Colorado Bound

In late July early August we snuck in one last trip before we have to start playing by the public school god's calendar, packed our bags and headed for summer fun in Colorado. The girls spent the whole month of July asking, "Is it today,is it today? Are we getting on the airplane today?", precisely why I don't tell them about ANYTHING fun until the moment it's happening. But alas, the day arrived. I had some dread going into the adventure, but kept my hopes high, and expectations low for the travel days. It was the first time since Christmas '09 that we had all four flown together, and this time we had connections and planned to carry on all of our luggage for 8 days. The last trip involved vomit both directions, so I was rightfully nervous. But, as they often do, my girls impressed me and were mostly perfect angels the whole time. They tried hard to help carry bags, behaved well, played well, and even tried to help a baby in the seat next to us by sharing their snacks. I was very proud of them both.

Once we arrived in Colorado we had a jam packed week planned, starting with an overnight camping trip with Grandma & Grandpa, Collin, Robynn, Addy & Jax and Cousin Angie. Once again, a new experience that caused me some anxiety as we were unsure how the girls would do "roughing it". The girls were in HEAVEN. They tromped around with Addy and Jax as if they'd been camping all their lives. They were naturals! The Birthday Twins, Payton and Angie, took off right away crossing the creek walking over a downed log. Then the girls found a nice big well burnt log that was long enough that all three of them could wrap their hands around to pick it up getting black soot all over themselves before anyone could stop them. They played in the ice cold stream water as if it were 95 degrees. Jax worked hard to keep up with a grim most of the time, well, that is when he wasn't falling over things. Parker learned the hard way that we don't wear our shoes into tents when she tracked Baily poop into Angie's tent in the first 30 minutes or so. Maybe Angie learned a lesson about not inviting 4 little kids into her tent, we'll have to ask her about that. As the evening moved on it began to rain. And rain. And then it rained some more. But, as we Orr's were taught to do, we partied on, no stinking rain will ruin our parade! We played in the camper for hours and the kids never really thought much of it. Eventually we started to get hungry, the rain slowed and we started dinner, which quickly became dinner under canopy as it started to rain again. So we huddled up, snuggled up and ate in shifts holding kids. Payton loves a good storm, Parker Addy and Jax were not so sure about it all. There might have been some tears, and there were definitely 6 little ears with hands over them. Soon enough we gave up on the canopies and moved the kids back to the camper and started tucking them in for the night. This is the first time P & P have shared a bed, and I had no idea how it was going to go. The plan was that our girls would sleep in one bed, Addy and Robynn in the other, and I would sleep on the table/cot area in the middle. Jason, Collin and Jax had the big tent. Sounded like a great plan. As the night progressed things changed. I ended up in bed with my girls, Robynn ended up - well, I'm not really sure, and Jason ended up in the camper on the table/cot area because Jax was not into the whole sleeping thing and cried for a good part of the night. We woke in the morning, some of us laughed it off, and had breakfast. Payton had big dreams of roasting marshmallows on our camping trip and I couldn't stand the thought of disappointing her, so, after a healthy breakfast, we sent Grandpa and the kids off to hunt for marshmallow roasting sticks. There really aren't words to describe moments like those, watching Grandpa and the 4 of them tromping around makes my heart go pitter patter. They returned, and had a ball roasting/burning/eating marshmallows. That's what camping's all about! Since returning home Payton's already been making plans for our camping trip NEXT summer. Oh boy.

The four of us took a day trip to Boulder and Jason gave us a quick walking tour of the campus. It was either orientation or tour time for incoming students, so we saw tons of 18-19 year olds walking around with their parents in tow, doing the same thing we were. Walking in buildings, poking around, trying to imagine. For them it was what will be, for us it was what was and also what could be. Very strange to think that in 13 years we'll be those parents which is

The rest of the trip was so much fun, but I can't type for days on end so I'll try to cut myself short. We had a chance to catch up with friends on Sunday at Arapahoe where the girls had their first diving board experiences. The loved it, too bad there are so few of them around anymore. Then we had a party at Mom and Dad's to catch up with many other friends. Payton worked on her Jody chant and charmed everyone. We spent every moment we could with Addy and Jax, and the girls loved every bit of it. I do love living in Florida, but I sure hate that the girls are so far away from everyone in Colorado. We're so lucky that we do get these blocks of time, and that everyone makes such an effort to set the time aside to get together, to travel and to make the best of the moments. I have so many photos from the week, I have no idea how I'll choose which ones to post here.