Friday, September 9, 2011

Lets get started

Okay, so let's face it...the world that we live in is filled with talks about the economy going back into a recession, bailouts, and budget crises. So how as Americans are we supposed to support a family and try to live a "normal" lifestyle on a shoestring budget??


Last year I messed up my Achilles heal playing lacrosse and was in a cast and a walking boot for a little over six months. Miserable as hell, and feeling trapped in my own body because I was limited in the things that I was allowed or able to do. After I was finally up on the mend and feeling better I promised my 4 year old daughter, Grace, that this was going to be the best summer ahead of us, and that we were going to do so many new things this summer, and not just the same old boring summer activities.


Our family is not the most conventional of families. Both me and my husband work swing shift. Luckily we have my parents close enough to help with watching Gracie after school. My husband and I also have the luxury of keeping Miss Grace out of her pre-kindergarten school on Fridays. This is the only day off that we have as a family, this is the one day a week that we get to go on an exciting adventure and try something new.


 My husband and I both work for the government but we still live paycheck to paycheck, which is why it was so important for me to find things that we were able to do together as a family that didn't break the bank. I also wanted to share my ideas with other families in the Denver Metro area.


I didn't think to do the blog until the summer was over, but luckily I wrote down everything that we did do and the dates because I am also in the process of making Grace a scrapbook documenting our summer. Initially this started out as just a summer of adventures, however I don't think it will stop when the summer ends. That all being said, there will be a lot of backdating...Hopefully I can get the summer current quickly and then update every week.


Here goes! Enjoy!


April 29, 2011


Agenda:


Denver Firefighters Museum
Rockies Game
Picnic in Civic Center Park


The day started off as a gorgeous spring day. My husband and I packed a couple of backpacks full of lunch, sunscreen, sweatshirts, blankets and other necessities needed to deal with springtime weather in Colorado. We left earlier in the morning and hopped onto the Lite Rail from the Nine Mile station in Aurora. This was Grace's first time ever on the Lite Rail and she thoroughly enjoyed it. She had fun giving the RTD worker her ticket stub and looking out the window as we passed thru Denver. We ended our train ride at 16/California station in the heart of downtown. We made it!


We made our way to the Denver Firefighter museum on foot. (1326 Tremont Pl, Denver). The Denver Firefighter is an amazing place to take a child who is into fire fighters. My daughter is fascinated with firemen because I work as a 911 dispatcher for the police and fire departments...she calls them my helpers. The museum is very cool. The bottom floor is filled with odds and ends about the history of Denver Fire Fighters. There is even a fire truck in the back where your kids can not only play and pretend to be on a fire rig, but they can also dress up like a fire fighter themselves. We spent over a half hour playing on the rig.


The top floor is filled with interesting facts about DFD, as well as a pretend house where your little ones can plan a safe escape out of a burning house. There is also a locker room upstairs with an older vibe to it. When you walk in the first thing that you hear is Denver Fire Dispatch on the overheads. We loved it and it was EXTREMELY INEXPENSIVE!!!!


The admission to the museum is already inexpensive, however there is also a coupon on www.coloradokids.com for 2 for 1 admission. For a family of 2 adults and 1 child it was $10 with the coupon. Can't get much better than that for a few hours of fun.


Next stop was Civic Center Park for a mid-day picnic. We took our time and relaxed while we ate lunch then we played catch until it was time to hitch a ride in the pedi cab to Coors field. Meanwhile the weather was starting to change and I was rethinking my choice of wearing Capri's.


My family loves sports. We live, breath and die sports. Especially baseball. The Rockies are a fond memory of ours, and we tend to spend more money here than any other event. I am ashamed to say that I am a ticket snob, I don't like the rafters and will front the extra money to sit in front. We spent $68 on tickets for 3 and sat on the first deck. I also spent $20 on dinner, and my husband spent $20 on dinner.(We chose to keep our finances separate, so we split everything down the middle). Since we packed a picnic this is the only meal that we needed to purchase.


The night ended with us waiting for the Lite Rail in the snow for over an hour because the train before ours had gotten into a minor accident.


Fantastic first adventure even though the weather sucked.


For a total day of fun we ended up spending (including Lite Rail) $130 between the two of us. (This was the first adventure so it was a little more pricey and extravagant than what followed for the rest of the summer)


Stay tuned for more adventures...

1 comment:

  1. I forgot to add, the price of the Rockies tickets were $14/ea. However, we purchased them at the Rockies Dugout store on 16th/California and for every $20 that you spent on merchandise you got the tickets for $14. The price of the tickets included merchandise as well.

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