Marriage of Walda

CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 28, 2025
Docket24CA1137
StatusUnpublished

This text of Marriage of Walda (Marriage of Walda) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marriage of Walda, (Colo. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

24CA1137 Marriage of Walda 08-28-2025

COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS

Court of Appeals No. 24CA1137 El Paso County District Court No. 15DR31546 Honorable Laura N. Findorff, Judge

In re the Marriage of

Abigail LaVoo,

Appellee,

and

Kevin Walda,

Appellant.

ORDER AFFIRMED

Division V Opinion by JUDGE WELLING Grove and Johnson, JJ., concur

NOT PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO C.A.R. 35(e) Announced August 28, 2025

Law Office of Joel M. Pratt, LLC, Joel M. Pratt, Colorado Springs, Colorado, for Appellee

Jones Law Firm, P.C., William H. Garvey, Greenwood Village, Colorado, for Appellant ¶1 Kevin Walda (father) appeals the trial court’s order reducing

his parenting time with his children and granting Abigail LaVoo

(mother) sole decision-making authority in all matters except

religion. We affirm the trial court’s order.

I. Background

¶2 Mother and father were married in 2012 and share two minor

children, A.W. and K.W. In 2016, the court dissolved their

marriage. In its final orders, the court ordered a 5-2-2-5 parenting

time plan, giving each parent 50-50 parenting time (i.e., each

parent was allocated 182.5 overnights per year). The final orders

also granted mother and father joint decision-making authority.

¶3 In 2023, father filed a motion to modify his parenting time to

“support[] splitting time between C[olorado] and M[ichigan].” In his

motion, father sought to reduce his parenting time, citing a

“substantial increase in the cost of living, loss of employment and

[a] need for [him] to care for elderly and ailing parents.”

¶4 Approximately six months later (while father’s motion was still

pending), mother filed her own motion to modify. In her motion,

mother requested that the court modify the allocation of decision-

making to grant her sole decision-making authority. Mother alleged

1 that retaining joint decision-making would “endanger[] the

children’s physical health and/or significantly impair[] the

children’s emotional development” because father “ignores

[m]other’s attempts to discuss decisions” and “provides blanket

objections” to solutions she proposes.

¶5 The court set both motions to modify for a single hearing.

Before the hearing, the parties filed a joint trial management

certificate. In the joint trial management certificate, father

proposed a parenting time plan that would reduce the frequency of

his parenting time from 50-50 to approximately 37-63. His

proposed plan would have allocated parenting time as follows:

Starting the first Monday in April of every year, the parties would start a week on/week off parenting time schedule . . . .

The week on/week off schedule would continue until the start of the children’s summer school holiday. If father has parenting time the week that the children’s school concludes for the summer, he will just continue with his parenting time. If [m]other is exercising parenting time the week that the children’s school concludes for the summer, [m]other will exchange the children with [f]ather . . . on the second full day of the children’s summer school holiday.

2 Father will have parenting time with the minor children from the second full day of their summer school holiday until 14 days prior to the children’s first day of school in the fall. Mother will have parenting time with the children for the final fourteen days of the children’s summer school holiday . . . . Mother will then have parenting time with the children until the first Monday of the children’s school year, when the parties will again start a week on/week off parenting time schedule . . . .

The parties will continue with a week on/week off parenting time until the start of [m]other’s week of parenting time after October 15th each year. Mother will have parenting time with the children from the start of her week of parenting time after October 15th until the first Monday after April 1st when the parties resume week on/week off parenting time with [f]ather starting his parenting time on the first Monday after April 1st.

Father is not requesting any modification to the parties’ holiday parenting time schedule.

¶6 Mother proposed two parenting time plans, depending on

whether father chose to partially relocate to Michigan. If father

decided to remain in Colorado full-time, mother proposed that the

parties retain their then-existing 5-2-2-5 parenting time plan. If, on

the other hand, father chose to partially relocate to Michigan,

mother proposed the following parenting time plan:

3 Father [will] have parenting time from 2 days after summer break begins until July 6 every year . . . . In addition, [f]ather should have parenting time on the 2nd and 4th weekend of the months he is requesting to be in Colorado . . . with the exception of August, from Friday, after school until Monday drop off at school . . . .

Father should have Winter Break in even years from the 2nd day after the [S]chool [B]reak begins until 2 days before school resumes and the children’s Thanksgiving [B]reak in odd years. Father has stated in the past that he does not want Spring Break but [f]ather should have the opportunity to have Spring Break in odd years should he decide to use it . . . . Thanksgiving and Spring Break parenting should start the first day after school lets out and end one day before school resumes. Mother should have Winter Break in odd years and Thanksgiving Break and Spring [B]reak in even years.

¶7 During the hearing, the court heard testimony from father,

mother, and K.W.’s academic language therapist. Following the

hearing, the court adopted mother’s proposed parenting time plan

which, according to father, granted him only sixty overnights per

year. The trial court also “grant[ed] sole decision[-]making to

[m]other in all areas except religion.” Father appeals.

4 II. Analysis

¶8 On appeal, father contends that the trial court erred with

respect to both its allocation of parenting time and decision-making

rulings. We address each challenge in turn below.

A. Parenting Time

¶9 Father advances two challenges to the court’s modification of

parenting time. First, father contends that that the trial court erred

because it “restricted” his parenting time without applying the

correct legal standard. And second, he contends that the trial

court’s best-interests findings aren’t supported by the record. We

aren’t persuaded that the court erred in either respect.

1. Standard of Review

¶ 10 A trial court has “broad discretion when modifying an existing

parenting time order,” and we review the court’s modification

decision for an abuse of discretion. In re Marriage of Barker, 251

P.3d 591, 592 (Colo. App. 2010). A court abuses its discretion if

“its decision is manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable, or unfair; is

based on an erroneous understanding or application of the law; or

misconstrues or misapplies the law.” In re Marriage of Badawiyeh,

2023 COA 4, ¶ 9. Whether the court applied the correct legal

5 standard, however, is a question we review de novo. In re Parental

Responsibilities Concerning S.Z.S., 2022 COA 105, ¶ 11.

2. Restriction of Parenting Time

¶ 11 We first address father’s contention that the trial court

“restricted” his parenting time without applying the proper legal

standard. Because we conclude that the court didn’t restrict

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Related

Petition of Edilson
637 P.2d 362 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1981)
In Re the Marriage of Barker
251 P.3d 591 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2010)
In Re Marriage of West
94 P.3d 1248 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2004)
In Re the Marriage of Ciesluk
113 P.3d 135 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2005)
In Re the Marriage of Stewart
43 P.3d 740 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2002)
In re the Marriage of Drexler
2013 COA 43 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2013)

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