Arizona Museum of Natural History.

My friend Siobhan invited us to the Arizona Museum of Natural History.  We'd never been, so it was a fun new thing to do.  It was all about dinosaur's.

Peyton's not especially into dinosaurs, however, he LOVES to watch Dinosaur Train (as you can imagine why!) so he at least had some previous exposure to dino's.

He loves to be around Brice and had a good time with the kid exhibits (it was very kid friendly, which was awesome) and he got spooked by a few of the big dino's, but nothing too bad.  ;)

I had a pretty crazy "run-in" -- we were sitting in an activity room and there were two other adults with their kids in the room.  One starts asking Siobhan when she's due.  As this woman was talking, I start to think I know her from somewhere...

Boom!  I realize her kids took swim lessons with us this summer!  Let me say, this museum's in Mesa, we live in Phoenix.  A good 25 minutes away.

So I tell her I think our kids took swim lessons together and she said, "Ohhh!  I recognized your son from somewhere!"  Sure enough, it was her.  Then a little later she asks if I live in Mesa and I said no Phoenix.... then she asks where in Phoenix... I say 32nd St & Campbell... she says NO WAY that's my cross streets!  Get this --  she lives LITERALLY one block from us!!!  Mapquest says it takes 29 seconds to drive to her house!  haha

So yeah, I have a new friend who's house I can walk to.  We have a playdate this Wednesday.  Can you tell I'm excited!!!

Anyway, here's a snip-it of our fun time at the museum!

All Aboard!

I know all little boys love trains and Peyton is no exception!!  I think he had his first love obsession when we got him a train track for Christmas.  

Anyway, Peyton and I went to Flagstaff with Joan last Sun - Wed.  It was such a fun time, just the three of us.  I'm very fortunate to have the worlds best in-laws who I actually truly enjoy being around.  :)

We spent a day at the Flagstaff train station.  I took a ton of pics (none of which were posed) that I can't wait to hang up in his big boy room!  We spent a lot of time with Peyton's GiGi (Great Grandma) and we shopped a lot too.

Here's a glimpse into our day at the train station!

We walked across the tracks to the brewery for lunch so we could eat and continue to watch the trains come by.  Unfortunately there must've been a break-down, because no more trains came by during lunch.   Oh well, we still had a great time!

Have to throw these in here - GiGi had this pack of cars waiting for Peyton at her house.  They were played with by Steve's Uncle Brian (as well as Steve and his cousins) years ago.  That night she said Peyton plays with the cars the same way Brian did - lines them up, watches the wheels go round, etc.  Let me also point out that Brian is a big dog freak (remember Linus & Lucy from my Denver post?!).  Well, so is Peyton.  I think Peyton may grow up to be a lot like his Great Uncle.  :)

  

Here's Gigi reading a book:

"Just found joy, I'm as happy as a baby boy, with another brand new choo-choo toy."

-Sweet Lorraine lyrics, By: Nat King Cole

Denver!

We got back a few weeks ago from a nine day trip to Denver, CO!

Strange how things work out, but my dad, Peyton, and had I bought plane tickets for Sat Aug 4 to go see my Grandma Cortney for the day.  While we were in Flag for the wedding a month back, Steve's Uncle Brian, who also lives in Denver, asked Steve and I if we'd dog sit for a week... starting Aug 4 to Aug 12.  AND, we'd previously talked about (months ago) how we'd like to go to the Bronco's football training camp for our best shot at seeing Peyton Manning.  Given the fact that Peyton and I already had plane tickets for the exact day Uncle Brian needed us out there AND Bronco's camp was going on that week, it was a no brainer!!

So, off we went!  We spent that first day with my 95 year old Grandma and my Uncle Mike & Aunt Pam.  We had lunch at Grandma's then we walked around Standley Lake.  My grandma walked the whole time and it was amazing!  She was pretty exhausted at points but she made it without a single complaint.  :)  That evening Steve, who'd been at Uncle Brian's all day, met up with us for dinner at Uno's Pizzeria.

The rest of the week consisted of three Bronco training camps, three more trips to my grandma's house, time spent at the park and Children's Museum, visiting my friend Jessica, and taking care of the dogs.

Here's pics to sum up our week!

Flight left at 6:20am.  Early.  But Peyton was a good boy until the end when we had to suddenly take the computer away to land.  Learned our lesson - the flight back was better since we knew to warn him.

Got a cute certificate for flying.  This was his third time flying!

At Grandma's that afternoon.  Uncle Mike & Aunt Pam brought lunch to eat on the patio.

My dad laid down like this, and Peyton followed... :)

On the way to the lake!

Walked around Lake Standley.  Peyton had a blast playing with the rocks.

Peyton and my Aunt Pam.

One of the first things Steve did was take me by Peyton Manning's house that evening...

