Splash Sunday

Sunday we met up with the Hess family at the Splash water park in Golden. It was a hoot! The pool had a gentle slope for the little people and a huge tower in the middle with water spouting out every direction. Then, there were four slides; two for little people and two for little people and adults. It was great fun!

Oliver was a little timid of the water, but he warmed up to it. Since there was water everywhere, the photos are limited but we did get a few.

Here is Oliver inching his toes into the water. Funny kid!

Even the big kids have fun at Splash!
Oliver getting a little bit more adventurous.

The whole gang hanging out in the shallow water.

Stephanie, Oliver, Keith, Freddie, Evelyn and Geoff

Oliver mostly enjoyed tossing his toys around the pool.

Miss Evelyn striking a pose in her new body glove floaty suit.

The tower in the pool has a big bucket of water that fills up and dumps. I caught this picture of Oliver right as the water was dumping. I'm sensing some concern from this look.

Freddie hanging out in the pool.

Oliver and Freddie hanging out after lunch.

Sunday Morning Memo

This morning we were cleaning up breakfast and getting ready to head to Splash when we found Oliver working on a masterpiece memo out on the back porch. Bed Head and all, what a cutie!

Date Night

Saturday night Keith and I took advantage our our new found babysitter and went on a date night. Aimee has been cat sitting for us for years but now she has moved up to watching Oliver too. Madalyn LOVES her and we are finding that Oliver is a big fan as well. Oliver is feeling much better than earlier this week so we were confident to leave him at home with a date night of his own with Aimee. We had dinner downtown at Venice and it was fabulous! We started out like most events, taking a few photos of each other.

Keith, lovin' the bread!
Then the waitress came along and asked if we would like a picture of the two of us. In unison, I said "YES" and Keith said "No". Clearly, you can see who won. HA HA!! :)

The restaurant is right across the street form Union Station. We were highly entertained watching people coming and going from travel on the train. We were shocked at how many people actually travelled by train. It is also where the light rail stops and we were also entertained by the Saturday night crowd that was arriving. It was a big night for bachelorette parties.

We decided to cap off the night with a comedy show at Comedy Works. It is always a great time and we highly enjoy it. This decision was made at 7:45 PM and we were parked at a meter. At 10:00 PM the meter parking is free so if we waited until 8:00 to plug the meter for the final two hours, we would have cheap parking for the whole night. The show started at 8:30 so we had plenty of time. What is there to do when you are killing 15 minutes? Ok, so we could go get a drink... OR... we could walk around the block and take random photos! WOOHOO!!!

We found this very cool bench and decided to take a few photos here.

We had a great date night! Dinner was spectacular, the comedy show was a riot and Oliver was happily snoozing when we got home. Ahhh... What a great night!

MillerCoors 5K

Saturday morning we participated in the 14th annual MillerCoors family 5k run/walk. It is a great way to start the day and it is followed with piping hot pancakes. YUM!

This is Keith and Oliver at the completion of the race strolling by the Coors Light bus. Oliver rode in the stroller through the race but was ready to stretch his legs at the finish line.

YUMMMM!!! Pancakes!!!

This photo of Oliver cracks me up. I can imagine so many different things going through his head. Oliver is such a ham.
Here he is hamming it up with a mouth full of pancakes.

Oliver was in for a real treat when we discovered the balloon artist. She made him a fishing pole, complete with a fish! He LOVED it!!!

Oh What a Week

This past Monday Keith left on a 7 AM flight to Chicago for 3 days. He was due back late Wednesday night. Keith doesn't travel for work much, but every time he does it seems that Oliver gets sick. This past trip was a doozy for us. Monday Oliver had a mild cough. By Tuesday morning he woke up with quick shallow breaths, coughing and wheezing. We loaded up for school and we didn't make it a block when I decided that he needed to go to the Dr. We got into see the Dr first thing and his oxygen level was at 88 when it should be in the high 90's. They immediately gave him a breathing treatment of albuteral (sp?). His oxygen level went up to 91. Since there was improvement but not to where they wanted it they prescribed Oliver breathing treatments every 4 hours for two days with an oral steroid twice a day for five days. (ironically, Madalyn is on the same oral steroid for her asthma) He was diagnosed with RAD (Reactive Airway Disease). If you recall, Oliver was in the hospital at 12 weeks old with RSV. At that time, they told us he would be more prone to asthma. Since then, we have kept a close eye on his breathing. They said that RAD is similar to asthma but he could grow out of it. After 2-3 breathing treatments on Tuesday he seemed to be feeling better but we kept it up through Wednesday night. Keith came home late Wednesday evening and took Oliver to his follow-up appointment on Thursday. His breathing and wheezing had improved and he was cleared to go back to school with only two breathing treatments a day in the morning and evening. He was very happy to get back to school to see his buddies. I think sick time at home with Mom was not as exiting as running around with his buddies. Especially once he started breathing and feeling better. Since I was the care taker while Keith was out, I didn't get many photos to capture our moments. However, I did get a photo of Keith giving Oliver a breathing treatment later in the week. Oliver was a real trooper with the treatments and he would sit very still through the whole 15-20 minute process. Of course it didn't hurt that we would turn on a good movie for him like Cars, Finding Nemo or Madagascar and he was perfectly content. Occasionally he would even hold the device. Way to go, Kiddo!!!

