Bikers for Babies KC 2009

Awe inspiring. Overwhelming. Humbling. Thrilling.

Those are just a few words to describe our first experience as part of Kansas City Bikers for Babies last Sunday. But they don’t even begin to capture the magnitude of the event for those of us that rode, and those that benefit from the cause.

I knew I was in for something big when Saturday morning, Ronnie and I hopped on our bike, joined by Mom & Dad, my brother Matt and his girlfriend, and Ronnie’s Uncle Mark, and headed to North KC’s Worth Harley Davidson for preregistration. We had registered online but needed to pick up our packets for Sunday’s event.

It was a GORGEOUS morning. But my turns on the bike have been few and far between, and I will admit, by that morning, I had yet to love this machine. There is always a mix of fear and purposelessness (is that a word?) that has made it difficult for me to enjoy riding. But I kept trying every chance I got because Ronnie loves it so much.

Something was different that Saturday morning. Maybe it was the sense of community that I felt riding with family members around us on the interstate, or the fact that we were doing this for a cause. Or maybe, I was just finally used to it. The preregistration experience itself was pretty dang cool. We rolled into the parking lot at Worth, being directed by parking attendants, to form some type of manageable parking arrangement for hundreds of bikes, all there for pregistration. 98.9 and Johnny Dare were there, chatting with riders about past Babies rides and some sharing their personal experiences with birth defects in babies they’ve known.

We got in line, and when the volunteers saw how much donations we’d raised ($1,230), they rang some bells and clapped and cheered, especially when they heard we were first-timers. We got a bunch of cool swag as freebies for the donations, walked around the store, and then headed out for some Westport Flea Market burgers (best ever!). And it was only lunchtime!

We took it easy the rest of the day since we had an early start to make the pancake breakfast before the ride on Sunday. Ronnie’s friend Jeremy & Uncle Mark met us Sunday morning to head toward Kansas Speedway (the NASCAR track) for the event where we would meet up with the rest of our crew (my parents, brother, and long-time family friend, Ken & wife Chris).

This is where I started getting choked up, and it was only 8 o’clock in the morning before we even got to the event! We’re heading toward I-70, and as we merge, a few more bikers join us. The next onramp, more bikers. The next, more. Our little crew of 3 bikes had turned into dozens as we exited toward the Speedway, where all of a sudden, there were hundreds of us riding in for Bikers for Babies. I was caught up, and the official ride of thousands of bikes hadn’t even begun!

Despite the crowd, we had no trouble finding the rest of our crew, and besides a short wait for everyone to catch up at the beginning of the ride, we set off riding west out of KC. It was a nice scenic ride, but my favorite parts were riding through the little towns, b/c it seemed that everyone came out to cheer us on. Members of every towns fire department and police force were out and about, some to help with the traffic flow, some just to clap, wave, and observe the phenomena of over 6,000 motorcycles passing through their little towns. Little kids held up handmade signs, touching my heart so deeply, saying “Thank you Bikers for helping me” and a church group’s sign said “God Loves Bikers.”

We met another biker couple along the way with custom-made shirts like we wore (for Skyler), and their daughter had lost her battle with several heart defects (one of which Skyler had) five years ago when she was two and a half. It was chilling and humbling speaking with them, and I couldn’t fathom how even five years later, how they could talk about the day their daughter woke up in the hospital unresponsive after nine days of treatment and a seemingly manageable diagnosis. I choked on thoughts of that happening when Skyler was being treated.

The highlight of the day was when Ronnie’s mom brought Skyler up to meet us after the ride was over. I saw them walking toward where we sat eating lunch, and I dropped my food and took off toward them. Skyler recognized me and smiled and came running into my arms for the biggest hug! She especially got a kick out of seeing her face on the back of our shirts.

I suppose I should wrap this extra long post up now, so I’ll end it with a few of my favorite pics of the event. There are so many more on Flickr, so if you want to see them, please click the Flickr feed on the right column of the site and check out the “Bikers for Babies” set. Thanks again to everyone who donated – that was with only three weeks of us fundraising. Next year we plan on being even more prepared to more than double what we did this year!

Skyler wearing Daddy's motorcycle boots!

Party in the Park

Skyler’s second birthday (I feel like I JUST posted photos from her first birthday – crazy!). This post will be short on words, but long on pictures!

Cooper, my parents labrador, joined us for the party.

Exploring the park with Granny

Blowin’ out the candle (with Daddy’s help!)

Sharing cake with Gramma Oswald, and then rounds of sharing with everyone else

This year she was much more into opening presents. Though she didn’t quite realize she was the center of it all, she enjoyed finding out what was under the paper or inside the bag.

Not too sure about one of her new tricycles

But once Daddy made it go fast, she was all about it!

Onto the playground for swinging, of course.

Climbing up to the slide

She wouldn’t go down without Mommy

But Daddy wasn’t as nice!

Playing on the bench by Uncle Sterling

and with Gramma and Grampa Kelley

Practicing her jumps with Mommy’s help

Uncle Matt and Darci got quite a kick out of Skyler’s various park antics

Partys over, time to go home and play with all the new toys!

Magic Spell

This is the smile of someone who knows how to get what she wants. Even with oatmeal in her hair.

My Goofballs

I don't think I've ever photographed her cute hiney. Haha!

Deanna Rose Farmstead

A week ago Skyler and I met my good friend Amy and her kids at Deanna Rose Farmstead, a wonderfully free park/zoo in Overland Park. This place is pretty amazing. I had heard a lot about it, but was still surprised how big it was. You could spend all day there with kids and keep everyone entertained. And did I mention, it’s FREE?

