Buytaert visit/soccer/Mother's Day

Another couple weeks have past and we have been very busy. Like I said before we are in our transition into hot summers. I think it snowed last week a little and then today it was around 80 degrees and it is supposed to get into the 90’s this week. Spring is strange in the Rockies. We bounce up and down in temp for a month and then one day we just stay in the 80’s and 90’s. There isn’t much middle ground.
After my last post Papy and Meme came out for a visit for Morhéa’s 3rd birthday. It was great to see them again. We did all kinds of fun things. One of the more interesting things we did was take a ride on the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway. I guess it is the worlds highest cog train. It takes you from the base of the mountains up to the 14,110 foot summit of Pike’s Peak. The train ride took a while and for the first time since Hawaii I really felt the altitude at the summit. We got off the train and not really thinking about it I threw Morhéa on my shoulders and carried her off the train and walked up and into the gift shop. By the time I got there I felt a little funny (dizzy and a little messed up in general). So I put her down and decide I should sit for a minute and drink a little water and take a few deep breaths. I think everyone else was in the bathroom or something. I now felt like my feet are in concrete and didn’t feel like I have the energy to get up. Meanwhile, Morhéa wasn’t phased by the altitude one bit. She was running around the gift shop grabbing this and that and I could only watch and come up with a few words like “Get back

here!” and “Put that down!” as she ran by me. I think all of the adults were feeling the altitude a little so we sat down for a minute. Then we all felt good enough to get up and go walk around. While I felt better I still can tell I am at 14,110 feet above sea level. We get our photo op and again I could only watch as Rhéa was running past me left and right. To be 3 again!! I couldn’t get on the train fast enough. I got a little grumpy after that but felt much better once we got down to around 11,000 feet. In the end I am glad we did it but in the time it took to do the round trip I could have flow from Denver to NYC. A long and memorable day for sure.

Papy and Meme also got to see Morhéa’s 1^st soccer practice. She is part of the Purple Dinosaurs 3-4 year old team. They play 5x5 with no goalie. It is pretty cool. Coach Jeff is awesome and is really good with the kids.

Morhéa played hooky from school and played with her grandparents all day on one of there days here. They went to the Botanical Gardens and had lunch and even a nap. They also babysat one night while Kim and I went out to dinner for the 1^st time in a while. We ate at the Samba Room in Denver which was fun. Of coarse they were in Denver for her actual birthday day. We had even more presents and another cake. Rhéa was in heaven! They also visited the art museum and survived that. It is always tricky bringing a 3 year old to the art museum.

For Mother’s Day we also went to the Botanical Gardens. It is pretty cool there. They had bands playing all day and a lot of flowers were in bloom. We spent the morning and afternoon there and then we came home. Morhéa and Mom gardened while I made dinner. It was a fun day.

Like I said before, soccer started this month. We had our 1^st game last week. It was a little rough but all of the parents told us that was normal and there wasn’t a kid out there that hadn’t had a hard time the 1^st game. She was doing great in the beginning. She was warming up (she wouldn’t put on her uniform) and kicking and running. As the game was about to start the ref called them into the middle for kickoff and then yelled “ARE YOU GUYS READY” and blew his whistle real loud. That scared Morhéa so bad she came running off the field in tears. I got her to go back out for a minute but that was about it. On top of that it was a cold and rainy day here which wasn’t helping us. This week she was great! It was warm and sunny and a morning game. She also had team pictures this week. After a little effort we got her into her uniform and she did great for the photo. Then they had their game and she did great. She didn’t actually kick the ball that much but at least she got out there without holding my hand and played by herself. Her coach even let her kickoff once. We are very proud of her.

Today Kim and Morhéa ran the Flight for Life 10k in south Denver. It might be one of the last Team Hoefen races (Kim pushes Morhéa in her jogger stroller). Morhéa is getting too tall for the jogger. They had fun! After the race Rhéa went on the bouncy slide and ate 2 or 3 snow cones. They had 2 helicopters there and a ton of ambulances as well as some fire trucks. After a short nap Morhéa and her friend went to the gym outdoor pool which opened up this weekend. Morhéa is a VERY good swimmer. She can swim to the bottom and now can swim across the pool with no floatation devices.