suite we had reserved was not available, so our reservation was split into 2 rooms.  I was not happy, but too exhausted to do anything about it.  So the boys went to one room, and the girls stayed in the other.  After 3 different knocks at our door from Jared (having forgotten something), and calming down two girls who were now very awake and very excited to be in a hotel room, we settled in to sleep, well after midnight.

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