(Jeff here) Jen asked me to write about our baseball experience in Colorado. That's kinda my thing. It's been a few years since we had the opportunity to see a Major League baseball game, something we did quite a bit in our first few years of marriage.

The Atlanta Braves have been my favorite team since Dale Murphy was starring on a terrible Braves team in the eighties. My best friend and I both idolized him and I enjoyed the chance to watch whenever the Braves were on TV. In England, I would even stay up until 2am to watch games (time difference made them start MUCH later for me than people stateside, of course).

Anyway, a little TOO much background perhaps. I was really excited to see the Braves again and let my girls experience a professional game. There's nothing like it.

We bought tickets for two games while were there in Denver. Monday night we got to the park early (paid $10 for parking an another $36 for a less-than-stellar dinner of hot dogs, pizza, hamburgers and $5 drinks. Ouch). Kammi and I went down by the Braves dugout and got one of the Braves outfielders, Mark Kotsay, to sign her ball.

The game was a blast, but REALLY cold. Jen and the girls spent about 7 of the 9 innings up in the indoor club area while I braved (no pun intended, but it'd be cool if it was :)) the weather just enough to watch a 2-run home run by the Rockies sink my Braves in the 8th inning. It was 2 hours and 5 minutes, the shortest game in Coors Field history.

Game 2, Tuesday night, was much more comfortable. Before the game, Kammi and I once again went to the Braves dugout, and Kammi got one more autograph on her ball; Braves middle reliever Will Ohman. Not a great "autograph" haul, but we had fun.

Our seats were quite a bit further away and much less expensive, but we sat by a family with a lot of young girls, which kept ours quite occupied. In a later conversation with the Dad, it turned out they were from Pocatello (just down the road, and where Jen and I spent a good bulk of our marriage). He's a cop there, and tries to make it down for some games every year. It was pretty cool. Really nice people. Again, the Braves lost, this time by one run again, but we had a great time.

It's not about whether they win or lose, but that we SAW the game. I was happy regardless of the outcome.

Swimming

The best part about staying in a hotel is having unlimited access to a swimming pool. We seriously had so much fun! I did go swimming, though I am not posting any pictures with me in them and please forgive Jeff's non-existent tan!

Nature and Science Museum

Another attraction that we hit in Denver was a Nature and Science Museum. We only lasted about 2 1/2 hours before we left. It was interesting in spots and rather boring in others. I can only take so much of looking at dead stuffed animals. The positives about this museum are a cool kids discovery area where they actually got to play with odd things like dead animals that owls regurgitate (and I am serious), bubbles, and a human puzzle where you put back human organs into the body etc.,. One section of the museum gave you a life card (like a credit card) and you go through and weigh yourself, get a blood pressure, measure your stress and so on and at the end you get a little print out about what you can do to be healthier. One experience that we had during out little tour was when a Chinese family grabbed Kamryn and had a photo session with her for about 10-15 photos. They were hugging her and trying to get her to smile. I was just grateful that they didn't try to get London to do the same, she would have freaked out. Afterwards, when Kamryn joined us again, she said "that was weird".

Denver Zoo

We had so much fun during our little mini vacation to Denver, Colorado! We took way over 200 pictures and I am trying to sort through them and pick out my favorites. Anyway, the zoo is always a kid favorite and the Denver Zoo was better than we expected. Jeff kept singing "this is the zoo that never ends." It was huge! At the Jaguar cages, Kamryn was running beside the cage back and forth and the jaguar actually was imitating her. She would run faster and so would the jaguar. Though everyone around us thought this was cute, I couldn't help but think about the animal attacks that have happened at the San Diego Zoo. I know, I am a little paranoid. I was excited to leave the jaguar cages and move onto the more friendly monkeys.

Field Trip with K

I was able to go with Kamryn's class on a field trip to a greenhouse. It was interesting, but the best part about being there was having Kamryn hang on me and show me off. Luckily, she isn't embarrassed by her mom yet!

She shoots, She scores

The title says it all...Kamryn scored a goal! Not just any goal, it was the very first goal for her team, the very first game of the season...and, it brought tears to my eyes! It definitely beats last year where I don't even think she kicked the ball during the games. It didn't matter to me as long as she had fun. I guess we just weren't expecting her to be as awesome as she was, let alone score a goal! I am soooo proud of her!

FYI...I(Jen)played soccer my whole life (since age 4). My brother was a stud at soccer and I'd practice with him and a few other neighborhood kids everyday. I had the skills, just not the speed. Though I did make it on the varsity team my freshman year in highschool and I scored two goals during that season...which was pretty good since I was mainly in defensive positions. After my freshman season, my family moved to a small city that didn't have any soccer teams near:( I then tried other sports, but soccer has always been my one true passion. Also, I did get to play on a few intramural teams at BYU, before the big car accident.

I/We absolutely love watching Kam play soccer and do so well at it, especially because this sport is something that I love. It would make me so proud if we could share this passion together!