The (Sub)Urban Ranch B and B

When we first moved to Denver we had a lot of company--I think it helped that a lot of our friends and relatives didn't mind sleeping on the floor.  Despite having a much bigger house, we no longer have a guest room (thanks, kids), so our visitor quota has (in general) slowed down over the past few years.  Although I actually blame the dog...she's ginormous...We've had a spike in visits over the last few weeks though, which is a lot of fun for all of us (and ensures that the house has a minimum level of cleanliness).
Last weekend my parents came to visit so they could watch me in the fabulous faculty production of "Once Upon a Mattress" (it really was quite fabulous, in many ways).  We had a great time--they hung out with the kids, who didn't have school on Friday, helped them with homework and projects, took us all out to eat almost every meal and stayed in a hotel so the kids could play in the pool and stay over--very fun for all of us.
This weekend Grandude arrives for a few days, the Ranch children have spring break next week and there will be skiing (snowboarding for The Boy) on the agenda.
And in one more week, the newest Ranch cousin and his parents will come to visit for a few days--the children are very excited.  They, however, will be adhering to "normal" bedtimes, because their spring break will be ending...while mine will be beginning (yay for spring break!!!).

The Life of a Nomad

One of my college housemates, who I also worked with at summer camp for two years, and her family are traveling the country in an RV this fall.  In the spring they plan to travel around Europe.  For the past week they've been in Colorado seeing lots of our mutual friends.  We were lucky enough that they were able to stay at our house for two nights.  The Nomads have 4 children, the oldest at college, a high school freshman, and two younger children who are the same gender and age (within months) as the Ranch children.  Everyone had a great visit--lots of wii competitions, a couple movies,  and not much sleep!

We think we made a good case for moving to Colorado, since "everybody else is" and listened to a good case of why we should sell our worldly goods and travel.