Baby Sitting in Denver

Tuesday 11/12

Stopped by the campground office at 8:30 to see where they wanted us to move. No spaces in Coyote, won’t know if there are any available until Noon! They could put me in another loop, but we would have to move again in five days!

OK, fine. Came back at 11:30 and drove through the loop, one space open. Went to office - sorry cannot rent out until noon! Now these folks are volunteers, but I almost lost it. “Look, we have a toddler and two newborns, a family moving into a new house and three family members off to a funeral today! I just drove 45 minutes (OK I exaggerated) back here and now you want me to wait around another half hour to see if the people who have left will come back and want another night? Give me a break!”

Finally he called the ranger and got an OK to let me move into the space 15 mins early! WOW!

Yesterday morning when we went out our water hose had sprung a leak. Don’t think it was cold enough to freeze the night before, so it probably just wore out. Tossed it in the dumpster and got out the second hose, filled our water tank as it was supposed to colder Monday night, then disconnected the hose and left it on the ground. Today when I went to pick it up some critter had chewed a hole almost the size of a dime in the hose! Bet that’s what happened to the first one as well, it just started spraying so they did not chew a big hole. Showed the piece I cut out of the hose to the ranger on my way out, she thought maybe a prairie dog.

So after I moved the truck and trailer and hooked back up I stopped at Lowe’s and picked up two new hoses and a repair connector for the old damaged one. I will put that out while we are here instead of risking a hole in one of the new hoses.

Back at Wood’s house to feed and help with the babies. Emily and her folks are off this evening to a funeral in Omaha, so Greg, Nancy, & I are taking care of Miles and the babies. Nancy helped with the 9 PM feeding and went to bed, Gregg and I stayed up until Midnight to do the feeding, then Greg did the 3 AM on his own and Nancy & I got up to do the 6 AM on Wednesday morning - how do new parents deal with this without help?

Wednesday 11/13

Spent most of the day taking care of the babies as Greg had some errands to run and the rest of the family is in Omaha. Ran back out to the campground during the day to patch the chewed hose and found there was another tooth puncture in it as well! The two hoses from Lowe’s are quite nice, so I will not be leaving them out 

Thursday 11/14

More baby sitting today while Emily went to school with Miles as the volunteer “Mom assistant”.

Between feedings I ran back to Cherry Creek to pay for two more days. What a pain that is becoming.

Friday 11/15

Back to the new house this morning and spent some time reassembling furniture that the movers had disassembled and/or broken. Watched F1 practice from Austin on Greg’s nice, large flat screen - about three times the size of the one in the trailer!

Late in the afternoon we came back to the trailer and relaxed, brats for dinner. 

Saturday 11/16

Stopped at campground office and paid for two more days! Went over to Connie’s and Laurie made a really nice breakfast. Then we went to Emily & Greg’s to watch F1 qualifying on the big flat screen.

In the evening Connie, Laurie, Nancy & I went to Tag’s Burgers. It was crowded and rather than wait a half hour for a table we opted for the patio, which was actually quite comfortable with the heaters going. Once in a while the breeze would come up and it was downright chilly, but overall not bad. The burgers were excellent, living up to expectations.

Back home we watched the Blackhawks game we recorded - they lost 7-2! 

Sunday 11/17

Went to Emily and Greg’s and watched the F1 race from Austin. Spent the afternoon visiting and watching/feeding the babies. That is the main activity these days - two six week olds that eat every three hours. We are all pitching in to try and take some of the load off Emily & Greg.

Looking at the weather forecasts we have decided to head for Albuquerque when we leave on Saturday instead of our original plan of stopping in Las Vegas, NM. Weather for Sunday looks iffy in the higher elevations.

Pizza at their house for dinner and then back home to watch the Blackhawks again, this time they won!

Monday 11/18

Nancy went off to Connie’s house this AM to do laundry, I did a few things around the trailer and then took the truck over to Best Buy to have the radio checked. The tech thought it might just need to be reset, but that did not work so I made an appointment for Thursday to have him take a look at it, hopefully it is something simple.

Heading out this morning we could see fresh snow in the Rockies, nothing in the front range yet, but plenty of snow at the higher elevations.

After Best Buy I took the truck by Emily’s house so Miles could look at it, he is really into “big trucks”. Last spring he was a bit afraid when I put him up in the cab, but this time he was fascinated, wanted to know what all the switches and buttons were for, sat in the seat and pretended to drive. He liked pushing buttons that made air hiss.