Nana's visit

After the Mommy in the house was quite sick, the Daddy was struck.  Jason spent Monday night August 29th sick as a dog and had to call a sub in on Tuesday the 30th.  Nana arrived later that day to see our house, lend a hand, and help us get settled.  We planned to show her the lovely farmer's market, trails and mountains near our new home.

On Thursday Sept 1st, Nana came with Meggan and Rachel to their Thurs morning 11am African Music class.  This is a small group of babies, toddlers and their caregivers who follow the lead of a brilliant singer from Ghana who helps them sing and dance to African music.  Rachel loves it!  She giggles and waves her arms and nods to the beat.  She loves to watch the other people in the class sing and move.

After class, we headed up into the mountains.  North to Estes Park and into Rocky Mtn National Park.  We went for a lovely hike past Bear Lake toward Dream Lake and beyond.  It was gorgeous!  The chipmunks and squirrels came out to play, and we even saw an elk and mule deer near the parking lot on the way home.

We had booked a motel room for the night and set up Rachel in her travel crib.  She fought this and fought this and took nearly two hours to finally get to sleep.  Nana was hit with the stomach flu, and did her best to be quiet and brave through her illness in the hotel room, trying not to wake Rachel!  Rachel woke early in the morning and then snuggled on and off with Meggan as we coaxed Rachel to sleep while Nana battled the horrible bug.

Friday morning Sept 2nd Nana tried to recover enough to get in the car and enjoy driving through the park.  Our goal was to explore the park and spend the night at Winter Park.  But poor Nana couldn't do much of anything, and despite the glorious scenery just had to fight to make it through the day.  Rachel and Meggan saw another herd of elk on a snow patch just below the visitor's center midway through the park at over 11,000 feet.  After a beautiful picnic lunch in Grand Lake, we decided it wasn't worth another hotel room and drove home to put Nana to bed on her mattress in our place.  Poor Nana!

 pictures of this trip


By Saturday morning, Nana felt a little better.  The weather also changed from Summer to Autumn - just like that!  No more sunshine and 95 degrees - instead it was cooler and damper.  Jason coached two softball games but in between, we went to Whole Foods for lunch and did a little shopping.  Nana felt good enough to bike into town with Meggan and Rachel and do some exploring.  We bought an outdoor shed to try and give us some extra storage at home for our various bikes/strollers/skis/camping gear, etc since we don't have a garage or much room here.  So the majority Sunday and Monday were spent putting together our shed while Nana played with Rachel.  (Other breaks Jason did some school work since he still needs most of his 'free time' to plan out his classes.)  Eventually, however, we gave up on the shed and decided we couldn't start the roof because we wouldn't be able to finish it before dark.  So we decided to go for a hike instead.

Meggan's road bike, Rachel asleep in Chariot

Car show in town on Labor Day

Hiking is such hard work!

Tuesday the weather was yucky, Jason returned to school, and Nana had to leave in the afternoon.  We did a few things around the house (ie. Nana played with Rachel while Meggan tried to be productive), went for a walk with another mom and little boy, and then went for a drive up the windy roads above town.  Nana then caught her bus and headed to the airport to return home.


We hope that the stomach bug is done now and we are thankful that, somehow, Rachel managed to avoid it!