Vitamin Denver

My weekend was a treat: I flew to Denver to celebrate my newest niece! When the baby blessing date was announced via our family group text message last month, I started searching for flights and struck gold with an unlikely mega-deal from Pasco to Denver. Who am I to pass up a sweet sleek airfare? With my sainted husband's support at home, I flew out late Friday night and arrived home Monday morning. (Sleep was secondary.) A wind advisory made my Friday flights rather harrowing and late, causing a frantic power-walk session through the Seattle airport, where I skimmed into the boarding line of my connecting flight just in the nick of time. I even managed to snag a strange green Caesar wrap for dinner at a convenient food stand next to the gate. Then it was back into the choppy air. My plane landed in Denver just before midnight, and my beloved mother picked me up. We arrived back at her house at 1am mountain time. 

After a few hours of sleep, I went on a quiet jog in the thin clean air. It was unseasonably warm in Denver, with temperatures reaching 70 during my visit. I wore shorts and ran over shady patches of unmelted snow every half mile or so. That sharp powerful Colorado sunshine reached out from behind the clouds during the last half of my run and gave me a solid dose of good ole vitamin Denver. 

Back at the house, the family was stirring. I chatted and talked and talked and talked with my mom, sister, and brother-in-law until nearly lunchtime, when we decided to try out a nearby Indian food buffet. The spice burned so good. YUM. We watched a movie and talked and just enjoyed each other's company for the rest of Saturday. 

SUNDAY was baby-heaven day. I played my mom's Steinway piano for about 45 minutes before church, reveling in the perfectly weighted keys and the rich tones that came with every chord. I brought my own music so I could finally actually see if there is an actual Steinway difference. There is. It was fun. We met up with the rest of the attending Brown family at my brother Kyle's ward in Parker, CO for the baby blessing at 11:30am. It was special and sweet to see my brother being fatherly. During Sunday school at long last, I got to hold baby Della. She was the sweetest little nugget, with feather soft hair and big searching eyes. Aunt Shaina was charmed!

After church we had a big family dinner at my parents' house with 4/5 of my siblings and their spouses and kids. I did not do much in the way of photo-documentation. Time was too short! I wanted to live it, not take pictures of it! I loved hanging out with my youngest sister Mel and her husband Braxton for a long time on Sunday night. I have barely seen her since she graduated high school between college, mission, study abroad, and her summers of international humanitarian aid. Now she and Braxton are graduated and awaiting the start dates of their various employments in Denver and therefore more accessible to visiting family members! 

On Monday morning my mom drove me to the airport at 5:30am and I began the stressful process of flying home, once again barely making my connecting flight in Seattle. Back in Pasco, I parked and went for a run along the blue Columbia River before driving home. The river was full of floating tumbleweeds--vestiges of the weekend's wind advisory. I was relieved to be back on solid ground after hours of turbulence in various airplanes.

It was two short days of quality family time that felt all the more special because it came in the middle of dull ole wintertime. Now, to finish catching up on sleep...

 Running along the canal in Greenwood Village, CO.

 Feeling the sun-zen after skating over that slick ice in the background.

 Saturday sunset over the Denver Rockies.

Della Gwynn Brown. Absolutely precious.

Mel took a mid-church photo of my baby heaven. That's my brother Kyle/Della's daddy in the background. I didn't even get a picture with Alivia, the graceful baby mama! 

 Embarrassing picture--I think I was swooning over the cuteness overload, haha. It was so fun to sit between my family members and whisper to each other throughout church. Kyle and I actually managed to have a few rather pithy under cover gospel conversations in the midst of the Sunday school lesson.

Sunny Sunday sister selfie! It was also windy, and it's technically a mother-daughter picture but I enjoy alliterative tongue twisters. 

The star baby of the day. 

 Heehee

Having my soul examined. 

Baby!!!

* * *

Back in WA, along the tumbleweeded Columbia River.

Seriously, who needs a bridge with all that tumbleweed? 

 Sweet reunions. It's so refreshing for my kids to be excited to see me after an absence. They get so used to me always being there all dependably that they barely notice me until I leave. (Jeff was there too, but we rarely take selfies unless we're adventuring abroad together.) Jeff said he gained a new layer of sympathy/empathy/understanding for me while he wrangled the kids solo for the weekend. I felt satisfyingly necessary to our family. It's amazing how hard it is even for me to see if I'm of any use around here until I leave and come back!

This week Amber has been very interested in piles of soft things, books, and her flashlight. 

 I returned to my self-imposed gerbil wheel of field running loops, following along weeks worth of my own footprints pounded into the dirt like a deer path. I can see it clearly in this picture, but I have spent so much time staring at that piece of ground, maybe that's why it looks so visible to me.

Where do you keep your spare gummy bears?