Denver

My family decided to take a girl's trip to Denver to visit my sister Katie. Since we are a family of girls (besides husbands, dad and nephew) and we really wanted to see Wicked that was playing in Denver, we counted it as a girls trip and took off for a couple days.

Ava was so excited for all of us to come so she got into her most favorite outfit to celebrate our arrival. She pretty much dressed up like this at some point everyday, however, she alternated between tutus and swimsuits.

In an effort to keep Miles and Ava happy, Jenn and Torie made up a game where if you said "Hey there Tinkerbell" they would both start dancing and when "Let's go Peter Pan" was said they would freeze. Ava and Miles would laugh hysterically every time they froze. This game was played in most all of the stores we visited, this one in particular was in Polo.

During one shopping adventure we were spending way way way too long in a shoe store so I occupied Miles' time by playing sock puppets with the nylon socks. Jenn and Torie got a little more creative by putting the nylons over Miles' head and he loved it! He wore them throughout the next three stores until they got too many runs in them and his head tore through.

Katie dared Tori to heat a jalapeno with her at the food court. I think Katie was trying to make it a contest to see who could eat it fastest. Torie was a little nervous but she was the only one brave enough to try it out. As you can see by both of their faces, Torie fell for one of Katie's cruel jokes. Katie never put the thing in her mouth and poor Torie didn't figure it out until she had already chewed a few times.

The main reason we went to Denver was to see Wicked. Torie's birthday was the week after and she has always wanted to see the play. We could barely contain her she was so excited. I had listed to the music but didn't know much about the plot besides the basic story of The Wizard of Oz and I would have to say that's what impressed me most. It was such a good musical and everyone loved it.

This is Torie standing next to a flying monkey

We did a lot of shopping while there. It's pretty much my dad's favorite hobby. You would think in a family with seven females (six daughters and one mom) that we would drive him crazy with our shopping but in reality my dad is the one usually dragging us from one outlet to the next. Below is Torie after yet another long day of shopping.

When we arrived it was fall and by the next day we were in full-fledged winter. I took this picture so Brock could tell just how much snow fell overnight.

Katie told us about this great little dessert restaurant in downtown Denver so all the girls packed up one night and went to "a craft store" at least I'm pretty sure that's what we told my dad. There was a long wait but it was well worth it. All the desserts are super fancy and they taste as good as they look. Keegan Gerhard - Celebrity Pastry Chef

I'm not sure if Keegan is the owner, chef or both but my sisters all knew who he was from the Food Network. After we were seated, he came out and talked to us for a while and told us his favorites on the menu.

Julia had creme brulee and I had an ice cream waffle sandwich.

I'm pretty sure Reagan fell in love with Katie's dessert because she couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the week.

Of course my mom got the most chocolatiest pick on the menu - chocolate cake with a chocolate shake. It was really good but very rich. My mom thought it was perfect.

Katie and Steve were nice enough to let all of the sisters and my parents stay at their house. We had such a great time and hopefully we'll make this a tradition.