I have some videos of Oliver running around once he started to feel better. Check it out! I think you could say he had a lot of pent up energy!!

Last week Oliver saw me spinning around being silly and now he thinks it is fun to do as well. Caution: he nearly hits the coffee table in his spinning performance. It may make you gasp! As they say... boys will be boys.

Happy Fathers Day Keith

What a great Fathers Day!! I'm not sure that it could get much better, according to Keith. Keep in mind, it started with a snake find in our front yard. UGH!!!! Snakes are one thing that I could live without. It gives me the eebie geebies just thinking about it.

We were going for a hike on Sunday morning and Keith pulled the car out of the garage so that he could get Oliver's ride down from it's hanging spot. He discovered a gardener snake in our driveway who was working on his tan. He decided it was time Oliver met his first wild snake. I found the two of them crouching beside it in aw. According to Keith, Oliver was ooing and awing over the snake until I came and then it was nothing but "uh oh". Keith thought that was quite funny. I was proud and had nothing to say but "that's my boy!" He can think snakes are great but as long as he knows Mom isn't a fan and keeps them away from me then life will be good. They took it to some rocks near our house and let it go. Hopefully it is far enough away that it doesn't find its way back to our house. By the time Oliver and Keith made it back inside Oliver knew that a snake says "SSSS". Great, just what I want to hear on a regular basis!

I imagine in this photo Oliver is thinking "Ya, cool snake Dad but I'm not sure that it's a great idea to let Mom know that we like it."

Later in the morning we headed out to Matthews / Winters Park for hiking. This is the same hike that I thought was Hamlin hike 2 weeks ago but I was mistaken. We are trying to condition Oliver to like the back pack. He isn't a fan but Keith discovered that if he keeps talking to him then Oliver doesn't complain too much. We also have to keep moving so all of our photos are action shots. Occasionally, I sing a song or two to keep him entertained. I'm not sure that my singing entertains anyone but my own son. Here are a bunch of photos from the hike.

As Keith and Oliver were passing by the trail below me I had them stop for a QUICK photo. The Red Rocks Amphitheater is in the background.

The hike was a big success!!! Oliver made it all of the way around the 4.2 mile loop. He was in the back pack for 1.5 hours and then we let him walk the last portion. He was quite the trooper and hopefully this is a sign that he's getting better in the pack. It was great to get out and enjoy the Colorado sunshine and the view. It amazes us that we live in such a beautiful place and this trail is only 10 minutes from our house.

After lunch and Oliver's nap Oliver enjoyed some quality story time with his Dad.

Thank for being such a great Dad, Keith. Oliver is a lucky kid to have you. Just don't teach him to put snakes in his pockets like you used to do to your poor Mother.

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Nana and Papa Visit

This past weekend Keith's parents (Nana and Papa) stopped by to see us on their way home from Arkansas. We had a nice visit and took in some great local sites. Friday night, we went to White Fence Farm for dinner. They have great fried chicken. YUM!!! Oliver enjoyed the petting zoo area and the sheep seemed to take to him as well.

On Saturday we went up the mountains to ride the Georgetown Loop Railroad.
We picked up the train at Silver Plume...

...rode it down to Georgetown while we heard about some of the mining history and then it was back to Silver Plume. We had GREAT weather with unlimited sunshine!! 'tis the season for a lot of afternoon storms in Colorado.

Papa, Keith and Oliver ready for the train to take off. Carrie and Nana

Oliver wasn't quite sure what to think of the ride but he eventually warmed up to the idea. At the higher elevations it is important to stay hydrated, especially if you're a little guy.

This is a bridge that we had come down from. YIKES! Good thing it held together.

We didn't bring Oliver's cap so he was treated to a Georgetown Loop Railroad souvenir cap.

Keith and Oliver taking in the great view.

"I hear the train a comin'

comin' 'round the bend

I aint seen sunshine since

I don't know when" (Johnny Cash)

Keith, Nana and Oliver

Family Photo!

After the train ride we went to Idaho Springs for Beau Joes Pizza. YUM!

HIP HIP HOORAY for Beau Joes Pizza!

I wasn't quite thinking when we encouraged Oliver to drink so much water due to the elevation and sun exposure. I should have know, water in, water out. At lunch the Pamper just wasn't up to the task of holding all of that water in and his jeans ended up a little wet. Well, I figured he wasn't the first kid to streak around in a diaper. We put his longer jacket on him and hoped it wasn't too obvious. Yes, we got a lot of strange looks.

Oliver didn't seem to mind that he didn't have any pants on and it definitely didn't stop him from touring around downtown Idaho Springs, showing off the local shops to some people trying to pass him by.

In fact, he seemed to like to be pants free so much he almost had a kick and skip to his step.

But alas, all good days come to an end with a nice car ride nap.