Arriving ay Union Station in Denver 

This weekend Baba and the Des Moines cousins, Lily, Ella and Chloe caught the train out from Iowa to Denver. Lily and Baba had done this before but the twins had not. It is an overnight train and a big adventure for everyone. The train was supposed to leave before 8pm but it didn’t end up leaving until 11:30pm so they were late getting in to Denver.

We had a surprise for the twins when they got here. They didn’t know we had a puppy so they were so surprised when Jude and I answered the door with Olive in our arms. Anna had baked chocolate cookies to welcome them all so we all had them for dessert that evening, along with ‘hamburgers’ (cupcakes) from Baba’s neighbor Ruth.

All five cousins with their desserts

Speaking of dinner, it was quite a production on Saturday night. We had chili for dinner but the girls prepared printed menus and put a lot of effort into preparing the rest of the meal.

Sitting down to a lovely Saturday night dinner

Today, Anna had a soccer game in the morning so we all went out to cheer her on. It was her last game of the season and once again Anna had a great game but her team narrowly lost. They all went for lunch at Noodles afterward. I picked Anna up from there and she went straight to a school friend’s birthday party.

Anna’s Skyline soccer team

The kids all had a great weekend. Olive was a hit with everyone and she was exhausted at the end of each day. And the girls all wanted Jude’s attention this trip and even a big fight broke out over who would sit next to him in the car. We have all really appreciated their visit but they all leave on the train home tomorrow night.

Jude and Ella arm in arm