Next morning at Uncle Brian's house.  He has two Old English Sheep dogs.  Peyton loved snuggling with them!!

Taking a walk in the beautiful neighborhood!

Next day we went to Grandma's for only a short hour before camp.  We brought her a Starbucks and she loooved it.  :)  Funny story, I told them to "smile for the camera" and Grandma wasn't looking at me, she kept looking at Petyon (pic below).  Finally Peyton said, "Gaga!" and pointed to me!  haha

 First day of camp!  Boy were we excited!!!!!!

Peyton loved hanging out with the random kids there.  Usually playing with sticks and trees.

Here's Steve (bottom right) in the herd of people trying to get Manning's autograph... I told him, LET ME DO IT!!  I had so much adrenaline!  He said NO!  When he didn't succeed, I told him that I would get it done tomorrow...

That night we went to my friend from high school, Jessica's, house for dinner.  She and her husband moved to Denver earlier this year and ironically live 10 minutes from the Bronco camp.  They made a really nice dinner and it was nice catching up.

The next morning they met us at the camp and it was Day #2!!  Here's Peyton this time playing with more new friends.  :)

Jessica and I!

More friends.... :)

Little family shot.

Group shot.

Remember how I told Steve to let me try for his autograph?!  Well BAM!!  This gurl got it done!!!!!!  Really, I had a strategy.  The day before I noticed if you tried to make your way down to him, you'd never make it through the crowd.  BUT if you wait to see what way he's going down the line, then head that way and get in line where it wasn't crowded, he'd eventually make it to you and you'd be front & center.  LUCKILY  he didn't change his "routine" and did exactly that.  I was fearless and stuck that magazine in front of his face and got 'er done, son!

This will be getting framed and someday will be passed down to Peyton.

This Sports Illustrated was the first one Peyton Manning was ever on, in 1996 while he was playing college football at Tennessee.  It was a split issue, with the bottom part a replica of an issue his dad was on.  *One of the cool things I noticed was Peyton Manning took his time signing everything.  He didn't rush and scribble.  When he grabbed the magazine he looked at it pretty good, then when I got it back I noticed he signed #16.  That was his # in college.  He's been #18 ever since, and I thought that was so nice that he really saw what he was signing.  =)

That evening we took Peyton to the Children's Museum of Denver.  Let's just say it was neat, but NOTHING like Phoenix's. Seriously folks, Phoenix's museum rocks and it's now been confirmed.

They did have a real fire truck inside which was pretty cool.

They had a train room, which was nothing special other than a huge train track, like we have at home.  Nonetheless, our little train enthusiast wanted to spend all his time in here.

I love Downtown Denver.  So much activity all within a few square miles.

You could see this amusement park off the highway and Peyton went nuts everytime we'd pass it.  I can't even explain what he'd do, it was so goofy!!  He's go, "OHHH!" super loud and then start laughing.

We pretty much spent Wednesday cleaning up a mess one of the dogs made.  :/  That evening we went to Washington Park - holy awesomeness!  I've never been to Central Park, but seriously, this was probably pretty dang close to it.  People were out exercising, playing volleyball, tennis, on the lake, playground, you name it.  I only wish we had a park like that in AZ.

Then Thursday I spent the afternoon with Peyton at Grandma's.  She loved it.

Peyton was so ready for a nap.  He actually fell asleep on me.  NEVER does that!

Here's Bonnie Brae Ice Cream.  Line was out the door every single night.  We finally had some on our last night.  Was pretty good.  Side note, Uncle Brian lives in the best location - he lives less than a mile to Washington Park and right down the street from Bonnie Brae.  He's 10 minutes to downtown and there are parks everywhere!!!

That night we watched the Bronco's first preseason game at a little bar.  We played a massive game of Jenga!

I was on a mission to make it back to my beloved Wash Park.  So I took Peyton for a few hours on Friday morning.  We walked all around the garden...

And to the playground...

We saw tons of squirrels (notice it on the tree stump).  Peyton was on a mission to find more squirrels.  So we did a lot of squirrel hunting.  :)

Back at Uncle Brian's house.  More snuggling with the dogs, Linus and Lucy.

That evening we took pizza to my Grandma's and said our good-byes.  

Saturday morning was camp day #3.  Good thing I got his autograph on Tue, because we definitely wouldn't have gotten it Saturday!  We spent the rest of the day cleaning up the house since Uncle Brian got home that night.  After we cleaned, we went to Jimmy John's...

Sunday morning we walked to a French Bakery for breakfast with Uncle Brian and his motorcycle trip buddy, Hank.  Then we headed to the airport.

Peyton was sooooooooooo incredibly excited to be on the plane.  He bounced around everywhere, looking out the window, literally bouncing on the seat, pulling the window cover up & down, touching all the knobs above us.  It was so cute.  He did great and no melt downs on the way back.  The trip was a huge success!!