mmmm....Beer.....

So, today I woke up with the need to do something new and most importantly, not in the house. We got the kids ready to go, piled into the car and Chris said, "Where should we go?"

OK, planning isn't always our thing...

After some thought and a little driving around, I said, "lets go to Golden", we could always go to a museum or something. Up to Golden we drove, as we were passing the Coors plant it occurred to us that the brewery has a free tour and more importantly, free beer! Considering the Coors brewery isn't all that far away we've never done the tour.  The brewery fit the bill perfectly... something new and it wasn't at our house.

The Brewery is located basically in or at least near downtown Golden, right on Clear Creek... fresh mountain spring anyone? Tee Hee, actually they assured us they use water from a source deep in the mountains, under the plant. This water is only used for cooling...

The kids were pretty excited to go, when we told them what we were going to do.  It had all the elements of a fun time: It was up in the mountains (yes Golden is in the mountains and you better not tell my kids different... it saves me a bundle in gas not to have to go to an actual mountain town! LOL), we rode on a 'school bus' (Coors shuttle), we went in a big building, rode in an elevator and had soda... all the components needed for an adventure.

The tour is a self guided tour with a little device that tells one (uno, solo, solitary) person what is going on.. and you have to be over 12 to get one.  Oh, joy, only mommy and daddy got the fascinating device, leaving the kids to argue who got to help listen.  As a bonus, no matter how loud you try to make it, you have to hold it up to your ear to hear.  Luckily the babies lost interest pretty fast and the girls were pretty good about sharing when needed, after the initial volley of, "ME, NO ME, MY TURN!!!" it wasn't too bad.

We learned the history of the brewery and I found it interesting they make everything there. The beer, the bottles and the cans. You really do learn something new everyday.

A lot of the plant was shut down since it was Saturday. But there were still some interesting things. The copper vats where they cook the grains was my favorite. It looked like the innards of some alien ship. The shiny copper vats put out a lot of heat and it was a little humid as well. There was also a high tech control room to monitor everything... all alien ships need one!

 At the end of the tour we got to see some finished product ... for all of you who drink Coors Light, here it is coming off the line.

After about a half hour of looking around we found the lounge and enjoyed a fresh cold one... tasty...I had a Killian's Red.

The kids had soda and assured me that it was very yummy.  Lucas was convinced he had found paradise, a factory that makes 'soda', where you get to see how it's made and then drink some and then ride on a 'soda bus'... I'm still not sure what tour he took.

 

Dinosuars...Where?!? (Picture heavy, because I can)

Saturday dawned as a bit of a dreary day... clouds, slightly chilly and the threat of rain. Despite that, we decided to have an outing to the Denver Botanic Gardens, what with it being a free day and all. What we didn't know is the DBG had been invaded by Dinosaurs which made it way more fun than usual. (OK, its always fun for me... prehistoric creatures or no.) There was also a lot of construction, the parking lot was a big giant pit (literally... it was a hole in the ground surrounded by concrete) and the front entrance looked more like a disaster area than a metro spot of peace, beauty and tranquility. Luckily after oohing and ahhing at the crane,(the metal kind, not the feathered variety) preventing the kids from scaling the chain link fence and distracting them from staring at the construction workers while they tried to enjoy their lunch we made it inside the gardens where things were just as pretty and tranquil as they've ever been. Although my kids were able to take care of that pesky quiet, tranquil feeling:)

Right off we were greeted with hundreds of tulips in full bloom, as well as dozens of other blooming spring bulbs. All the bright colors immediately started to dispel some of the gloom of the day.

red tulips

grape hyacinths

fritillaria

scilla

pretty tulip

more tulips

dutch iris nestled in silver artemesia

daffodills

And there were spring blooming perennials showing their colors.

brunnera macroflora

drumstick primrose

pasque flower

aubretia

anemone

aspens with daffodils

evergreens in the oriental garden

The dinosaurs were made of some sort of colorful material and a few were quite large. Each was accompanied by a plaque that gave information about each dino. The kids were thrilled to run from statue to statue learning a little bit before they darted off again.

I'm not sure what kind of dinosaurs the above are... possibly sillious hammasaurus.

Above are my kids 'acting' scared... yeah they are going to be stage actors, there's no subtlety in their method at all.

there were even dinosaurs inside! As well as a lot of other pretty things. All in all the botanic gardens was a great way to light up a dreary day.

Kite Festival

Huff, puff, sounds of running and then the wails of, "Mom ...my kite won't fly!!" This was the theme for the kite festival Saturday. Last year we had a great time, the thousands of kites in the air was great to watch, the only complaint, we didn't bring any kites of our own. This year we spent $2.00 on each kid so they could get a souvenir kite and fly it at the festival.

Unfortunately, cheap kites need gale force winds to stay aloft and on Saturday we barely had a light breeze. The skies were rather dark and stormy, but they just never delivered the wind they promised. There were a few gusts and a few kites would find flight, but a few minutes later all the kites would be on the ground again.

What we actually purchased was hours of frustration and wild running around with a kite skipping along the ground behind each kid. Which was fine until they figured out it wasn't such a bargain. All the kids worked hard to get their kites in the air but Taylor ran like it was her life's ambition to get her kite aloft, but it never happened for her.

Dee Dee had a great time just running around, and in her enthusiasm and cuteness (is that even a word?) was able to make it into the Sunday Denver Post.

In the end we all had a great time and the kids learned a valuable lesson, flying a kite without wind is pretty much the same as running around in circles just for the hell of it.