Day 7 in Denver - 7/9/10

Well, it is our last day in Denver. :-( Marc was finally able to get the kiddos to Dinosaur Ridge today. This is a place where they has found and preserved TONS of real dinosaur prints and bones. They rode in a tour shuttle for the first part of the exploration.Daddy said that their tour guide was great, very knowledgeable! Marc got lots of lessons while on the walk.
Daddy had the kids see just how much bigger a dinosaur's footprint is compared to theirs. Really makes you think!
The guide took this picture of Daddy and the kids before they left. That's a lot of footprints behind them!!
Well, we had a fabulous time in Denver! We had already packed the van up with all the luggage the night before so we would be able to go straight to the car rental return directly after they picked me up from my conference. We rented from Hertz while in Denver. When we pulled up to the rental area. One of the guys asked us if there was room for one more person to sit inside. Kinda confused, we said we could probably make room. Well, Hertz is trying out a new service in Denver. One of the Hertz guys drove us, in the van right up to the curbside check-in for our airline! That was awesome!!! Certainly made for an easier time getting to the airport and saved lots of time.
Now, it is off to CA!!

Day 6 in Denver - 7/8/10

Today was my second day of Steve Spangler fun! Marc was going to take the kids to a dinosaur place, but had some trouble finding it. He came across Red Rock during his explorations, so that is where he took the kids today.This is where the Red Rock Amphitheater is. Marc insisted that Daddy walk all the way to the top of the amphitheater. This is a panoramic of the view from the top.
I think both kids enjoyed climbing all the steps!
Peanut (and Daddy) just LOVE Steve Spangler. So I asked him if, when they came to pick me up at the end of the day, if I could bring them in to meet him. Being the super nice man that he is, he said "Of course!". When Steve introduced himself to Marc (Peanut), he was kinda stunned. He stood there speechless for a second. Instead of telling Steve his name, he said "We watch you on tv all the time!". It was so unbelievably cute! Steve was SO nice to Marc!
As you can see we all had t-shirts on about the Mentos/Diet Coke experiment that Steve made famous. He signed our shirts for us.
Steve gave Marc the "left-overs" of the stuff he used that day! Lots of fun color changing activities. I guesstimate that he gave Marc about $50 worth of stuff!
When you see Steve on tv (Elle and the Denver local news) he always looks like so much fun and such a nice guy. Well, it isn't an act, he really is truly that nice! If you ever get a chance to meet, definitely go for it!

While we were in Denver Steve did a tv spot about a new ice cream place that used liquid nitrogen to make a custom, homemade ice cream. We had to check it out one night and it was pretty cool.
This is the recipe Marc chose to make for his ice cream.
We all had a great day in Denver!

Day 5 in Denver - 7/7/10

I started my science conference today. Today did not go as planned for Marc and the kids today. While we were at Focus on the Family yesterday we noticed a bug bite near Samantha's eye that had gotten a little swollen. After consulting Nurse Aunt Missey, we began putting Benadryl cream on it. When we woke up this morning, her eye was almost swollen shut. So, I called the doctor and she suggest we give her liquid Benadryl. If there is no change in 24 hours, we would need to take her to urgent care. Marc had planned on taking the kids to a comedy improv story time. When he got there the whole building was closed, So he went back to the hotel and did laundry for me (what a great hubby!).
After I got done with my conference, they picked me up and we headed to get some dinner. Marc had read about this Mexican restaurant called Casa Bonita. We had heard that the food was horrible, but the entertainment for the kids was great! They had several mini shows off and on through-out the night. We saw a gun fight, a pirate show, a monkey show, and some cliff diving. Think my kids enjoyed the shows? ;-)
About the time we got done eating dinner, they called the kids to a back part of the building to hit a pinata. Each kid got to pick up lots of Tootsie Rolls.
Like I said earlier in the post, there were cliff divers, As part of the back drop of their diving there was a water fall. We couldn't resist getting a picture of the kids with the water fall.
On the way out of the restaurant the kids got to pick something from the treasure chest. They each got a Tootsie Roll and a play dollar bill.
All the reviews where correct....the food was awful, but the kids loved the atmosphere and the entertainment!
When we got home (hotel), I was instructed that I had to give a science lesson on the things I learned that day.
It was a great first day of my conference! After a day of Benadryl Samantha's eye looks much better!