Home to Colorado

Happy first day of September! August was so busy for us, so I'm okay to see it go. However, September means the end of summer, and that makes me sad.

We returned from our trip to Colorado on Tuesday night and we are spending this week catching-up on work and final prep stuff before school starts. We are hoping to spend the upcoming weekend enjoying a few more simple summer favorites. 

Today, I'll recap most of our trip. This was Ivy's first visit to Colorado and Kip had not been since 2019. They were both very excited for the plane and although neither of them slept on the flight there, overall, they did really well.

The time change is always tricky but all the excitement easily pushed them through to a later bed time. The first night we had Kip sleep in the king bed with Dan and I and it did not go well. I picked-up an air mattress for him the next day and it went much better. Ivy was very comfortable in the pack-n-play.

My mom would have been really happy to see that Kip still fit in the outside car she got him back in 2019. Both kids really enjoyed playing with it. I forgot how wonderful Colorado dry heat is. We did NOT miss the humidity and relentless mosquitos from Jersey.

Aunt Jess arrived later that night and the kids reconnected with her. Fortunately, Ivy seems to be over the hump with her stranger danger/separation anxiety clinginess and warmed up to many of the people we visited with on the trip. She didn't want people to hug her or hold her but she was very willing to give fist bumps.

We went to Target (because Marmee would have taken us) and played outside and got things prepped for extended family coming over Saturday afternoon.

This is my Uncle Greg (technically, my mom's cousin). He has never missed a Christmas with our family (except for 2020 which doesn't count). He meant a lot to my mom and is a treasured Uncle to my sisters and I. It was so wonderful to have him with us this past weekend. He interacted with the kids just the way he did when we were little. Pure silliness and fun. Kip loved it.

We had relatives and friends that traveled for the service come and visit at the house. So many people from both sides of the family came and it was really nice to have all that support. Many people we had not seen in years, some I had never even met (my dad's family is huge). Minus some dog drama, the kids did really well meeting so many new people. The real winner of the day was this car and Kip's "weed service" which entertained Ivy and him all afternoon as they loaded the truck with yard weeds.

On Sunday, my mom's service was in the late afternoon. I wasn't able to take photos but Dan took some.

There were easily over 150 people who came. So many of her friends, former students, classmates, people from church, and family. I was shocked to see so many people and really, really grateful for all the wonderful memories they shared. It was the only time during our trip where I felt really emotional about missing Mom, but it helped so see everyone. Mandy did an amazing job on her eulogy and Dan was the epic dad that he always is and handled the kids for the entire time while I was running around visiting people.

I think Mom was happy with how we celebrated her and probably was grateful to see so many people show up.

My Dad set-up a table with some of her artwork from over the year.

On Monday we said goodbye to a lot of the family. Got some great family photos my cousin took and then we spent the rest of the day doing something fun with the kids (I'll share that tomorrow).