Last Sunday, my company had an Employee Appreciation Family Day event at Six Flags Elitch Gardens Amusement Park in Downtown Denver. I haven't been to Elitch's since the early '90s when it was more of a slow-strolling botanic garden than a wait-in-looooong-lines, roller-coaster abundant theme park.

According to our parking instructions, approximately 4000 vehicles were expected and we panicked a little. However, the day was slightly chilly and threatening rain clouds probably turned a lot of people away. Therefore, the park wasn't as crowded as it normally would have been on a Family Day.

Startoon Studios was the kiddie park area and we spent most of our time dodging other strollers....I mean, enjoyed riding a train, hot air balloons, driving semi-trucks (her favorite), and running around a playset with slides and jumping areas. Abby was just a smidge short of 36" tall, meaning we had to accompany her on every ride - even the ones proved child-friendly, which was fine by us, but Abby was a little bummed because she could not go on the swings ride (individual seats slung from chains that took you up high and swung you around and around - she would've loved that).

We left the park around 4:30 PM when it began to drizzle. Abby had had no nap all day, but was on her absolute best behavior. We treated her to some raspberry sorbet at the end. Just before we left the park we got on the Merry-go-Round, where Abby shouted, "Yee-Haw!!" as an indication of how much fun she had been having all day.