Fishing at the Colorado Cabin

This has to be one of my all-time favorite series of pictures.  The entire trip was made possible by a ridiculous error on my part.

I had finally convinced Jeff to come with me to London on a mandatory business trip.  Little Gage was only six months old . . . and too  young for a nursing mom to leave for an entire week.  I researched the best light stroller that was easy to break down so that Jeff would be able to quickly get on and off the tube and could be mobile.  I bought a bottle cooler and a bottle warmer and other convenient items to make his trip more enjoyable.  I did everything I could to try to eliminate his concerns of being alone in London during the days with a small baby.  I even found a hotel that was literally a three minute walk from the conference center.  I did all of this . . . and forgot to get a passport for little Gage.

Yes, ridiculous.  I had just returned from living almost three years outside of the country.  It was just so normal that all of my children had passports . . . that it never even crossed my mind to get one for little Gage.

I realized my mistake on a Friday night on the way home from work . . . the night before we were intending to fly out to London.  There was really nothing that could be done quickly because of the weekend without costing $500-600.  I cancelled Jeff's flight.  I changed my flight to come home as early as possible (which, by the way . . . was a completely futile effort . . . I was stuck in London, routed to Boston, spent the night more than an hour outside of Boston, and then didn't make it home for an extra day).

Long story short . . . Jeff and the kids went to Colorado and enjoyed several days at the cabin while I was in London.  It was even slightly more painful because I celebrated my birthday in London.  Thankfully good friends at work tried to make it special.

Grandpa took the kids fishing.

And, Autumn caught a fish.  She was so happy and proud . . . until Grandpa slit it open to prepare it for cooking.  She thought that was pretty disgusting.

Gavin was happily along for the ride.

Playing outside, away from TVs, video games and everything else is the very best thing for kids, in my opinion.  I love that they were able to spend the week playing in the dirt.