Day Out With Mom

Remember me talking about needing to spend some one-on-one time with my oldest daughter? Well, we got the chance to do just that this past Saturday. We got up and dressed and headed out to start the day together.

We began with a wonderful lunch at one of my favorite Chinese places, Pei Wei. Caitlin had been begging for Chinese for awhile, so I figured that this was the perfect time to honor her request. We ordered sweet & sour chicken, an order of crab-cheese won tons and a cup of their kick-butt won ton soup. Caitlin & I split the order of sweet & sour chicken, in which Caitlin ate more than I did, while I enjoyed the won tons and soup. We took our time eating, attempted to eat with chopsticks, had a wonderful, off-the-wall conversation and finished our meal with fortune cookies and orange wedges (for a sweet life).
It was decided, in this conversation, that Cait got to choose all of the day's activities, within reason so...here's how we spent the remainder of the day--

Next, we decided to walk around the pedestrian strip of stores called the Lowry Town Center (yes, Coloradoans, this is the former Air Force base)in search of a place to have some dessert (Caitlin having being asked if she preferred to have tea or ice cream...). We came across Fergie's Frozen Custard and new that we had found just the place. Caitlin had a single scoop of cherry with sprinkles while I indulged in a single scoop of banana fudge marble. Both were delicious! With our bellies full, we decided to further walk around and see the shops. Leave it to Caitlin to find both a pet store, with the cutest dog treats (think pupcakes and cookies), and a very unique local toy store--Timbuk Toys. Caitlin had the time of her life playing with various toys while I just sat back and watched, taking notes of course, for her upcoming birthday! After we were done walking, Caitlin requested a visit to a bookstore, so we loaded ourselves back into the car for a trip to Northfield to go to Borders.

Once there, Caitlin picked out a Barbie Mariposa story book complete with stickers and an "I Spy" early readers book. We also sat around reading other stories and looking over Borders' Disney princess story collection. We paid for our purchases, slung the bags over our wrists and walked around yet another pedestrian mall. In no time, Caitlin managed to find a little train that takes it's passengers on a short sight-seeing tour around the shops. Of course, we HAD to buy a token so that Cait could climb aboard. It was a beautiful day for a train ride and she had a wonderful time--even had the train to herself.

We also took a time out to play on some bear sculptures in the children's area of Northfield. Cait managed to scale a couple of the bears and sat on top of them, Jungle Book style. I sat, snapping pictures and reading the latest installment of Kids' Pages.

We walked some more before the next request came in from my 4 1/2 year old. She was curious to see what was inside Outdoor World, could we go, please?! Sure, why not. It just happened to be the weekend of the Fishing Expo, so there were all kinds of things set up outdoors. Caitlin got to fish for the very first time ever in a little pond that they had set up and filled with bass. With coaching from an Outdoor World employee, Caitlin caught her FIRST FISH! She was so proud of herself and of course, we had to call Grandpa McLean and both of her uncles to tell them. After the excitement from fishing, Caitlin decided to try out some ATVs for size. We've decided that the green one (I forget what it's called) would make an excellent first car!

Somewhere, in the midst of all this fun, I managed to lose my car keys, so we spent the last part of our day out backtracking all through Northfield. Thankfully, I had left my keys at Borders where they were safely waiting for me to pick them up!

All in all, we had a wonderful time together, so wonderful in fact, that I had tears in my eyes when telling Ben about our day. I cannot wait to do it again! These are the times that memories are made of.

Click here to see the pictures for our day out!