Playdate with an old friend/new friend at the Denver Botanic Gardens (July 1)

So, my old friend Cassie (we went to elementary & middle school together) moved to the Denver area about a year ago. We've only been able to connect one other time, but right before we went to Sundance, I took the girls down to Denver to the Botanic Gardens to meet my old friend and their new friend, Remy. Cassie has another daughter named Delilah, but she's only 7 weeks old, so she was pretty quiet!

The day was unintentionally VERY eventful. We got to the Botanic Gardens and the place was hoppin' so we parked far away. Along the way, I got a long-awaited phone call from the insurance adjuster (who we'd been playing phone tag with, after our colossal hail storm on June 24th), so I made the girls stand on the sidewalk while I talked for like 10 minutes. The loved that... When we finally got up to the entrance, there was a huge line due to the Chihuly Exhibit. We waited and waited, and then Cassie saved us from the line and explained that there was a separate entrance in the Children's Section. Woohoo!

We got into the Children's section and I had to desperately rid myself of the coffee thermos I had drank on the drive down, so I promptly ditched my two children for the bathrooms and left Cassie with 4 children (two of them virtual strangers). Oops. Then I returned and we headed into the main area with the water feature. Within a few minutes Scout had gotten lost. So there's that. I found her at the main entrance sitting with a staff member. She was a wreck and stuck next to me like glue the rest of the day, and didn't even splash in the water because she was so convinced she needed to be RIGHT BY ME the rest of the day. Poor thing.

The Botanic Gardens has a children's area with a stream in it for the kids to splash in

Remy, Delilah & Cassie

 After we scored some more lunch in the main area of gardens, we headed into the large greenhouse area.

While we were bopping along in the tropical forest, we talked a lot about our trip next summer to Hawaii, and we wondered if we'd see plants like this there.

Then we walked around outside again. You might notice Remy's substantial black eye in some of these photos--poor thing had fallen down the stairs a few days before.

Scout desperately wanted to step on one of the lily pads

 Also--the interesting glass features along the way are the Chihuly exhibit.

Ruby took this photo--both the girls thought that it looked like something Elsa would do

 Then we have some exciting photos that the girls took of the "flora"

That's me & Cassie--and a little bit of Scout's finger

 But this isn't where the excitement ended. After walking back to our car (which, I have to say, was a pleasure since the neighborhood surrounding the Gardens is LOVELY!), we headed to the new Trader Joe's. At Trader Joe's, we parked on the street behind because the parking lot was full (and too small). The girls and I walked in, and one of the workers told us about a Bear that they hide for the kids and if the kids find it, they are rewarded with a lollipop. Hmm... Ruby & Scout found it right away, but I explained we'd catch the customer service desk on the way out and get our lollipops then. Within a few minutes, Ruby had disappeared (if you're following along, it's two different kids, two different locations, two separate momma-panic-attacks caused by missing children). I found Ruby after a few minutes, and she was promptly put in the cart where I could keep an eye on her. I wrangled her into the cart somehow, but it was a tight fit because the carts aren't super ginormous normal shopping carts and she is 4 1/2 afterall. A few minutes after I'd calmed down about the second missing child scare, I stepped away from the cart to grab some cheese off the shelf, and in that time, Scout had been hanging on the end of the shopping cart which had the disastrous effect of throwing off the balance of the cart which in turn had the disastrous effect of sending her sister ass-over-tea kettle onto the floor with a thump and crash. She hit her head hard and luckily someone was paying attention, though it wasn't me. This very nice woman (another customer) picked Ruby up and handed her too me, and quite frankly I was in such a state of upheaval that I probably didn't even thank the woman. The woman looked at me and after asking if I wanted some ice, she said, "It's okay, we've all done it." I thought to myself--well, shoot, I've made it this far in life (a 7 year old and a 4 year old) and THIS is my first time sending either of them flailing to the ground for a concussion inducing fall while peaches roll out of the cart, so I'm a little shook up! I tipped the cart back up and took both kids over towards the entrance where we could sit and collect ourselves. A store employee brought over a bag of frozen peas for us to use as an ice pack, and another worker brought over some lollipops (DARN LOLLIPOPS!!!) to ease the pain. At this point I wanted to get the heck out of there or crawl into a hole, but everyone was being so nice to us, so we finished our shopping and headed out as quickly as possible. The ride home was a breeze compared to that whole shopping trip.

Whew. That day was quite the adventure... just when I was beginning to feel like it was no big deal to drive the kids to Denver for the day.