Part 2
Yesterday morning Heather and I slept in a little bit because we were up late talking and John was up early writing his paper. :) Then we had breakfast tortillas for breakfast and then John headed to work while we got ready for a busy day in Boulder. We were supposed to meet my friend Jenny and her two adorable kids in Boulder for a picnic and then go to the Boulder Creek Festival and then a little hiking. On our way to Boulder, we got a call from Jenny saying that Boulder was insanely crowded and there was absolutely no parking anywhere and you could barely drive down any of the streets because of the festival and the hundreds and hundreds of people everywhere. Boulder is usually busy on Sundays, especially since parking is free on those days, but it was seriously insane how crowded and busy it was. There was stopped traffic all the way back on US-36W trying to get into Boulder.
Since it was so busy, Jenny decided to go to Boulder Canyon instead (which is up in the Flat Irons - the foothills of the Rockies) and so we were going to meet up with them. First of all, it took forever to even get inside Boulder and navigate the clogged up roads, and second of all, we got lost. It was a bit of communication problems. Jenny told us to turn on Route 119 and take it up into the canyon, so we looked for Route 119 and it was really called Canyon Rd until you got up inside the canyon, when it turned into Route 119. It wasn't anybody's fault - Jenny wasn't too familiar with the area or the road names and Heather's GPS gave us the wrong directions and everything. We ended up seeing Canyon Rd and decided to see if maybe that was the right road, and it was. :) So, an hour and a half later, we were in Boulder Canyon! I'm just glad that Jenny was so patient with us!
Boulder Canyon was absolutely gorgeous!!! We loved it! We all slathered up on sunscreen and then walked into the canyon and met up with Jenny and her kids near the stream and ate our picnic lunch. Then we took the kids and hiked down some of the trails and next to the stream. The kids had a lot of fun climbing up rocks. Johnny just wanted to copy Lucas and everything he did, which was cute. Lucas is a really good kid and is so patient with Johnny even though they are about four years apart. Lauren is a little doll and she is cracks me up all the time. :) I'm so glad that I thought to bring Johnny's lion backpack with the "leash" on it, because he was wanting to run all over the place and there were a few times he would have jumped into the stream with rapids or jumped down some rock cliffs had I not been attached to him. That kid sure does like to give mommy near heart attacks. I only use the lion backpack/leash very very rarely, but this was definitely a situation that called for it. I had brought my ERGO baby/toddler carrier and the jogging stroller as well, but he wanted to walk by himself and play with Lucas, so the backpack was good because he was able to walk around himself but I still had control over him for safety reasons.
After a while the kids started getting a little tired of walking around so we walked back to our cars and then we drove further into the canyon to Boulder Falls, but unfortunately the path that led to the falls was closed due to the high waters in the stream right now and falling rocks. Hopefully the trail will be open soon so that when I go back with John we can go and see the falls, which you could see a little bit of from the visitor section near the road. We took some pictures and played on rocks and looked at the stream there and then we all decided to call it quits and head back. We had a lot of fun with Jenny and her kids (and I'm so thankful for her showing me where Boulder Canyon is!!) and Heather definitely was happy to get to go hiking while she was here, because she misses that in New Mexico, especially since she is from Washington State too. :)
Instead of heading straight home after we left Boulder Canyon, we decided to stop in Boulder and go to the Boulder Creek Festival since there were about half as many people (it was after 5pm) and we were actually able to find parking. We had to pay $5 to park in a parking lot, but it wasn't too bad because it was for a baseball team fundraiser. It was still a little insane navigating around the festival area, but not as insanely crowded. The festival was big and had a lot of booths. There were some things that I saw that I liked but for the most part it was just interesting to walk around and look at stuff. Johnny got a balloon dinosaur from a guy who was making balloons - the guy was young and pretty new to making balloon animals, but he did the best he could. Johnny didn't care; it was called a dinosaur and that was all he needed. He popped it within two minutes. *sigh* Oh well.
Eventually we had seen all the booths and we were pretty exhausted from all the hiking and the walking around, so we decided to head back to my apartment. Especially since it was past dinner time and we were hungry. John had been writing his paper since he had been home from work. We watched "Crazy Heart" and had vegetarian lasagna for dinner and it was delicious. Then Heather and I spent the rest of the evening kind of watching movies and chatting until 3am. Yeah, we were tired, but it was really nice. John unfortunately never got to bed last night because he was writing a paper that was due this morning. Once he dropped off his paper at school he came home and we chatted with Heather over breakfast and then in our living room until about 2:30pm. She finally reached a point where she had to get on the road in order to get home before too late since she had to start a 24 hour shift tomorrow morning at 6:30am.
After hugs and farewells she was on the road and we already miss her! It was really nice spending the weekend with her and we're excited to see her again! :) John got some sleep and so did Johnny and now we're about to have us some dinner. All in all, it was a pretty awesome weekend and we have a busy week ahead of us with John's finals and packing for a weekend in Nevada. We also have a playdate tomorrow with some of the moms and their kids too, so it should be a fun day!
Happy Memorial Day! Make sure you take some time to stop and think about those soldiers that have served our country and those who are currently serving. Their sacrifices deserve to be remembered; regardless of political or religious views. Thank you to all of our soldiers! A big thank you to my own family members and friends who are currently serving or have served in the military. You are awesome! :)
