Last Hoorah! (Buckle up, it's a long one)

Oh how absence makes the heart grow fonder!

3 weekends ago, I made the trip down to Denver to see my lonesome husband. He had been working and living with his cousin for 3 weeks in February and desperately wanted me to come down and see the big city. It was just my luck that a friend was driving down to Cheyenne, WY the same Friday I was wanting to leave and was willing to risk driving with a 7 month pregnant woman. This saved me a lot of money, not having to fly from Billings to Denver. I sure wasn't going to drive down by myself. He was kind of nervous that I would go into labor on the way and wouldn't know what to do. You would have to know Rob Hill, to know that he gets teased quite a lot for some of the things he says or does, from some mutual friends we have. Plus, he's from England and has the whole accent thing going too. Anyways... we made it to Cheyenne in one piece, 6 1/2 hrs later and found Jason sitting in Rob's hotel parking lot. I kind of had that butterfly feeling in my stomach because of the anticipation and couldn't quite smiling. It was kind of like we were dating again. After gathering all my stuff, it was off to Sonic for a quick bite and off driving again for another 1 1/2 hrs.

We stayed with Jason's great-uncle Paul and his wife Carol. They were so sweet. Saturday morning, we observed Paul's ritual of feeding his squirrels. He lays out a couple handfuls of peanuts in the shell and they watch 10 different squirrels come in and eat them. It's quite comical to watch, because they come from everywhere. Because the peanuts were salted, the poor squirrels were licking some water off of their pool tarp. Jason suggested giving them some water. Paul got out a pie plate and filled it up. Sure enough, a few of the squirrels went and drank from the plate. So to add to Paul's feeding of peanuts, he now gives them water.


After breakfast, we headed out on the town to find some baby shops where we could look for some much needed items. Our area doesn't have a lot of stores geared towards baby or kid items. I had wanted to find Babies R Us and we did. You could spend so much money on so much stuff for kids there. Our big ticket item that I wanted to find was a stroller/car seat combo. They were all pretty expensive, and the cheaper ones had the four plastic tires which we didn't want. Jason found a set that we both liked but there was none to be had because they were a good price. We walked down the aisle and found the exact same one just sitting there. So we asked a salesman and he said that he would give us 20% off! There was nothing wrong with it but it was probably a model. That was a huge saving. A $200 stroller for $160! And the colors are unisex, grey and green. I was pushing it around the store to see how it would maneuver, which it turns on a dime. We're both pumped to go for walks with it. Jason loves all the adjustment on it and the wheels make it push really smooth.
I also wanted to get a changing pad for on top of a dresser instead of buying a change table. So we found that, and an over the door hanger with canvas baskets to hold things for later and just some other little things. We've still got a long ways to go. We found another store that sold used clothing, but it's so hard to buy clothes when you don't know what you're having. So we've held off on that. I'll buy a few jumpers just so we have something to take our bundle home in and then we can go shopping or borrow clothes for the gender. If it's a girl, I've got a couple of friends who said they were willing to lend me clothes.

Late afternoon, we headed over to the "sacred" Bass Pro Shop outdoor store. This story was HUGE! Jason had spent quite a few hours here by himself and he was so excited to show it to me. This was a room full of very expensive guns. I had to wipe the drool from Jason's mouth and sometimes pull him from this room, to keep moving.
This is just one example of the many mounts they had all over the store. They had a huge aquarium with oversized fish and this 100lb catfish which was huge. The elevator went behind the waterfall that fed the tank and the glass. They also had a full restaurant, which we had to eat at. Here, I'm trying Alligator, which was really good if you didn't get a piece that was terribly chewy but it was really tender. The dipping sauce was good too. I tried Mahi Mahi and Jason had the Salmon.
Right in front of us, there was a 15,000 gal salt water aquarium filled with all kinds of fish. There was this one fish that was so funny. He would swim the whole length of the glass, float up, turn around and he was off again. He did this the whole time we were there. We could just hear him say, "There has got to be a way out of here. I know I'll find it." We asked a waitress about it and she said that it does not stop. He does it even when they close.

We made a few more stops and then headed to a hotel for the night. It seems like forever since we stayed in one and Jason knows that I like to because it feels like a vacation. He had the fortunate opportunity to work for a lady who worked at the DoubleTree hotel. She was able and willing to book us a suite room for $54/night! Unfortunately, we didn't have any swim suits, otherwise we would have made use of the pool. We were both so tired from walking all day that we crashed pretty early. While being in Denver, Jason had been going to Vineyard church for the services. After another quick breakfast, we headed across town to church. The music was really good.

I met his cousin Dan for the first time in 7 years, since the last time I met him. We went out to lunch to a cajun restaurant called Papadeaux. We all stuffed ourselves on their brunch buffet. The guys wanted to look at guitars, so they played around for a while at a nearby store. We headed back to Paul and Carol's for a nap and then went for supper with them. Paul has always been into cars, and has a Jaguar sitting in his garage. He opted to take us for a ride in it and showed us some of its power, much to our delight.

Monday came all too soon and it was time to pack up and drive home. But we had to stop first for some Chic-fil-a and get some sweet tea for the hubs and food for the babe. If it sounds like all we did was eat, we did. Jason thought it was so much fun to expose me to some of the things he grew up with in Texas, like Sonic and Chic-fil-a, and some of the tastes he discovered in Denver. I didn't mind, I was on vacation. And this kind of was our last big trip just the two of us. It won't take long and I'm going to pop. This is the 33 week body, very attractive. HA HA! I look at these pictures and think I'm so huge, but me looking down, I don't feel that huge. Go figure.