Popsicles in February

Beautiful "Sprinter" day at the park

"The Winter that isn't" continues. Or as one local meteorologist has termed it, "Sprinter". I love it! It was 65 degrees yesterday! As soon as Elliot's nap was over we headed straight for the park. We packed snacks, water and the boys' bikes. Once we got there we realized Elliot's bike had been broken. GASP! (more on that in a separate post coming up). Noah was able to ride his though and they both managed to entertain themselves and have a blast for 3 1/2 hours. Yes, I said 3 1/2 hours. Playing on the playground, running/rolling up and down hills, playing in the dirt piles on the baseball field below, riding bikes (Noah), playing with friends and making new friends. We stayed until it was dark out and everyone was getting hungry. I LOVE days like that. I will miss the freedom to just spend hours playing in the park with no worries about other responsibilities as the kids get older. I long for more of these long days at the park.

Good start to February

Wednesday Paul had arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus that has been giving him pain since last summer.  We had other priorities to deal with, so it's been put off quite awhile.  Grandma Joann watched the kids while I was with him.  When I got home, Elliot went down for his nap and I got Noah out of the house.  We walked to Baskin Robbins and had an ice cream cone then wandered into Reading Reptile.  We settled into the Science section looking for space books, but settled on a book all about Arthropods.  We read about half of it when we decided to buy it.  By the time we got home, we woke up Elliot and headed to the park.  Paul rested, elevated and iced his knee all evening.  It was nice to be able to be there for Paul leaving the kids with Joann, but still enjoying the wonderful weather in the 60's that afternoon with the kids. Paul's knee is healing nicely and he's looking forward to a full recovery and being able to exercise on it without pain.

Snuggled up at Reading Reptile

More fun at the dirt piles

He's always been a crazy climbing fool

Pretty high up in the tree 

Redundant post about about the mild winter

The winter that isn't continues.  And we are loving it.  Today was in the low 50's.  Tomorrow will be 65 and sunny.

Practicing his soccer kicks

practicing being handsome

Spring soccer coming up in a couple months

Handsome 3 year old

Handsome 5 year old

bike ride at the park

Dirt piles at the park.  Score!  They were in heaven.

and very dirty

So a little background here.  Elliot has always been cautious about steep slides or slides in tunnels.  He just won't do them.  Today we were playing at this park that is one of our regular haunts, and Elliot just announces so matter of factly, "I can go down the big green slide now, because I'm three years old".  I told him that yes, he could.  And by golly, he just marched over there, climbed up and went down it like it was nothing.  Took him three years to get the courage and he must have gone a dozen times in a row today.  Yay for the sudden bravery that comes with being three!

BIG MILESTONE FOR BRAVE ELLIOT!  

Tough boys that are hard core and BA get bloody injuries from time to time.  It's all cool.

5:00pm on a January Sunday night as the sun starts to set to the West of us.  Nice.

Hanging at the church with Elliot

I love mild winter days.  Elliot and I went for a walk today, but the walk ended as it often does, at the end of the block.  The church just draws the kids to run and play and according to neighbors with older kids, always has.  Paul recently shared about the trouble with this vacant church.  BUT, great news for the church - it was recently purchased!  The new church has several locations and this is going to be it's newest right here in Brookside.  It doesn't reopen until Summer so they can do necessary repairs and maintenance.  We are so happy this beautiful church is being taken care of in our neighborhood, and staying true to it's purpose.

Winter has arrived

Winter came in with a bang.  Yesterday started out in the 40's and sunny, but windy.  By mid afternoon it was getting colder.  It was in the 20's by night time and really windy.  We got a dusting of snow overnight and wind chills this morning were in the single digits.  Brrr!  The kids adjusted much quicker than me.  Elliot could not WAIT to play in the backyard after we dropped off Noah at school.  He would play for quite awhile before coming in to have hot chocolate and warm up.  Then he went again.  We've gone through a few pairs of mittens already today. He loves it.  And I am surprised to say he actually ate lunch with all that hot chocolate and marshmallows he had this morning.

As much as the mild weather was nice (and I do prefer it), it's fun watching Elliot enjoy the snow.  I am excited for the first big snow to go sledding.  I think this year he'll really get into it and keep up with Noah.

