Oregon/Colorado Vacation Part 1

J has four living great-grandparents, and it is so important to me that he meets every one. He has met my FIL's mom several times, and this month I took him on a trip to meet my dad's parents. Our visit with my mom's mom will have to wait until we have enough money saved up. Once the new baby comes, the cost of plane tickets for me, J, and Baby will be about $5,000. Hard to cough up that kind of money just for plane tickets, but my husband knows it's very important to me.

I broke up this trip into three parts because I was traveling alone with J, and it's a pain in the ass to do planes and airports alone with a toddler. All the airlines had these hideous itineraries involving four airports, three planes, and twelve house of travel to get from Kansas City to Oregon. I figured I might as well take a direct flight from KC to Denver and have my dad pick us up and drive us back to Colorado Springs and do the rest of the flights with him a few days later. J and I flew out to Denver on a Wednesday and stayed in CS until Friday. We flew with my dad on Friday to Oregon and flew back to CS on Monday. Then J and I flew back to KC on Wednesday.

On the flight from KC to Denver, I lucked out with an empty middle seat that J could have. He had a little toy truck to play with, and I looked over and he was running the truck up and down the lady's arm who was sitting next to him. I was so embarrassed and apologized, but she just laughed and said she has a one-year-old boy who does the same thing and she didn't care.

My dad used some vacation time to keep me and J entertained. My favorite was taking J to the zoo and seeing him feed the giraffes. He also enjoyed roaring like the bears and watching the other animals.

My dad also took us to see the Broadmoor Hotel, which is THE hotel to stay at in Colorado Springs. It's really fancy and has its own lake that they dressed up for Christmas.

We also went to Manitou Springs, which is a little Main Street-type of shopping area. I didn't really buy much because I had crammed everything in a carry-on, so I only got some handmade soaps.