Denver

Well folks, city #1 was a mixed bag. There were excellent successes and some disappointing failures. The Kanes forge ahead tomorrow, St. Louis or bust. Here are our highs and lows:

The Children’s Museum

What an amazing place! There were so many exhibits to play with. Ben’s favorite was The Big Backyard. It was in the style of “Honey I shrunk the kids”, where everything was huge. I marveled at the team of engineers and artists they must have to make a place like that possible. I’m sure this was Ben’s high, maybe Maya’s too. She was feeling a little too old for some things (which was a new parenting experience, yay!), but kept a positive attitude for her brother.

Damn Plumbing

I usually can do plumbing ok, but it’s my own personal hell when it goes wrong. It turns out the guy who put in the tub did everything wrong. Sometimes, as a teacher, Monday Me hates Friday Me. Friday Me typically has a lazy attitude whereas Monday Me is meticulous. It was definitely that Friday guy who did the plumbing under the tub. Consequently, it both leaks AND fails to drain. I think I had a quick fix for the leak (won’t know until tomorrow), but the failure to drain the last 1” of standing water will take major work.

As a result, we needed to take showers at the coin-ops tonight. It feels like a major failure. I think I can fix it fully, but it’ll need to wait until I have time. We’ve got a few beach days planned around the 4th, maybe one of those will work.

Fine art

Sara’s favorite place was the Denver Art Museum. It was an art museum.

The hardest part

The hardest part is figuring out how this works. How do 4 people who usually lead separate, but intertwined, lives suddenly spend 24/7 with each other? We’re not arguing or fighting (we’ll the kids have a little), but we’re all exhausted. (The heat didn’t help. It was 102 today.) Sara and I are both big on personal space, so we’re trying to be graceful and articulate with each other. We’re about 50-50 on the day.

The best part

Sara is a do-er. She did an amazing job creating a day that was an experience the kids will treasure. On vacation, I’m a sitter. Here’s my favorite moment of the day:

Tomorrow, St. Louis!