"where's Brian?"

We were graced this weekend with Wichita friends, Brian and Angela.  In true Ben fashion, he was always concerned with Brian's whereabouts.  We started the weekend Friday morning with a walk around Wash Park before fetching Ben from school.
Next was a picnic at Red Rocks as these two had joined us there last year for the thousand year flood and I wanted to show it off in daylight and clear skies.
On two previous trips, Brian and Angela brought horrid weather but this time we had record highs and they arrived looking like they were destined for Hawaii.

After Red Rocks, we headed home for tortilla making lessons from Angela.  She had gifted me an authentic mexican comal for making tortillas a few months prior and I was thankful for the in-person lesson. I should've started early as we all took a break for margs on the deck but the mushroom quesadillas were delicious when they finally came.  Ben was chomping at the bit while we ate to get to Bonnie Brae.

Angela and Brian brought Ben a little rolling pin of his own. :)

The next morning we headed south to Colorado Springs for our nephew Luke's first birthday party.  Wouldn't you know that we met a guy that went to an adjacent high school to Brian in Texas and attended Texas Tech at the same time!  The Witherspoon's had JUST installed a new lawn and ordered a last minute bouncy house to corral the kids.  Ben was in hog heaven and jumped for hours.  We left him there to go home with Nana and Papa and headed home for a night on the town.  We HAD to stop at the outlets for Brian to shop but FIIIIINally made it home :) and headed for the e-train to Union Station.

This cake was DEEE licious!

The boys enjoying the new deck and the mountain sun.

the birthday boy!!!

He really went to town on his little cake.

This is the good-bye I got.  He was too busy to come out.

Ang obliged me in trying on Ben's Halloween costume.

Union Station had recently wrapped up a HUGE renovation adding shops, restaurants and a hotel.  I had NO idea what was there as I'd vowed a couple months earlier to save it for the Blackerby's visit.  The main, open grand hall was stunning and you can pick up food and drinks at several spots and belly up to a community table right there in the center of it all.  One such spot was a hot-dog and burger place that I'm excited to bring Ben back to.  We four ventured to an actual restauraunt, The Kitchen Next Door, which is a spin-off of a delicious farm-to-table Boulder restaurant I love.  This was the least pricey stand-alone restuaurant and Brian was less than impressed with his dinner and they tried to poison Angela with onions but otherwise it was a success! Thank goodness drinks in the Terminal Bar beforehand meant our good moods just couldn't be spoiled.  The weather was so amazing we headed out into downtown for a post-dinner walk and ended up at Larimer Square and The Market for dessert.  We found a new train home and settled into bed with no schedule for the morning and no little (big) nugget to wake us.

Waiting for the train.

We enjoyed a new mexican strata for breakfast and headed back to Wash Park for another walk in the sunshine before heading to the airport.  On the way, we showed them one last thing they don't have in Wichita, TRAFFIC!
Thank-you Blackerby's for spending your time, effort, $ and days off to come see us. We're over-the-moon excited for next year's itinerary. MWAH!!