Just another January day in the park

We have not taken for granted one mild day this winter. Winter finally hit last night, but I can't complain. We made it a long time! This is Elliot with Nona Grace and one of her friends from school, Ski. Elliot missed the cutoff to start in Miss Diane's class this year by 20 days, so he's not in school with them, but they'll be in the same class and will all be in preschool together next year. It was fun to watch Elliot join right in with the girls running around and playing.

Park in January

It has been an incredibly mild and wonderful winter thus far. Today is supposed to be the last mild day in the 50's before it starts feeling more like January in Missouri. We have not taken any of the nice days for granted. Here is a sweet picture of Nona Grace and Elliot swinging together on the baby swing the other day at the park. Lately they have become such good buddies and play together so nicely. Elliot says "Nona Grace is my best friend" all the time and it's so sweet. They are going to have so much fun on the beach vacationing together over Spring Break. What a lucky couple of kids.

T - 8

Mandy attended her sister's graduation on Friday.  We had no babysitter for the occasion, so I took the kids after a half day of work so she could go.  We had lunch at Waldo Pizza, then I put Elliot down for a nap.  Both of them had already been to gymnastics, and Noah just wanted to keep going, but we had to pause for a couple of hours.

After E's nap, they told me they wanted to go to "State Line" park - a fairly new park just a few blocks away.  The temperature was only 39 degrees, but they insisted that coats, hats and gloves weren't necessary.  I'm a fan of natural consequences, so after much cajoling, I finally let them leave wearing only fleece jackets.   I brought along a pair of E's mittens, and a couple of hats, but didn't think they'd be used.

A few minutes after we got there, Noah said he was cold, and when I asked him if he wanted E's hat and mittens - which were in my pocket - he quickly said yes.  I could have saved them for Elliot, but my reasoning was the first person to realize their short-sightedness should probably be rewarded.  

That left only a hat.  A few minutes later, Elliot told me he was cold, so I gave him Noah's hat.   A few minutes after that he said his fingers hurt, so I softened a little and offered my own gloves.  Even about five sizes too big, he recognized the wisdom of taking them.  

After an hour, they finally threw in the towel and suggested some hot chocolate, so we headed to the nearby mall, which had a Starbucks.  We walked around the mall with our drinks, rode the escalators, visited the fish, rats and guinea pigs in PetSmart and threw some pennies in the fountain.

At home, we had dinner, read some books, played hide-and-seek, made some Lego tree ornaments and got ready for bed.  As I was reading them books on Noah's bed, I asked them if they wanted to sleep together.  I figured if they said yes, it could make my job easier than putting each of them down separately. 

We've tried this before with mixed success.  Once they went right to sleep, and slept all night without a peep, and the others they couldn't stop talking and had to be separated.  It was a long shot, I thought, but I had success again.  I told them I'd give them a few minutes, but they had to be very quiet and go to sleep soon after.  Amazingly, or because they were tired, they listened for once.  I wished I could hear what they were whispering to each other on the monitor, but it got very quiet and they fell asleep a few minutes later.

They've both been waking up at night lately, calling for us, but tonight they slept straight through. Made me think we should try this more often.  Mandy made it home around 11:00, so when they woke up at 6:00 a.m. the next morning, I took them to Starbucks on the Plaza for breakfast.  It sounds like we take them to SB a lot, but we really don't. Any more.  The barista there recognized both of them - mostly E, from when he was a chronic early morning riser - and mentioned how long it had been.

To let Mandy sleep in, we spent the next hour or so driving around looking at Christmas lights, both of them competing to see who had the best looking lights out their side of the car.  I actually threatened to pull the car over at one point.  Probably won't be the last time this holiday season.  

Took my glove.

String cheese for a snack.  What else?

Finally, with some sense.

Warming up.

Don't look now, but...

The Lego tree ornament Noah made for Elliot

Noah and Elliot sleeping

Plaza Lights

Estes Park/Day 3 - Mills Lake

Today we started our day out at Starbucks for our caffeine fix and then went across the street to Egg and I for a nice carb loaded bowl of oatmeal, raspberries, blueberries, granola, raisins & brown sugar.  We figured that would help us with our hike, which would be longer and harder than yesterday's.  We also planned an earlier start.

