Staycation

This past week was Elisabeth's spring break. FLEA stayed in town and had a fun staycation! The week began with a beautiful 70-degree sunny day. It was so nice we even ate dinner outside so we wouldn't have to come inside. We spent some time at Skate City. Elisabeth had fun roller skating with our neighbor Maddie.........while Allison didn't last long on skates. She made it around the rink exactly once before she decided she was done and demanded to get off the rink. Oh well, we'll try again in a few years! Allison was happy to spend the rest of the time dancing to the music while Elisabeth skated! Then we got pounded with a spring blizzard that shut most of the Denver area down, and gave me an extra day off work! Perfect timing! We hit the local sledding hill to take advantage of the fresh powder. The snow didn't last long -- by 10am that day, the roads and sidewalks were clear and dry (why did I bother to shovel the front walk?!), the sun was shining brightly, and the snow was quickly melting away. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Even the headlines in the Denver Post agreed that it was a bit of an overreaction to shut down most of the city and metro areas. The front page article the day after the snow storm read,

Admit it, Colorado, you woke up this morning a little embarrassed with yourself, right?

As winter whuppin's go, it was just a flash in the pan.

"Snow day turned out to be sunny and beautiful," one Denver resident posted on her Twitter account Wednesday, a day in which the Colorado legislature and every metro-area school district not on spring break closed because of snow.

By midday Wednesday, the weather was positively benevolent. Clear skies. Clearing streets. Clearly a lot of wasted worry.

The fretting over Wednesday morning's road conditions. The pre-emptive school closures and office half-days and hunkering-down hysterics. All for the meteorological equivalent of a reality-show star.

But hey, you won't hear me complaining about a free day off work and an extra day of staycation!

Our staycation included a trip to the Butterly Pavillion where we enjoyed the warm tropical temperatures and beautiful butterflies fluttering everywhere. The Butterfly Pavillion has more than just butterflies -- we saw all kinds of creepy crawlers like scorpions, tarantulas, cockroaches, water bugs, and millipedes. They also had some fish tanks with tropical fish, crabs, and star fish.

Allison pet a star fish and a crab while Elisabeth mustered up some courage and held Rosie the tarantula. In fact, she held Rosie four times!We also spent a day at the World of Wonder Children's Museum where we had fun playing on the pirate ship, dressing up, tumbling, riding in the pulley chair and enclosing ourselves in huge bubbles.Finally, we wrapped up our staycation with a visit to the Denver Aquarium. We saw all kinds of fish, sharks, otters, sting rays, and even rattlesnakes, macaws, and a tiger!What a fun week! Now if only the Spartans can snag a win over Tennessee and advance to the Final Four, that would be a perfect ending to a fantastic week! Go State!