Colorado Visit with Family in Sunny January!

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Once Owen got his two month vaccinations, I felt better about flying to see family. Owen took his first flight at 2.5 months old, and did OK. There is definite room for improvement, but I think part of it will be me timing feedings correctly so that he is hungry and will eat when we are going up and coming down so that his ears feel better. On the way to Denver, the only thing that made him stop crying was to take off his pants and socks, so he hung out in a onesie for most of the flight! On the way back, he ate and fell asleep quickly on the airplane, but screamed while we were boarding and getting off the plane. We'll see what our next flights to California in April bring!

Digging in the dirt and playing monster trucks...
We flew in from the bitter cold of Chicago winter to balmy, lovely temperatures in the 50s and 60s. What a blessing to get outside without being hugely bundled, soak in the sunshine, and run around! We met up with Austin's cousins and their kids at a park with a gorgeous mountain view, and they ran around and dug in the sand for hours. Landon has two boy cousins his same age, and one in kindergarten, so when they get together it is a boy party! Funny thing is, Owen also has a cousin his age... also a boy. At family get-togethers for years to come, there will be a pack of at least 6 boys close in age! 

More dirt digging

Owen and his cousin born in September, with grandma and cousin Jessica
Building a monster truck rally with a dump truck they commandeered from another kid
at the park...
Part of the reason for going to Colorado was to introduce Owen to his great-grandparents. We visited Grandpa Lish at his house, and Landon had fun riding up and down the stair chair into the basement. Owen was kind of fussy, but Grandpa Lish did get a few good Owen snuggles. Things weren't quite the same there without Grandma Lish, who passed away in December, but it was good to light up Grandpa's life a little. Landon said the greatest thing when we were prepping him for going over to Great-Grandpa Lish's house. We were reminding him that Grandma Lish was not going to be there, because she died and went to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus. My Grammy earlier this year, and Landon said, "Good! Grammy has someone to talk to now that Grandma Lish is in heaven too!" With such a vivacious little great-grandson in common, I'm sure they've talked about him...

Owen with great-grandpa
Grandma Ev with her grandbabies
We had a big get-together with all of Grandma Ev's family, great-grandma Helen, and some friends. It was wonderful to see everyone, and for Landon to have more time with his fun boy cousins! They are learning to play together and share right now, so at times it was rough, but I think it's good for him to have practice playing with others. Owen was the hit of the party, although he was a little out of sorts with some gastrointestinal issues. Fortunately, those sorted themselves out before we had to fly home!

No trip to Denver would be complete without having biscuits and gravy at great-grandma Helen's house. Austin was so happy to get his annual biscuits and gravy and spend time with Grandma Helen, who is such an awesome lady. I wanted to take some four generation pictures to commemorate the occasion, and here's what we ended up with: 

Landon bounced around a little bit...
Owen just woke up, so he got in on the fun, while Austin tried to corral Landon
Our best shot! 4 generations of Browns, with the matriarch
We had a ton of fun in Colorado with Austin's family. We went to the Colorado Railroad museum, but I'm writing that up on our travel blog at wanderingbrowns.wordpress.com. The last full day we were there, it snow a lot! We did not pack snow clothes because it was not supposed to snow that much, so we put plastic bags on Landon's feet and over his shoes and ran around in the back yard playing. We were playing tag when Landon hit himself in the eye with a frozen glove and that ended our snow fun. I think he whacked himself pretty good and was having a hard time seeing for awhile, which really freaked him out! 

Thanks Grandma Ev and Grandpa Jim for putting up with our energetic, noisy family for the week! We had a blast!

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