A new niece/nephew in the future, Oakhurst, new baby friends

Well, it has been a while since I updated the blog. It looks like I missed a month! I guess we have been pretty low key for a while. The biggest news lately is that there will be a new addition to the Hoefen family! Heather is pregnant! We are so happy for Jeff and Heather. I am looking forward to having a niece/nephew in the family. Heather is moving along in the pregnancy nicely and they are both getting very excited about having a child!

Parties and Princesses have been the theme for the past month. Morhéa can’t get enough of the Princesses! It seems like there is always a Princess play in town and Kim finds them all. They have gone from the big stage to the local theatres to catch them. It is classic though! Morhéa and her friends like to dress up like their favorite Princess and go to the show! They have a blast. I didn’t make it to the smaller events but Kim says they are unbelievable. Apparently, for being a small act they do a VERY good job with the production.

Morhéa is still doing her skiing. The mountains this year are getting record snowfalls so the skiing has been great. She might have more powder days then me at this point. Some of Morhéa’s friends from her 6 month old music class have joined them 2+ years later for skiing in the mountains. She is even skiing blue runs!

Last weekend we went for a hike at the nearby South Valley Park and had a great time. It is a beautiful open space park close to our house. It had a great trail and nice rock formations.

Summer is getting closer and that means summer sports! Morhéa has started swim lessons and “Little Kickers” soccer class. Mom and Morhéa have been very active swimmers for a long time but now she is “officially” taking lessons. Today she told me she swam to the bottom of the pool to get a stick at the bottom!!! She is a natural! Last week she started Little Kickers soccer class and was also impressive. Rhéa and her friend Morgan are taking the class and they had a blast. Again, she has the soccer gene from both me and Kim. I was sick last week and couldn’t make it but am excited to see her in action. She has shin guards, soccer socks, Puma’s and even a David Beckham soccer uniform (go Chelsea!).

We have had parties almost every weekend. We have had birthday parties for kids and adults. Cousin Isabelle’s birthday was last week so we got together with them which was nice since we haven’t seen them in a little while. Isabelle is great with Morhéa and the two of them always have the best time. We walk in the house and usually don’t see them again until dinner. Lots of friend’s birthdays as well. Last weekend there was a gymnastics party where Morhéa showed her stuff.

Somehow Kim keeps winning these free happy hour parties and the Denver Aquarium. It is pretty fun with cheap beer, free admission, free parking and free food! Her last party was great. We had a ton of friends and all of the kids had a great time. I think we took over the place. Kim said last week she went there and there were all these adults only at the same happy hour. We had sooooo many kids when we were there it was pretty funny. They all seem to love it though. The bar area has windows to see into the aquarium where there are sharks and divers and tons of fish.

There are a couple of babies in the mix this past week. Last week our friends Brian, Theresa and Ella welcomed Sylvia into the world. All are home safe and sound.

Then TODAY at 8:41 AM Cole Hogan O’Reilly was born. Scott, Danielle and Jack are still recovering but everything went well. Scott says he is a big boy! Many long nights and early mornings for those crews. Congrats to all! I have added a picture of Cole to the site.

Congrats to Oakhurst as well! It has been a few years since I have left the band but the boys keep on truckin’! They spent the month of January in the Caribbean playing alongside the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Barenaked Ladies, Lyle Lovett and many, many others! I got to sleep on floors, couches, and pillows and now they are VIPS on cruise ships in the Caribbean. I got to live my rock star moments as well though. Oakhurst just released a new cd called “Jump in the Get Down” and had their cd release party this past weekend at the Bluebird Theatre. For all intensive purposes they sold out the place. It was great! I haven’t seen them in a while so I am glad I got out of the house and caught a show. The first ¾ was all bluegrass. They had the opening band up on stage for an allstar 10 person jam. Then the last ¼ they put away the banjo, upright bass and mandolin for electric guitars. All I can say is WOW!!! I was impressed with the talent of everyone. Let’s just say they don’t have day jobs anymore (for the most part) and play 200+ shows a year for good reason. Check them out at:

http://www.porchmusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/oakhurst

Their myspace page has some of their music from the new cd to listen to. Their tour dates are listed there as well. Another month on the road in the U.S. and then off to Europe.

That is all for now. I will send an update again as soon as I can.

Todd