Today our family participated in our 7th annual Kansas City Heart Walk with the CHD Families. This is an event we look forward to every spring because we love celebrating our little survivors and raising money so others can celebrate, too!
As we always do, we got to the park bright and early to find the CHD Families tent. Well, this year it was maybe just early. For the first time, the weather really wasn't great for the Heart Walk with a high in the 50s and drizzly rain most of the morning. There was no sunshine to be had, which is pretty much how the whole month of May has felt. But at least there was no downpours as there have been so frequently lately. Unfortunately, Theis Park (where all of the pre-walk activities are held) was EXTREMELY muddy.
We found our breakfast of bananas, oranges, granola bars, and poppy seed bread before checking out the rest of the fun.
We usually see Sluggerr and the KC Wolf at the Heart Walk, but this year we also saw the Sporting KC Dog, "Blue", and he was messing with my boys all morning!
We met up with Violet's heart buddy, Brycen, and his family. Brycen just had his 3rd heart surgery a couple of months ago and was such a rock star! He's doing just great, praise God!!
One of the kids' favorite things at the walk is the face painting. Thankfully, the line wasn't very long this year, as there just weren't as many people with the yucky weather. I had no idea what the kids were getting until they were done (and even then, I wasn't completely sure!).
Look who decided she wanted her face painted today!
My kids had all 3 of the chairs occupied, plus Miss Vi was in the stroller next to Calvin. She wasn't at all interested in having her face painted.
The finished products! I think we have a tiger, butterfly and hawk of some sort.
No, Daddy, I like my face just the way it is!
Pleased as punch with her new look!
The survivor kiddos got red capes again this year and Oliver wore his proudly!
He was especially proud to wear it after it was autographed by Dontari Poe, nose tackle for the Chiefs.
The balloon man is usually another major highlight of the Heart Walk festivities. This year was a bit underwhelming, however.
Oliver got a hat, Calvin a bow-and-arrow, and Evie a pink snake. Yes, a pink snake. Like I said, not the usual caliber of Balloon Man.
At least the bow and arrow was functional; the boys loved shooting it and hoping the arrow didn't pop!
Because of the less-than-ideal weather conditions, my kids pretty much had the Kid Zone to themselves and they took full advantage.
In fact, while we were waiting in line for the balloon man, Violet kept yelling, "Play!" Finally I understood what she wanted and we got out of line to go to the inflatables.
Eventually the other Dwyer children joined her in the fun.
Calvin helped Evelyn get up the 'rock wall' to the big slide. I love the sequence of these pictures as Evelyn thinks about it, slides, and loves it!
A couple more trips, and Evelyn was climbing the wall all by herself!
Of course Violet loved the slide as well!
And the crazy boys did 'tricks' as they went down the slide.
These kids had such a fun morning!
Over and over and over again they went down the slide, which was definitely their favorite.
Before we knew it, it was time for our group picture with the CHD families. Once our picture was taken, it was time for the walk to begin!
Knowing it would be muddy in the park, we had worn flip-flops with plans to change into our clean running shoes for the actual walk. Little did we know this is what our feet would look like after our time in the park.
And that mud continued right up our legs and even our shirts had mud on them. This is what we were pushing the stroller through, and this picture doesn't even really show how muddy it really was.
In spite of the mud and dreary conditions, we had a great time at the 2015 Heart Walk.
I'm just so thankful for my extra-special survivors. These kids mean the world to me and I pray that someday all children born with a CHD will be able to celebrate their mended hearts as we do!!
