Quick Week!

 Monday came quickly since we arrived back from Denver Saturday afternoon.

 Tuesday

 Madi went with Aunt Shelle and Grandma to Tripp's choir concert Tuesday afternoon while I had another meeting up at work.  I think she was having fun with Jen and Snapchat filters. :)

 Wednesday was obviously windy!

 Thursday

 Friday

I'm not sure why, but this week flew by!  Hopefully, the weekend moves at a slower pace.

Goodbye, Noodle

 I got Noodle in the summer of 2003 right after my first nephew Tripp was born.  She was a great companion for me since I was young and single.  Then after Matt and I married, he bought me Chicke for our first Valentine's Day in 2006 as a married couple.

 By 2009, Madi had Noodle wrapped around her finger.

Madi was always so sweet with her and Noodle loved her right back.

Fast forward to 2017.  I knew it was getting close.  Noodle started getting slower and lost a lot of weight.  So I told Matt we had to get a new puppy so Noodle could be in the mix. 

 Everyone just loves Noodle when they meet her and Biscuit was no different.

 I'm so glad I became the crazy lady that takes pictures of her puppies because now I will have these forever.

Puppy-piles on the couch were a nightly event.

Sadly, my mom found Noodle no longer living on Thursday, April 20th hours after Matt and Madi got on a plane to join me in Denver.  I hated not being there but maybe it was for the best.  

Goodbye, Noodle.  You were a great buddy and the perfect family pet.

Family Trip to Denver

 While I went to deliver the final debrief to the program, Matt and Madi explored downtown Denver around our hotel. 

 They crossed bridges . . .

 Shopped at H&M . . . 

Rode up and down the 16th St. Mall . . .

Went back to the hotel for a quick swim . . .

Went bowling . . .

Then I had an hour break before our last meeting so I met these two for a quick lunch.

They picked a great pizza place!

After my inspection was all wrapped up we headed out for some family fun! 

First up, was Casa Bonita. 

Matt remembered going to Casa Bonita as a child with his Uncle Henry so we had to take Madi.

It's a neat Mexican food restaurant with cliff diving shows every 15 minutes.

The food was okay but the entertainment was great!

Plus we were able to walk around and explore all the neat caves and waterfalls.

Thankfully, the sopapillas were the best part of the dinner!

We went by the art museum just to see their hours but had to take a picture of this cool sculpture out front.  Madi was acting like she was being swept away!

We went back to the hotel and swam some more.  Madi and I had a blast doing different kinds of races all over the pool.

Saturday morning we started our day exploring some more of downtown Denver.

Then we hit up the art museum.

They have neat backpacks for kids to check out and take as they walk through the museum. 

The backpacks have neat arts and crafts and games for the kids to do as they look at all the exhibits.

Daddy helped too!

It was a neat way for our art-loving girl to enjoy the museum since she has two parents that don't know much about the art world.

Then we headed to the aquarium in time to eat lunch and watch the mermaid show. 

The mermaids did a great job dancing/swimming all around the fish!

A seafood lunch was pretty good too!

We explored the aquarium after lunch.

There were even fish above us as we walked . . .

Stingrays!

They even had a tiger!

She got to touch all kinds of sea creatures.

And of course, face painting is always a fun idea.

They also gave her some shrimp to feed the stingrays. 

They came right up and took it out of her hand!

Next up was ice skating!

It takes us a while to remember how to ice skate but once we do, we are OFF!

Before we knew it it was time to head to dinner and then back to the hotel.

We got up early Sunday morning to head to the airport and home to our zoo. 

Biscuit was definitely happy to have us home!

We had a great time in Denver but being gone for over a week was tough!