The forecast called for a windy, but mild day with temps reaching the high 40's in town.  But, it was SO windy.  My mom said she saw on GMA that morning that there were wind advisories in the Rocky Mountains for up to 60mph.  I thought that was odd to be reported on national news, especially since the park ranger didn't give us any warning when we entered the park.  Looking up high into the mountains, it looked calmer than the day before, actually.  But, when we got out of the car at the Glacier Gorge trailhead it was extremely windy.  We both had that feeling inside that we could have been talked out of the hike, but we are both too stubborn to ever actually SAY anything like that out loud.  Luckily, as soon as we got into the trees, the wind quieted down and it was actually quite nice and mild.  Less than a mile into the hike, I had to take off my coat to prevent sweating.

We stopped at Alberta Falls first, which was frozen and snow covered.  It just looked like a steep hill.  Naturally we had to climb onto it, just to say we did.  I was satisfied just to hike out to the middle, but Paul hiked up that steep hill to the very top.

This is me climbing into Alberta Falls

Paul in the middle, where we are used to seeing rushing waterfalls

Paul's view from the top of Alberta Falls

After a small little pitstop we continued on to Mills Lake.  It was pleasant hiking and we kept up a nice pace for awhile in the mild weather.

In the snow it is really easy to get off track. For one thing, they have purposeful detours called "winter routes".  I like to just follow obvious trails, but these are not so obvious.  And then sometimes it is.  It looks like a trail.  It's packed with snowshoe tracks.  But often the snow has blown over and it's smooth and you have no clue where to go.  So we got off track at some point.
We think it might have been here.....

Paul is standing in Glacier Creek (it drains out of Glacier Gorge into Alberta Falls), which normally is a stream and not part of the summer trail for sure.  *cough* I don't think it's part of the winter trail either *cough*

Yep, it was steep

Soon it was clear we had gone wrong somewhere and were off track

Paul had his compass and a map and was able to tell where we were and where our destination was.  We did run into 2 other experienced hikers who also got off trail (probably following our tracks), which was kind of encouraging to me.  Paul was never worried because we weren't "lost".  He knew where we were on the map.  The way the crow flies it wasn't too far.  But, getting there was not so easy.  We were first going through snow not well packed and it's physically hard when you go down deep and lift up your foot with snow piled up on your snowshoe.  It's just a hard workout.  And at times, I was in knee and even thigh deep.  Pretty soon, Paul tells me we are going to have to do a little bushwhacking.  By the time we got through the area of dense trees and hiked down to the bottom we could finally could see the creek/drainage from the lake to our right.  The actual "trail" was across the drainage and up quite a bit higher on a ridge.  We stopped for some GORP and Gatorade and I felt more energy, but just wasn't sure how long I could go not knowing when it would ever end.

Paul said he was 100% sure he'd get us there, so I said we would keep going, after him asking if I wanted to turn around. 

As we were getting closer and passed a couple of hikers coming down they warned that it was really windy up there.  We could start to feel the winds pick back up and knew that it would be very windy on the lake.

Getting closer....

As the winds were picking up and we were almost there, we stopped to put back on all our layers and gear to protect us. Boy am I glad we stuck to it.  After 4 hours of physically strenuous snowshoeing of what should have been a 2.7 mile hike (not sure how far it actually was for us), we were so richly rewarded with the most beautiful sight I have ever seen in the Rocky Mountains.  Mills Lake in the winter, is just gorgeous.  Of course, it sounds cliche and we always say it, but these pictures do not do it justice.  Professional pictures don't do it justice either.  You have got to be there in person to truly witness the majesty of it all.  It's beautiful in the summer, too, but in my opinion, it was even more so in the winter.

So my first impression is sheer awe at the beauty of it while simultaneously amazed at the powerful winds.  HOLY COW.  It was way worse/windier than the day before that we thought was bad. 

Paul told me to go out there and we'd get a few pics and leave. 

