November Warmth

This fall has been flying by much faster than even we thought it would.  There are not enough free days to do all we want to when the weather turns this nice, and weekends fill up quickly.   This weekend we decided to avoid any real obligations and just enjoy some family time.  And today was a perfect day for it.  It is atypical November weather - 75 degrees, warm and windy.  Shorts and t-shirt weather.

I made pancakes for breakfast, something I used to do practically every weekend, but haven't in quite a while.  Noah told me, "You're still make the best pancakes, even though you haven't practiced in a long time."  After playing outside for awhile, Mandy suggested a trip to Crown Center's Ice Terrace - an outdoor skating rink open from November to March.  

We thought it would be a good time to try teaching the kids to skate, rather than doing it while bundled up in freezing weather.  Turns out, it was harder than we remembered.  Neither of us had skated since we went did it at the highest outdoor skating rink in the U.S. at Keystone in Colorado, back when we were still dating.  

I was unsteady at first, and never really regained the knack for it.  Mandy was wobbly and unsteady.  Elliot was a hot mess, but still enjoyed trying it.  Noah, our little perfectionist, did better than we expected for his first time but eventually started to get frustrated when he couldn't skate as fast as some of the others did.  Since it was so warm, there was a watery spot on the ice as he entered the rink, and he immediately fell face down, getting soaked.  Didn't phase him any though, and he got out and kept going.

We grabbed a bite to eat at Crown Center afterwards, then decided to do some hiking in Swope Park (whose benefactor also had an interesting history).  Despite it being the 29th largest public park in the U.S., we haven't spent much time in areas other than the Kansas City Zoo and the soccer fields on which Noah plays, but the 1,800-acre park is mostly undeveloped and has several trail systems, which are mostly used for mountain biking. It was a perfect day for it, and we let the boys loose to do some exploring and rock climbing.  After a couple of hours, it was clear the boys were running out of gas, so we headed back to the car.   

Tomorrow morning, a cold front is expected to come through and temperatures will drop to the 30's with lots of rain, and a possibility of sleet or even snow.

Edit: And this morning, we have this: