Pictures from Brennan's Visit

Here is a post I know Brennan is really looking forward to. He spent all of last week out here with us. It's hard to believe that I drove him to the airport on Monday...seems like he's been gone longer than that.
Unfortunately, I had to work most of the week, so I didn't get to spend as much time doing Colorado stuff with Brennan as I would have liked. But I know he enjoyed exploring the city. It impresses me how he can get pretty much anywhere he wants using the light rail system. I know he spent much of the time that I was at work hanging out downtown. He even made it to the state capital building...I haven't even been there!
So here's how the week went. Brennan rode back with us from Kansas City on Monday. He had just gotten off an airplane from a week in Martha's Vinyard with my mom and grandpa. And the week before that, he was in Austin, TX with my dad! I liked to call it his whirlwind US tour.
Perdi did so well and slept almost the entire ride back from Kansas City, and we are pretty sure it's because Brennan was there to keep her company in the back seat. She still tries to go into the guest room every morning to see if Brennan's there. I think she's depressed that he's gone. She seems to get really attached to our visitors, as do I. :)
I should also mention that on our drive back to Denver, we stopped and toured Mark and Talicia's new house, which was awesome! We're really glad it worked out for us to see it. The house has a lot of really cool features...and now I'm getting even more stir crazy to buy a place. Perhaps in the fall, we'll actually have time to seriously look at some houses. Matt just accepted a day shift position which should start sometime in October, so it looks like our time apart is coming to an end. YAY!
OK, back to the recap of last week. Wednesday evening, I had my kickball game downtown, so Brennan met me there and cheered us on. He must be our good luck charm...we won the game! (We've lost the other two when he hasn't been there.) We scored 9 runs in one inning! I brought my camera and meant to have him take some pictures of us playing, but of course I forgot to mention that to Brennan.
Thursday is when the real fun began. After work, we decided to head to the Denver Aquarium. It was a great day to go...not very many people were there so we got to see everything and take lots of pictures.



I know this is not a fish...it's a rattlesnake! There were four of them in there. Creepy stuff. They look grumpy and mean just laying there, but this one was on the move. I took a video.


You could feed the sting rays by hand if you wanted. They were in a little pool-like area and you could walk up and touch them! Sometimes they would swim right up to the edge and flap their fins out of the water. I think that was their way of begging for food. :)

A giant sea turtle like in Finding Nemo.

Again, this guy was not a fish, but he seemed content to be sleep in the aquarium. Look at his giant paw!

This lobster looked like he was watching US.

A pirhana. They look pretty and innocent but I was sure happy not to be in the water with them!

Colorful starfish.

What kind of a fish is that?!? Looks like Brennan decided to go for a swim. :)

Brennan in the underwater tunnel...surrounded by sharks! (But you can't see them in this picture.)

The cheesy picture they make you take at the entrance...but I purchased it for two reasons:

1. They weren't charging an outrageous amount like most places do for one photo.

2. It's hard to get pictures of the two of us when it was just the two of us at the aquarium.

Friday, I was able to get the day off so that I could take Brennan up into the mountains. He had spent the whole week in the city, so I figured we were due for a mountain adventure. This lead us to the Breckenridge "Fun Park" as they now call it. We did all kinds of things that we used to do on Walter family vacations. Does this look familiar to anyone?

It's the good ol' alpine slide! They have added a third track, but don't be fooled by how much longer it looks. The curves are wider so you don't go as fast. Everyone who went on it was pretty disappointed. What clued me in was the sign at the top that said "If you are over 175 lbs, you might have trouble keeping your sled in motion." Brennan and I stuck to the two original tracks.

Guess what? You can get your picture taken on the slide too!

Brennan's is way better than mine.

I sent Brennan on a final run by himself so I could take some pictures of my own. Here he is heading up the lift.

And here he is at the bottom. He got trapped behind quite a few slower riders on the way down.


Posing with the "sled" you ride down on.
Breckenridge looks so different from when I last saw it, which was this past winter. I learned to ski here! I didn't even know it was the same area until I saw the ski school place and then I found the very first run I did (lift 7). Not surprising, it looks completely different in the winter when it is covered in snow and skiiers.

The fun park was exciting to see too. They have added some new things, such as mini golf and a big rubber swing that you can do flips and stuff on. We wished all of our Walter relatives could have been there like old times. We even did the big maze again. Yep, it's still there! Brennan did it 3 minutes faster than me. Harumph.
After the fun park, we decided to take a hike. Literally. We were able to find the same trail that we hiked with Alissa last fall. Brennan and I went a little farther today and found a flowing mountain creek to put our feet in. The water was FREEZING, as is to be expected from fresh snow melt.

I miss my little brother a lot since he has left. I had a great time having him here, spending time with him, and just trying to spoil him a little.

You are probably wondering why I haven't mentioned the weekend activities yet. Well stay tuned...that's a whole different post coming soon!