I felt equipped to deal with the constant wind (25-45 mph according to the weather report), but then there would be these HUGE gusts every minute (or less), that were up to 60mph, per the weather report.  We mentioned Paul was blown off his feet the day before at Dream Lake.  Well that was nothing.  I was shielded somewhat by some rocks in the middle of the lake when Paul was taking pictures.  I got in my "stance" and squatted down, planted my poles and found a focal point to balance.  I did pretty well, but Paul started running REALLY fast taking these mini short steps.  It was a hysterical sight to see!  He looked like a little girl running.  He said he was trying not to fall down as the wind was pushing him, and I was shielded.  Of course, I felt MAJOR wind and didn't think the rock shielded me.  I thought I was just doing better balancing.  He asked if I was ready to go back.  I told him "No way, I'm having too much fun!"  It was crazy out there, but such a natural high.  After being exhausted hiking up, I felt my gas tank filling up with endorphins at reaching the lake and adrenaline from the crazy wind giving me a renewed sense of energy.  Paul was pleasantly surprised I wanted to walk across the lake and stay longer.  So I continued to walk slowly out in the wind.  Suddenly another big gust came.  I got in my standard "stance" (which we later laughed at looking at all the pictures, as we decided I was doing what babies do when they poop in their diapers standing off in a corner) and braced myself and suddenly it didn't work.  I got blown away.  And then I started doing the "girly run" taking steps trying not to fall not 2 minutes after I laughed at Paul doing it.  Except it didn't work.  I fell down on the icy lake as one of my poles was blown out of my hand and across the lake. 

Meanwhile, Paul wasn't bracing himself well as he was taking my picture.  He was not only blown down, but actually blown ACROSS.THE.LAKE. Then his hat blew off and into the mountains.  After making fun of ME running like a girl, he went to retrieve his hat and both of our poles that blew away, as  well.  We saw some cross country skiers blown down, too.

After that gust, it felt a little more scary and out of our control and I thought it would be a good idea to start heading back and Paul agreed.  It was a lot of fun and we stayed long enough to really take it in.  We talked to a local guy up there.  He said its always windy, but normally you can find a spot by a rock and sit down and eat comfortably.  He said he's never seen gusts like that. 

This is me walking just off the lake back down

Shortly after getting out of the wind and hiking down at a good pace, I realized I was hungry.  Starving, in fact.  So we stopped in the snow and had some food and Gatorade to refuel.  The hike back down was much easier and only took 1 1/2 hours.  There were only a couple of times we had to stop and make sure we were staying on the trail and a few steep areas that slowed down the pace a bit.  We felt that wonderful and familiar feeling of exhilaration as we approached the trailhead after accomplishing the hike we set out to do and burning some major calories (estimates are 2,500 calories for that hike).  Naturally, we had to replenish those calories splitting a large pizza afterwards while watching Bucket List at the condo.  Another great movie to end our weekend.

Near the trailhead as we finished our hike.  See how the trail sign is buried in deep snow.

This is how one looks after snowshoeing 5 1/2 hours and enduring major wind :)

Even though we had the condo for the night, our 6am flight was going to come early and DIA is a good hour and a half drive from Estes.  So we decided to pack up our stuff and head into Denver to stay by the airport for the night.  I talked Paul's ear off until we got out of the mountains and then once on a freeway I succombed to the exhaustion and passed out in the car until we got to Denver.


This trip met all of our expectations.  We got away from all the distractions in our busy life and just got to have fun and reconnect, just the two of us, and it was great.  But, not to be mistaken we did miss our boys desperately.  We knew they were safe and happy with Grandma and Aunt Sam, so we certainly didn't let it ruin our fun, but we did our fair share of talking about them and how much we missed them.

The 4am wake up call came quick, but I was so excited to go home it wasn't hard to get up.  After an hour delay due to a maintenance issue we arrived in KC by mid morning.  As Monday is the day both boys go to school, we stopped for breakfast on the way home and then got some unpacking and laundry going before it was time to pick up the boys.  We both picked up Noah at school together and we were all so excited.  They'd had Valentine's Day celebrations and Noah broke into some fun dip, even before we pulled out of the parking lot.  We enjoyed a walk and some playtime at home before it was time to pick up Elliot.  Noah wanted to stay home with Paul, so i went to get him and have never been more excited to see him in my life.   In just the few days we were gone he is talking even more.  It was so fun  just hanging out with our boys that afternoon refreshed from our getaway.  And since we've been back, I've been able to parent the boys with more joy.  Just taking a little break I think makes me a better mom somehow.  Not sure how that works, but it just does.  I'm so thankful to my family for helping us out watching the kids.  It is no small feat and my mom was actually sick, so it was great Sam & Keith were there to help.