Our Vacation in Denver

***Be ready for a LONG post and lots of pictures***
We had a wonderful time on our 4 day trip to Denver. We did a lot and got to see a good bit of the city as well. It's funny, we were warned about the traffic in Denver by many people. We drove on the freeways many different times of the day including rush hour. After living in the LA area for 7 years, Denver traffic was a joke. It was almost always going 35 or faster. Here's a few bullets of what we did/saw while we were there.

*Stayed in a nice hotel for free (we used hotel points)
*Saw MANY of the same restaurants that we had in CA and greatly miss :) I was very happy about this. They didn't have Golden Spoon or Stonefire but had most everything I enjoy.
*Took Taeya to the indoor pool and hottub.
*Drove around looking at different areas of Denver.
*Phil dropped off his resume at a company he's interested in working at and ended up in an interview that lasted a good hour to hour and a half! He said it was the best interview he's ever had. They have an opening for an estimator right now but are already flying someone up from Phoenix to interview so there's a slim chance he's get this position. However, it looks like within a few months they will most likely have a position and they're very interested in Phil. The regional manager is a Christian as well.
*Went looking at homes North of Denver. It was awesome to be starting the homebuying process knowing that there are nice houses WITHIN our price range. We are very hopeful! If we end up moving there, we are planning on trying to get into a house immediately versus renting and then buying. It'll be tough as far as starting a new job, moving and closing on a house but doable.
*We ate at Cheesecake Factory and Macaroni Grill using gift cards I received from my students while I was teaching. Nice to be able to eat out and not have to pay. :)
*On Saturday night, Phil wanted to see a movie and we either had to skip dinner or go to a show starting at 10:15. We decided to go to the late show as Taeya would sleep through it since it was past her bedtime. I was a bit worried about the sound though as I ALWAYS feel like it's way too loud. So, we brought a pair of Phil's orange earplugs for her to wear. She did great and slept through the whole movie. *Okay, this one will take awhile...Ate at a restaurant called Rodizios. It's a Brazilian Restaurant that is quite an experience. Here's how it works: You pay a flat fee (pretty expensive) and you have unlimited trips to the salad bar. On your table you have this little wooden tower with one end painted green, one end red and the middle yellow. The colors of the Brazilian flag yes? Anyways, you start off with the red end up while you're eating your salads, when you're ready for meat, you flip the wooden piece over and have the green side up. Men with meat on skewers come to your table, offer you a different type of meat and if you say "yes" they cut a small portion off for you. When you need a break (and you DEFINITELY need breaks) you flip your wooden piece back over. There were 16 different types of meat and I think Phil and I tried ALL of them! We both tried things we'd never eaten before. At the salad bar the only thing really unusal was hard boiled quail eggs. I went to the bathroom and when I returned, Phil had 2 on his plate, one for each of us. He ate the whole thing and I watched him then ate half of mine. They were very strong flavored and pretty earthy. Neither of us really liked them. When the meat was coming around we wanted to test everything...I'll see what I can remember.
*Chicken (Yummy!)
*Brazilian pork roast
*A few different types of steak (some were super flavorful)
*Lamb (neither of us liked it)
*Buffalo (didn't care for it either)
*Boar ribs (very salty and tough)
*At one point, the server brought something on a skewer and Phil said "yes" before he heard what it was. It was CHICKEN HEARTS! He was given 4 of them (they're small) and he ate two and then gave me two to eat. I managed to eat one and couldn't eat the other. I did take a picture for my readers though.
*Two different types of sausage. One was super yummy.
*Ham and pineapple
I don't remember any others although there may have been more. It was a fun experience and Phil and I are glad we did it. If you're not a carnivour like Phil and I, you can opt just for the salad bar. Out bill definitely made up for our gift card meals as we paid what we would normally pay eating out about 3 times. We would only go again on a special occasion but were glad we went and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I left full but not overly stuffed which was good. You can definitely eat yourself sick at a restuarant like that.
*We ended our trip with a trip to the convention center to see a car show for Phil. Phil had fun looking at cars and I enjoyed all the people who oowed and aawed at Taeya. :)
*Taeya was a WONDERFUL baby on the entire trip. I think she started feeling better than she was the past few weeks. For the most part, she was happy everywhere we went and did great on both long drives.
*That's pretty much it...I'm sure I'm missing a few things but this post is long enough. Time for pictures. Sorry I'm not putting them with captions and such... They're pretty self-explanitory with what I've written above.
*I did forget one place we went. Phil and I are kids at heart so we decided to go to the Denver Children's Museum. We like hands-on things and thought it would be a fun place to go. We were expecting something like an exploratorium with science type things. Instead, we found a place suitable for 4-7 year olds to play dress-up. They had a fire-engine, a vet clinic, grocery store, nature area (complete with worm costumes that we tried on), sports corner, paint place, theater/dance area and alphabet wall. It was much smaller than we expected and since we are a bit big for dress-up, we just took a few pics, got a feel for the place and left. Hey, at least we know what it's like now.
*Oh, and I was fighting pluracy again. It wasn't as bad as the week after I had Taeya but it definitely affected my breathing and comfort on our trip. I'm feeling better all around. Sinus infection is gone and pluracy feels better too.