chuck e. cheese & the botanical gardens

all right, time to do some catching up about our comings and goings here in colorado. as i mentioned over labor day, we have felt very welcome here in our new neighborhood and have already been able to do some fun outings with new found friends. 

the friday before labor day weekend we made our first visit ever to chuck e. cheese. honestly, i cannot remember the last time i went to chuck e. cheese prior to this visit – if i’ve ever been to chuck e. cheese ever? just not sure on that one. 

truthfully, i was a little skeptical about ti being too young for all the hype but it was actually really fun for the little man. the best part was he’s still young enough that he was entertained just walking around pushing buttons and pointing out all his favorite friends – telwatubbay, ponge bob & da man (how he refers to batman, spiderman & any other cartoon ending in man). he couldn’t believe all of them were gathered in one place. he also was quick to point out the “airpwane” that was circling one of the games. he is fascinated by airplanes currently.  

he did use about 10 tokens riding on some of the rides, but considering we were there about two hours, ten tokens isn’t too bad. my favorite part was when he marched up to the biggest “ride on” game in the place which was the race horse & he had to go on it. once on it, he loved it and was able to even figure out that when he pushed a button the horse jumped. i couldn’t believe he wasn’t scared of the thing. my little dare devil. 

overall, i don’t plan on making chuck e. cheese a weekly activity, but i would take titan again if we were meeting up with friends again or had a special occasion that for some reason merited a visit to chuck e. cheese. it’s a little too pricey for my liking to make it more than an occasional treat. 

next up was the botanical gardens the following monday. we had planned on having a play date on monday for a few hours with another little guy in our neighborhood, but when his mom heard on the news it was free day at the botanical gardens our plans quickly changed. we decided instead to load up the kids and head into denver for a walk through the gardens. i mean, you can’t beat free! 

i knew nothing about the gardens so i had no idea what to expect. my opinion? i would definitely go again. my favorite part was a pond in the middle with lily pads in it. i don’t think i’ve ever seen actual real lily pads before those. i’m excited to visit the gardens more and to see how they change over the course of the seasons. 

i especially like an activity like the gardens because it gets us out of the house and doing something different than watching shows or playing with toys. it gets us out in fresh air, getting some exercise and learning how to observe some of the beauty of our planet. it was a leisurely morning with friends and i am definitely a fan of that. sometimes i do think kids today are OVER stimulated with too much tv, computer time & toys that require more batteries than i can keep up with. 

yes, we’ll definitely be visiting the gardens again. oh, and for a free day, it wasn’t even that crowded. i was expecting a ton of people, but we had no problem getting around. so, watch for those days if you live in the colorado area! 

ps. i had no idea they had cafe rio here until my friend mentioned we were by one and should stop there for lunch. so yummy and such a nice end to the morning. it’s a good thing this cafe rio is a little bit of a distance from our house, because i crave the pork barbacoa salad! if it were any closer, i would be going way too often! funny thing is, until about a week before we moved from utah i was not a fan of cafe rio at all. for the last ten years i’ve had one 10 minutes from my house and maybe gone twice (and that was under force). then a couple months ago i tried the pork salad and i’m hooked. i’m addicted. so it’s probably a good thing we moved when we did! the temptation would be too strong!