This year, my annual conference was in Denver, Co. and the husband was rather excited for this adventure. 3 years ago, we went to Chicago for the conference and had a blast! I haven’t been able to go since then (took a year off because I had plenty of continuing education hours & then we had miss Emma) so I was super thrilled to get to go back. The conference is for the Association of Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) and each year it rotates locations. The conference brings together practitioners in the applied setting, researchers in the experimental setting, and all sorts of folks to learn more within the field of behavior analysis. As a BCBA, I need to obtain continuing education hours to maintain certification, and this is a wonderful place to do that as there are talks on such a broad range of applicable topics. It’s seriously a total nerd fest.
This year, Emma joined us as well, so Glenn had a tiny sidekick while I was in sessions, and then all three of us could hang out during our lunch break (3 hours) and in the evenings for dinner and exploring. I wish we would have scheduled one extra day on the front end of the conference to explore more all together, but overall it was a fun trip! Emma took so many new forms of transportation this trip & all in all she was a champ.
- car to the airport
- her first plane ride (!!) (to Chicago – she was PERFECT)
- second plane ride (to Denver – only slightly fussy, but there was more turbulence, and she wanted to walk around like the flight attendants)
- airport train ride to baggage claim (she was fascinated with the large window at the back)
- the rail into Denver (she was happy with the extra freedom to roam slightly here)
- a bus to the hotel (by this point she was sleepy and super cuddly)
On the way back it was much the same journey in reverse and she did just about the same. A few tiny diva meltdowns on the longer plane ride (hungry – nap time – ears popping) but all in all she did so well & we were so proud of her! She was super talkative and want to flirt with everyone around us wherever we went.
Glenn and Emma went all around town – found the art museum, the capital, some gorgeous churches, and even cruised the mall! Perhaps the biggest adventure though was Emma’s first trip to the aquarium! She loved the fishies, and even got to see a tiger (who knew the aquarium would be the first place she saw a tiger?). Daughter daughter adventures truly wore her out, but she was such a trooper (as was daddy!) and they had lots of fun that I was super jealous of. The rest of the time in Denver was spent either being carried by daddy (or riding on his shoulders), walking around holding mommy’s hand, or cruising in the stroller. She is quite the adventurous one so she always wanted to see what was going on and explore. Which, our diaper bag was perfect (same bag, ours is stripes though) because it transitioned easily from backpack to on the stroller in a flash.
Denver had some really great breweries & restaurants so we were pretty excited about meal options. Emma had about 17 different varieties of mac n’ cheese (and devoured every one) and we were able to try some great local beers. Henry’s Tavern was one of the best for food and drink. Another thing that made this trip so fun was that we got to meet up with a few of my good friends from high school that live in the area since we’re all spread out across the country. Not only did we get to see them, our kiddos got to meet! These ladies and I have been friends for almost 20 years. How crazy is that?! This tiny subset represents our group of 8 gals that has now grown to 24 including spouses and kids with 3 more on the way as we speak. Crazy!
I was so glad we got this picture of all of us too! Also, as it turns out, this is the only picture from the trip that has both Glenn and I in it at all. All our pictures were just of Emma. (face palm) Talk about blogger fail. But let’s face it, she’s by far the cutest of the 3 of us, so really it’s ok, right? Can’t wait for our next adventure!