Skyler was on the run, the entire time!

Skyler meeting baby Stella

She always had to make sure Pink Bear could see

Amy and Calvin, looking at the rabbits

Calvin and Skyler

They found a slide

Calvin checkin' out the chickens

Spaghetti, Shirts, and Slides

Skyler’s gaining so much independence these days. During meals, she will no longer allow anyone to feed her non-finger foods anymore. So I’ve pulled out all my patience and mess-tolerance and handed her a fork and spoon with her meals, like yogurt and spaghetti. I wish she didn’t love spaghetti so much! It’s a guaranteed immediate post-meal bath these days.

She’s also really into getting herself dressed. She’ll grab a handful of clothes from her drawer and bring them to the room we’re in, and spend minute after minute concentrating on dressing herself. Sometimes she gets so frustrated when she gets stuck, it turns into a group therapy session of us trying to calm her down.

Yesterday, she and I headed to my favorite park, Antioch Park, a place I myself frequented as a child. She loves swings & slides, and points them out her passenger window anytime we drive by a playground. The morning was gorgeous and sunny, but not too hot, so half the town was there playing too. I thought with Skyler’s recent independence and love for playgrounds would have me chasing after her around the park, but at first she was very shy and wanted to observe all the activity while holding my hand. It was so nice to feel needed again!

When she wasn’t showing much interest in going down the slide, I climbed up there with her and we went down together. She squealed with delight everytime we went down the slide, but I still couldn’t get her to go by herself. We switched gears and headed for the swings. This, she could do all day if I let her.

Surprisingly, she told me “All done. Slide!” so we left the swingset and headed for a different play gym that was a lot quieter with only a couple other kiddos to share it with. She headed for the slide without any coaxing from me.

But, at the top of the slide, she thought very carefully if she could go down by herself. I finally held her hand down the slide several times until she was brave enough to do it all by herself. I think it only took a half dozen tries. She even took Pink Bear up and pushed him down the slide a few times, and she thought that was the most hilarious thing in the world.

For grins, be sure to check out a post from last September when I took Skyler to the same park. It’s amazing how much she’s changed! And I gotta admit, it’s a lot more fun to go to the park with her nowadays when she can participate.

I’m seriously thinking about getting her a swingset for her birthday this September. With her love for outdoors, slides, and swings, I think that would be a welcome and well-used addition to our backyard.

All in One

Since I can barely keep up, I’m going to just throw a bunch of stuff together in this post! And while I am still working on the video from Rockfest last week, I’ve got lots of new photos to post. Here goes –

Mulberries! When we bought this house a little over 3 years ago, my mom thought we might have a mulberry tree. But we never saw any fruit, until two weeks ago! And then we noticed it everywhere, and have counted three mulberry trees. We had one when I was growing up and I used to love to go out there and eat the purple berries, but I also got in trouble for soiling many a pair of shoes running around in the mulberry-stained grass. Skyler loves the mulberries too and each evening we try to go out there and snack on a few fresh ones!

Yesterday we headed across town to Lee’s Summit and had pool time with friends and then a bbq. We had a fantastic time, even though most of the kids were worn out by the time it was over. Here are a few pics (lots more in the Flickr photostream in the right column) –

Finally, my friend Maria was brave enough to ask me to try my hand at shooting some maternity photos for her second pregnancy while she was in town yesterday. It was not only fun, but I think it was successful! Here are a few of my favorites – she posted more on her blog.

And, I’m still driving the Traverse! Early this week I should be trading in the LS for the fancy schmancy LTZ, so look for some new stuff from me over at Mommy Madness KC!

Happy Anniversary!

Good Friends, Good Food, Good Fun!

Yesterday we hosted a rather impromptu cookout with some friends & their kiddos. Just the day before, Ronnie had mentioned wanting to get the smoker out and put it to use, so we called a few friends and invited them over, hoping they didn’t already have big weekend plans. And, it happened to workout! Ronnie smoked a brisket, grilled some wings, and our friends brought side items and dessert. The best part (besides the perfect weather), was all the kids are at an age where they can play together and require little interference on the parents’ part, so we could relax and enjoy adult company while the kids played.

I had my camera out, thinking there might be a few fun Kodak moments, and I ended up with over 350 of them on my memory card. Some of that was thanks to accidentally hitting the multiple shot setting so it was taking 3 for every one shutter click! Anyway, here are a few of my favorites from yesterday, but there are more than 50 more that I uploaded to the Flickr stream, so there’s lots more if you click on that!

Nick & Sisarea, Ronnie & Skyler, Jay & Caiden

Skyler & Sisarea

Sisarea & her Mommy, Deborah

The Mommy's - Deborah, me, Jenni

Caiden wearing Skyler's sunglasses

Sisarea & Skyler kissing

Happy Thoughts

I finally have my house back. Minus one broken window pane – I mean I guess the boy couldn’t just move out without first doing some damage to the room we let him stay in for the last 22 months. It’s not that long of a story but I’m a little too irate to go into it in any sort of pleasant manner so I should just stop writing about it here. I might say something I regret and in the end, he is family.

So, like Peter Pan, I’m thinking happy thoughts! Like how nice it was to come home from a friend’s med school graduation last night and find the house just as clean as we’d left it. And today, we came home from a baby shower and again, found the house just as clean as we’d left it, no leftover smell of burnt fish sticks, or dirty kleenexes and toenail clippings on the coffee table. What an amazing feeling! I think it will take a bit to sink in; I’ve had a teenage boy living in this house for longer than not, but I am welcoming the feeling of learning to love my home again!

As long as we’re on happy thoughts, I should share the following photos, because they make me happy!