A tale of two siblings

An October blizzard brought us over a foot of snow and a snow day and a variety of reactions at the Lindhardt household.

Cooper's reaction . . .

. . . and Kinley's

Kaiya's reaction fell somewhere in the middle. For me? Just made me dream harder of beaches in Hawaii . . . three weeks from today!!!

I still can't believe we just had a snow day in October! Snow days were the best when I was a kid, so I tried hard to keep a good spirit today as my kids enjoyed the snow. They played in it for almost 4 hours (except Kinley who lasted about twenty minutes and promptly came back inside and announced she was "frozen to death!") Our house backs up to a ditch and has just enough slope to sled and "snow surf". I think we went through about a gallon of hot cocoa between sled runs. :)

Catching up

It's funny because I haven't felt like I had much catching up to do on the 'ol blog until I pulled out my camera and looked back a few weeks. Guess it all went by so fast that I didn't have time to digest it until now.

In the last 2 weeks, we have

--Attended two NLDS games (still in denial about the outcome)

--Attended two more of Kaiya's gymnastics meets

--Took care of a sick Kinley girl

--Celebrated my dad's birthday with family

--Helped at and watched the 2nd annual Cardiac Kids talent show

--Attended parent/teacher conferences

--Spent more hours online getting ready for HAWAII in a few weeks

I really can't post much about the NLDS games. We froze our butts off, had a blast, and came home so sad. I'm not yet to the point that I can say "next year." Hope that comes soon.

Freezing, but happy to be there!

Kaiya had two meets in two weekends. Last weekend's meet was at Denver University and this weekend was at 5280 Gymnastics, which is where the men's olympian Sasha Artemev trains. Both were great experiences. Kaiya came so close to qualifying for state this weekend, but got robbed by the beam judge. Oh the joys of a sport with subjective judging! She had personal bests on bars and floor, though, so she was super happy.

Watching her do beam is the end of me!

Can't say enough about these coaches!

Holding the team trophy

I was super pleased with the kids' parent teacher conference reports. Always feels good to hear their teachers saying nice things. Kinley is starting to read so well. I love the age when they try to read everything in sight--road signs, cereal boxes, etc. She had to miss a couple days of school with a fever and the general crud that is going around, but she is on the mend. It was pretty cute because Willie wouldn't leave her side while she was sick. I think he liked her extra body heat from the fever. She scared us half to death when she woke up in the middle of the night and announced that her room was on fire. Turned out it was just her body on fire and the night light had lost its cover and was glowing extra bright.

Sick pumpkin

We had a great time going to the Cardiac Kids talent show last night. Amazing what some of these kids can do. Our favorite was the jump roping team. Check out the video--there were awesome!! Watching some of my former patients doing their talents was pretty neat to see, too.

Jumping Eagles in action!

Oh, and T-33 days til Hawaii, but who's counting? We've been busy planning our itinerary. Can't wait!!!!

These hands

Kaiya accomplished a huge goal in gymnastics this last week by mastering a skill called a kip on the bars. She has been working on it since summer and was so excited to finally get it (video forthcoming . . . camera is being dumb).

I was holding her hand while walking somewhere the other day and noticed that her hands felt pretty gross. Hours on the uneven bars will do that to a girl. I snapped a picture of them when we got home. Not exactly the kind of hands the boys will want to hold someday, but I think I'm OK with that. :)

She had her second meet last weekend and improved her all-around score by almost a full point. She had one little glitch on bars, but still finished fifth. She also finished sixth in the all-around. She is racking up the medals and loving every minute of it.

Guest of honor (twice!)

Sometimes, membership has its privileges. Such was the case on Friday night when Cooper got to be the guest of honor at the Chatfield High School football game in Denver. Their head coach is the husband of a wonderful gal with whom I serve on the board of Cardiac Kids (a volunteer

organization at Children's that hosts fun events for cardiac families and raises awareness about pediatric heart defects and disease). She approached me a few weeks ago and asked if Cooper would be interested in being a guest of honor at the game. That meant being on the field for the game, and going into the locker room with the players before the game and at halftime. Um, yeah . . I think we can arrange that! Chatfield was ranked #2 in the state in 5A going into the game and they beat up on Westminster in a big way winning 56-8.

Last year when Cooper had his pacemaker surgery, Tracy brought a signed football from all the players and a shirt. Coop has worn that shirt so much it almost has holes. So, he already loved this team. Not only does Chatfield have an outstanding team, they are the neatest group of kids you'll ever meet (in large part because of their head coach). These kids, along with the pom squad, have volunteered at many of our Cardiac Kids functions and fundraisers and they do it with a smile on their face.

Before the game, Doug and Cooper squeezed into the locker room with the players and coaches and the head coach, Bret, proceeded to talk about what it means to play with heart. He

introduced Cooper and told his story, including that it is hard for him that he can't play football. He talked about what really matters in life and what it means to be given a second chance at life. (OK, I get teary eyed just retelling this story). He presented Cooper with a jersey, hat and shirt. Then, at halftime, the team was so far ahead that he talked to the kids about what it means to win with class and let the JV squad finish out the game. The players were all awesome to Cooper and he certainly had a night to remember! Needless to say, we are Chatfield Charger official fans!!

Coop and I were also guests of honor of Brandon's last week when we got to attend a Rockies game and sit in the front row. This meant a nice buffet dinner in the Coors Clubhouse before the game, padded front row seats, and our own server during the game bringing us treats. Works for me! So fun to see the players up that close and be able to look into their dugout. Though we won't be sitting in these seats for the playoffs, we have tickets in hand and can't wait for some ROCKTOBER!

In the Coors Clubhouse before the game

Looking right into the Rockies dugout

Thanks, Uncle Brandon!