NEIGH!

Scot's cousin, JD, came to town from NYC for a long weekend to get signed up for some classes etc. at a college in downtown Denver. This morning, Ethan and I drove JD downtown & as we were driving around to find the building JD needed - my gas light came on. I was pretty sure I had enough gas to make it back to Costco on my end of town for a fill-up, which I did (thankfully). I decided that while I was there, I might as well go into Costco to pick up a few things that I knew we would need for Thanksgiving (same thought hundreds of other Costco shoppers had too). While we were walking up and down the aisles - Ethan spotted a large plush horse on display. Everytime we passed it, he would point & neigh, so for the sake of making his trip enjoyable, I stopped and pulled down one of the plush rocking horses for Ethan to test-ride. He was the happiest kid in the store & even more mesmorized after I found the button on the horses ear that triggered sound effects for the clomping of the horses hoofs and actual neighing. The head moved & the tail flipped from side to side...pretty high tech if you ask me. When I was a kid we ran around using brooms for horses - they've come a long way. As always, I love Costco...with the exception of the long lines at the checkout.

JD rode the lightrail back to our end of town when he finished with registration etc.. Ethan and I went to pick him up and we decided that while we were out, we could go check out a few condos in the area for him. We ended up spending quite a bit of time at one place in particular that JD was interested in. Ethan grew restless quickly, which meant that I had to work doubletime to keep Ethan entertained. He played with the drinking fountains for a while, ran in and out of the billiards room (i.e. running from me), and tried to rearrange some of the wall art they had on display. YIKES. After running from room to room in the clubhouse, I thought I would offer him a snack to try and keep him occupied.

FAILED ATTEMPT #1: Big fancy popcorn popper cart - typically, you can't go wrong, but this popcorn tasted like old oil...even the memory of it is nasty.

NEARLY GENIOUS IDEA #2: I saw one small bag of natural baked Cheetos in an otherwise empty snack basket that the management set out. I knew Ethan would love it, so I turned him loose. By the looks of Ethan's orange face - he enjoyed every single one. (I wished they had been the Natural White Cheddar Cheetos that I give him at home...but alas - snack beggers can't be choosers).