Car rides with Grammy

Will and Owen and I made it to Colorado after an hour and a half flight delay that made me grateful I had packed the card game Uno. Will and Owen befriended another 5-year-old in the Atlanta airport and we taught him the game and they played a few rounds together. We also enjoyed some extensive airplane maintenance and loading observation time.

I'm feeling relieved that we opted for the quick flight this year rather than the marathon road trip, especially since lately, when we are making the 8-minute trip from our house to downtown Columbus, Owen has been moaning the question: "When are we going to get there???" Three days in a car seat would apparently be an eternity to him.

And Will is thrilled that we will be able to spend an entire two weeks in Colorado. He's made his calculations and is constantly exclaiming, "I can't believe we get to stay 14 days!" (Rob is still at home for now, but he'll join us next week.)

After our arrival in Denver, I offered the back seat to my mom so she could entertain the boys while I relaxed in the passenger seat for the two-hour trip to Eagle. They played a game in which she wrote down interesting sights they passed on the trip over the mountains and they organized it all by category -- everything from horses and waterfalls to bikes, cliffs and caves. She told them to keep their eyes peeled for mountain goats and coyotes and the like -- but no luck. When they finally tired of that game they started sharing stories with each other. Mom's included tales of mountain lion and bear sightings that got Owen seeing animals on the hillsides. Will's included a detailed account of each hole on the mini golf course at Panama City.

Owen was inspired to drink so much in the arid Colorado air, that we had to make two emergency roadside pit stops. At the first, as Owen peed on some grass, he looked up and said: "That's a bear rock; I see a bear coming from the bear rock." At pit stop number two, he looked up at the hillside and said, "Better watch out. There might be a mountain lion goat up there."

Now if I can just ride shot gun on the five-hour trip to Arches National Park, where we plan to camp on Monday and Tuesday, we will all be happy travelers. I'd install Grammy instead of an in-car DVD player any day.