Adventures with Daddy

I cannot stand being in the house for more than ten minutes with the boys. Booboo is still stuck in the period of life I've dubbed the "head injury phase". The poor kid thumps his crown into walls and cabinets - just walks headlong into the middle of them - with startling, screaming regularity. Kelly seems more explosive and possessive inside, protecting his cars and other dodads from his grabby little, big bro. It's just better, no walls, no toys, if we grab our outdoor gear and go. Daddy Adventures are the best.

I've really enjoyed taking team Goodwillie's front court out on weekend adventures. These outings usually begin spontaneously and without much of a plan on my part, we just strap in and go, usually west. We visited the bison heard up the hill in Genissee. We've gone sledding in Evergreen. We've enjoyed bike rides on frozen mornings with mittens and full on winter gear.

My favorite recent outing was a two hour urban nature walk along the South Platte River. After I peeled Kelly away from his trace watching big kids ripping it up at the skate park, I towed the crew in the red wagon down to the river side bike path. We noticed kits of pigeons roosting in formation on the sunny side of the old train bridge. We discovered dozens of conical cliff swallow nests tucked under the highway overpasses.

After wandering and walking for twenty minutes, we disembarked from the wagon and I helped Rhys lumber down the off camber path to a water level observation point on a kayak launching pad. We watched Mallard couples float past, moving with the rivers gentle current and fishing for their breakfast. We watched plants clinging to the river bottom, through the silty water, sway rhythmically in the current. We watched turbulence from the flowing, unrelenting river form swirling eddies on the surface.

Then, we played the sink or float game. Rocks sink, sticks float. Goose turds and cigarette butts float, too. Its hard to supervise every pick up, sorry. I foiled BooBoo plan to determine if a broken bottle would sink or float and he never completely fell in the water while hurling debris into the water - two points for dad! They wore themselves out hucking pebbles, sicks, clods of mud, and miscellaneous other items in to the river, yelling "sink!" or "float!" after every toss.

Beckett was back in the hospital this week with respiratory issues. The RSV he battled last month has made him more susceptible lung infections. He was sent home on oxygen after two days at Rose. He was never as sick this time around and has been his cheerful, smiling young self throughout his sickness.

Rhys had his mullet trimmed at the beginning of the month. Photos of his first hair cut provided, thanks to Pris. And in other hair news, the boys and I are in a moustache growing contest. Stay tuned for the final contest photos at the end of March!