A Fun-ny, Sunny Saturday

Saturday was such a beautiful day, we had to get out of the house. It was our first sunny Saturday in a long time!

We had things to do close to home in the early part of the day, but the afternoon was open. Our plans started off as a hike down the Santa Fe Trail around Palmer Lake Preserve and beyond.

We thought Ruby and our wiggly four would love the nice long walk. And to be honest, Mom's butt was really begging for it, even if the rest of her protested.It was really windy in the beginning; hang on to your hats!
But the "hike" became less than that when we realized how many distractions we were going to run into along the way that required a full stop.
For example, we found this little cove:

With trails around it for exploring.

And exciting wildlife to point out!
Like frogs.

And ducks.
Our little furry sea serpent wasn't complaining about the lack of walking.
And Mom was loving a close-up of the wildflowers in bloom.So we took it easy and decided to stroll around the lake instead of hike up the trail, stopping when something required our attention, such as trees begging to be climbed.
Or strange pieces of junk that were hanging from the trees to dangle on.

Or finding sticks that were perfect for playing "fetch" in the water with Ruby.Or really long grass for playing a quick game of hide-and-seek, until Mom said that she knew something else that liked hiding in long grass, and it starts with an "S." Now I know how to get a hustle out of these boys!

And on the way back to the car, on the opposite side of little Palmer Lake than we started from, we found a good-lookin' playground. So we stopped again.

Yes, our grand hike up a portion of the Santa Fe Trail turned into more of a nature stroll around little Palmer Lake (I keep saying "little" so that no one is under the impression that we completely circled a vast lake, quite frankly, it's surprising it's called a "lake" at all). But we discovered things we would have completely missed along the way if we had been moving at hike pace, and no one was complaining. We all had a great time. Even if Mom's butt was still begging for more.

The freeway south was a mess because of weekend construction, so we decided to take the back route to Black Forest Regional Park for our ward picnic. It was one of those drives where you are gasping at the beauty and magnificence of the landscape. Everything is so rich and green with all the rain we've received recently, and the scenery was spectacular. There was even one point, as I was dying of beauty anyway, that we spotted a group of horses galloping through their emerald green pasture nestled in the crook of the foothills with the mountains rising up steeply behind. I had to say, "Are you kidding me? Is this for real?!" The picture below doesn't do the scenes we saw justice, taken with my point and shoot camera from the moving car, but you are welcome to come visit us and see Colorado in early summer for yourselves! You won't regret it! And as an added bonus...you get to see us too!

We arrived safely at Black Forest Park, despite nature's best efforts to make us crash by forcing us to gaze at all its loveliness. The picnic was so fun. Adam and the boys were able to run amok and play with their friends, while I was able to sit and talk with my friends. And there was food, good food. Could it be better than that? I think not!

Zach and Adam got in on the Longest Game of Kickball Ever Played. I had to be the party pooper and call them in as dusk fell and the rest of us were getting tired and chilly.Josh and Ben may have been a bit colder than the typical picnicker come the end of the night, because for most of the evening they had been playing with the water balloons and the launcher someone brought.
But they were happy, even cold and wet.
We were hoping the ACDC shirt said, "Even though I have this huge, floppy red hat perched upon my head and tied with a cute bow under my chin, I am still a real tough guy deep within." What do you think? Is the message clear or are those cute baby blues, round cheeks and sneaky smile ruining the hard core image?
It was a happy day: a fun-ny (as in filled with fun, not ha ha, although there was a lot of that too), sunny Saturday.