Day 3 of Colorado - This is Your Life edition

Our 3rd day of our whirlwind tour of family and friends was like an episode of This is Your Life - truly a retrospective of our lives starting from way back in childhood and going up through the years ending in college. We started the day with our friends the Hoeltings - Rob has known Ben ever since Kindergarten! We adore their kids and even though we only got to see them for less than an hour on the way to Rob's Dad's, it was great to see them and catch up. They've been out to see us so many times and it's been amazing to watch those kids grow up over the years. Here we are with Amanda, Zack and Morgan in all their Christmas decorating glory:

And then we spent time with Rob's Dad:
Then we were back up in Denver and we met up with some of my old high school friends Shannon, Paul and Nicole: It was awesome catching up with them and talking about things from our lives over the last 15 (gulp!) years...and then our college and beyond friends caught up with us. It still amazes me Nicole and I have been friends since we were 11, that's a whole lotta years now! I adore that lady - she's so incredibly precious to me. Nicole's hubbs Chad joined us, poor dude was such a trooper - he had just had foot surgery and I'm impressed he rallied for the night. Our friends Pat and Deena came too - we've gone to Mexico with them twice, so we've definitely bonded, and it was awesome seeing them.
Sometimes Chad does this crazy face in photos, so here's all of us doing our best Chad impression:
We taught it to our friends Jen and Alex as well...
Jen and Alex went to CSU also but unfortunately they were a few years younger than us so we never knew them while we were there, which is such a bummer - we adore those guys!
Man, we have a good life - we are so incredibly lucky to have such good friends both here in San Diego and in Colorado.

Hanging with our J's!

As if we hadn't done enough on our fun day with our nieces, we ended the day in the perfect way, with our Jacobson family! The girls played well with their cousins...and with Meg and Bill's cat:Silly Nanny: Spooning with Meg: Man, I love my aunts, it was so good to see them!
The nieces were absolutely WIPED out when we left - Anna literally was asleep before we even left Meg and Bill's block...what a full day with them! We had such a great time with them, it went WAY too fast and I'm already counting down the moments until we see them again. Love those girls.

Day 2 of the Colorado whirlwind

On day 2, we picked up the girls early and headed to the Denver Aquarium - that place is great! We met our good friend Jeff and our godsons Willett and Owen then and had such a fun day hanging out with those buddies too. Willett and Anna are a month apart in age and Abby and Owen are a few years different, but it still worked to hang out - frankly we could hang out with those guys doing complicated mathematical equations and would still be totally content.

Here's Rob and Owen, total buddies. So much fun to see how he's grown and now totally and completely emulates his cool Uncle Rob...more on that later when we hung with them on Sunday.Abby was so cute, I love watching her personality continue to develop as she grows up. She loves frequently posing it up for the camera - here so scared of the shark! And now as a group:Everybody got a chance to be the diver:
And then we're off and running!


The kids loved that crawly cave:
And they had these cool underwater bubble-viewing domes that were so neat, the kids loved them! Auntie kisses at the fake Orangutan: Man, we love these kids! Not sure why, but they had a gorgeous tiger at the Aquarium (um, if you can figure out that connection, let me know). Loved it, but of course it made me sad.

And at the end, the kids were able to touch starfish and sting rays, it was really neat and one of Abigail's favorite things.

Here Abby communicates with the parrot:

And, as if that weren't enough fun, then we went with Patti to take the girls for their first professional manicures and pedicures - it was adorable! Rob was a trooper hanging with us and capturing the moments....and keeping the backpack safe :)
Look how precious Anna is, seriously watching the whole proceedings.Abigail was darling, she was very excited and wanted to make sure she was old enough for the massage chair, and very seriously chose her sparkly pink nails and purple toes...she loved the whole experience - just like her Auntie!

And then Anna started telling us all the things she wanted to eat, so clearly it was time for dinner with the Jacobson's! Onward and upward...

But first, some adorable niece noises in the car: