(no subject)
Jan. 16th, 2011 01:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sethrakYesterday we spent the day in Denver. The only other time we've been there was en route to COS from NE, last January.
I half-expected epic Zodling meltdowns and/or very cross Davners shaking fists at the local drivers. It went pretty well, though.
First, the Denver Children's Museum. It's a pretty cool little museum, and I'd recommend it to other parents - but for us it wasn't worth the thirty-two bucks for the four of us combined. There's a large section on the ground floor dedicated to kids four and under, which was nice... But it, as with the rest of the museum, was heavily crowded, and quite naturally had a lot of kids Jack's size and smaller. mark is not very good at being careful with watching where he's going with his peers or anyone older. He's awful at watching out for tiny babies. This made it necessary to hover over him more than I'd have liked.
But he had a ton of fun. ^_^ So did Jack, but Jack got overwhelmed a lot sooner than Mark and started koala-ing on Tom after a bit.
We took them out of that section, to Mark's vehement protests, and tried the other ground floor section. That side's devoted to a massive fire truck, with room for three kids at the controls, and a movable hose turret on the back, dials to turn, and even little firefighter hats and jackets for the kids. :D It was awesome.
Mark just wanted to do loops, up the stairs on one side, into the cab, down the stairs on the other side, around the front, and back again. ^_^;; Tom couldn't get Jack to climb on the firetruck without being carried. And after a few too many near-misses between Mark and other patrons of all ages, we decided to try the second floor.
This was set up for older kids. There was a dress up room with costumes for all genders and a wall of mirrors. There was a puppet theater that kids or parents could play in. There was a massive wall of letter and words magnets. There was a room with various machines for experimenting with bubbles. There was a room for building little projects (complete with directions) from post-consumer recycled items. There was another room I never got a chance to enter for testing prototype new exhibits. And if the website's right, there were several rooms we simply never noticed.
A neurotypical kid Mark's age, without issues with crowds, might have done excellently. Mark mostly ran around in circles, tried stealing toy trains from other kids, dunked his arm into the bubble solution tanks (while wearing a very fuzzy jacket) and seemed otherwise uninterested. Tom tried to get Jack interested in some of the simpler exhibits, and tried a puppet show for Jack. jack was unimpressed. The one second floor exhibit they both showed much interest in was the wall of magnets.
And oh my GOD was it crowded. Big surprise, as it was Saturday of MLK weekend in a heavily government-employment area. But still. Keeping Mark out of socially unacceptable trouble was HARD.
There were no meltdowns, but if we ever go again, we'll have Tom take a weekday off and go when there's fewer people. Probably wait til they're older and have made more developmental milestones, too.
Then we went to the only Culver's in all of Denver. ^_^ Mark was excellent. Jack was well-behaved, but was not as interested in his grilled cheese as he usually is.
Then, Denver's Bass Pro Shop. This location is two stories tall, and had a pretty awesome multi-level viewing area for the giant tank of game fish. :D Unfortunately, there happened to be a boat show going on this weekend, which made parking a massive bitch, and made Tom very very cross. He cheered up when he saw how awesome the store was, though. ^_^ We'll have to take the in-laws there when they visit. Didn't buy much, as most of what they sell is pricey and available for cheaper in COS. But we did load up on the same brand of rum cake Tom brought back from his TDY to the Bahamas, and some coconut candies. :D
Then Tom dropped me off at the only New York & Company store in the entire state, popped a Backyardigans dvd in the portable player for the boys, and went off to drive for a bit. I got some really nice new spring clothes, and deeply enjoyed shopping sans Zodlings. :D
We got home around 4, and aside from the hassles of driving in a new city and fighting through a parking lot of boat nuts, we had a decent time. :D I'd love to go back.
I half-expected epic Zodling meltdowns and/or very cross Davners shaking fists at the local drivers. It went pretty well, though.
First, the Denver Children's Museum. It's a pretty cool little museum, and I'd recommend it to other parents - but for us it wasn't worth the thirty-two bucks for the four of us combined. There's a large section on the ground floor dedicated to kids four and under, which was nice... But it, as with the rest of the museum, was heavily crowded, and quite naturally had a lot of kids Jack's size and smaller. mark is not very good at being careful with watching where he's going with his peers or anyone older. He's awful at watching out for tiny babies. This made it necessary to hover over him more than I'd have liked.
But he had a ton of fun. ^_^ So did Jack, but Jack got overwhelmed a lot sooner than Mark and started koala-ing on Tom after a bit.
We took them out of that section, to Mark's vehement protests, and tried the other ground floor section. That side's devoted to a massive fire truck, with room for three kids at the controls, and a movable hose turret on the back, dials to turn, and even little firefighter hats and jackets for the kids. :D It was awesome.
Mark just wanted to do loops, up the stairs on one side, into the cab, down the stairs on the other side, around the front, and back again. ^_^;; Tom couldn't get Jack to climb on the firetruck without being carried. And after a few too many near-misses between Mark and other patrons of all ages, we decided to try the second floor.
This was set up for older kids. There was a dress up room with costumes for all genders and a wall of mirrors. There was a puppet theater that kids or parents could play in. There was a massive wall of letter and words magnets. There was a room with various machines for experimenting with bubbles. There was a room for building little projects (complete with directions) from post-consumer recycled items. There was another room I never got a chance to enter for testing prototype new exhibits. And if the website's right, there were several rooms we simply never noticed.
A neurotypical kid Mark's age, without issues with crowds, might have done excellently. Mark mostly ran around in circles, tried stealing toy trains from other kids, dunked his arm into the bubble solution tanks (while wearing a very fuzzy jacket) and seemed otherwise uninterested. Tom tried to get Jack interested in some of the simpler exhibits, and tried a puppet show for Jack. jack was unimpressed. The one second floor exhibit they both showed much interest in was the wall of magnets.
And oh my GOD was it crowded. Big surprise, as it was Saturday of MLK weekend in a heavily government-employment area. But still. Keeping Mark out of socially unacceptable trouble was HARD.
There were no meltdowns, but if we ever go again, we'll have Tom take a weekday off and go when there's fewer people. Probably wait til they're older and have made more developmental milestones, too.
Then we went to the only Culver's in all of Denver. ^_^ Mark was excellent. Jack was well-behaved, but was not as interested in his grilled cheese as he usually is.
Then, Denver's Bass Pro Shop. This location is two stories tall, and had a pretty awesome multi-level viewing area for the giant tank of game fish. :D Unfortunately, there happened to be a boat show going on this weekend, which made parking a massive bitch, and made Tom very very cross. He cheered up when he saw how awesome the store was, though. ^_^ We'll have to take the in-laws there when they visit. Didn't buy much, as most of what they sell is pricey and available for cheaper in COS. But we did load up on the same brand of rum cake Tom brought back from his TDY to the Bahamas, and some coconut candies. :D
Then Tom dropped me off at the only New York & Company store in the entire state, popped a Backyardigans dvd in the portable player for the boys, and went off to drive for a bit. I got some really nice new spring clothes, and deeply enjoyed shopping sans Zodlings. :D
We got home around 4, and aside from the hassles of driving in a new city and fighting through a parking lot of boat nuts, we had a decent time. :D I'd love to go back.
