Road Trippin'. In bullet points.

• Despite the little setbacks and annoying moments, I still say that spending hours in the car with the kids HANDS DOWN beats spending hours at an airport/on a plane with the kids. At least on a road trip you can stop whenever you need to. For instance if you have a four-year-old who has to pee every time you're about 5 miles from FRICKING NOWHERE.





"Rented Car Console Road Trip Detritus: A Still Life"




Speaking of annoying moments. I'm not sure what the Geneva Convention has to say about it but I'm pretty sure that listening to one kid fuss/cry loudly as another kid whines incessantly while you're enclosed in a small space like a car is a waaaaaay more effective torture method than waterboarding could ever be.

Oh, portable DVD player, what would we do without you...


• Speaking of setbacks. The $90 that we randomly spent for one night at a Best Western in Cedar City, Utah when the kids were torturing us as above and we realized that it was after dark and we still had AT LEAST THREE MORE HOURS until we were back in Vegas? BEST MONEY WE EVER SPENT.

Chillin at the random motel.

• So apparently a certain small someone cannot be trusted on a bed or other elevated surface anymore because a certain small someone learned how to crawl overnight while we were on this trip.






Amazingly as soon as we got to Denver Jr. stopped itching and had absolutely no allergy symptoms while we were there. The very first night we were back home he scratched the crap out of his face and his eczema flared up. File that under "Yet Another Reason We Need to Stop Jacking Around and Just Move Back to Colorado, Already." (And before you say, "Maybe it's your cats!" my sister also has pets. It's not the cats.)


It really is a nice city.



You want to be an effing Rock Star the next time you see your out-of-state nieces and nephews? Bring a puppy with you as a surprise. (Don't worry, their mother knew about it.)


Look what we brought! A puppy! TOP THAT.



After a week of dwindling pumping output and Jr. being increasingly annoying at the breast (i.e. only nursing for 30 seconds at a time while kicking me in the stomach and pinching me), I thought that while were on the trip we were going to Stop Nursing Forever. Until he had an apparent reaction to the formula and suddenly was interesting in nursing normally again. So now we're back to Begrudgingly Still Breastfeeding. For now.




Speaking of decreased milk supply. PPAF. Totally unexpected. Therefore I was totally unprepared. Thus we were totally late to my sister's graduation ceremony (the whole reason for the trip, she got her Master's degree) because we had to make an emergency WalMart run. Oh, what a lovely 18 months without you, AF...



You want to feel old? Go visit your old college campus and GET LOST trying to find the student union because there are so many new buildings and all your old landmarks are gone. Then try to track down one of your favorite professors who was a mentor only to be told that he retired "like 5 years ago."



My old dorm, Sewall Hall. Still one of the loveliest campuses there is.



Running around at the student union (CU Boulder).



Garden of the Gods. If you've never been, it's sooooo worth a visit. Just look at this:








I can't believe I'm about to write this. After renting one and driving it all over hill and dale and back again...I kind of maybe sorta want a minivan now. A MINIVAN. What has become of me...

And finally, how many shots does it take to get The Perfect Family Photo in the Mountains? I don't know, we never got it.

Perfect! Now just look at the right *&$@ camera.


Closer...

Nope.

Obviously not.

There's always one joker in the bunch...