Another One

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful, striving to become as perfect a January day as Friday had been. And it succeeded...and surpassed! I'm always including pictures of Pike's Peak at sunset in my posts, so I thought I'd include one of Pike's Peak at sunrise: as the sun just comes over the lip of the horizon, blasting the mountain snows with a near-neon orange-pink glow. Sunshine is not unusual for us in the winter, but usually our winter sun is just glaringly bright, supplying little warmth, but this day's sun was more like a summer sun; our high hit 67!We were up bright and early to send Zach out the door for the Webelos Winterspree at the Air Force Academy where he played games such as soccer and ultimate frisbee with the Cadets, tug-of-warred with the football team (who provided many autographs), watched a security dog demonstration, as well as a demonstration by the falconers...and drank a lot of hot cocoa. Ben had a turn at Winterspree too, but went in the afternoon for the Tiger/Wolf/Bear event. The boys enjoyed themselves absolutely and completely! The day also held a long-awaited birthday party for one of Josh's school buddies and a basketball game for Zach.

But by late afternoon the activities had slowed down, so we went outdoors for some family time. The big boys made marble tracks on the driveway and in the gutter using PVC pipe and wood blocks and played some football with Dad, Luke gave a newly aquired skill, pedaling his training-wheeled bike, a try, Adam got the last of the Christmas lights down (sad, I know, but there you have it), and I colored a mural on our driveway using sidewalk chalk. I didn't realize when I started the thing that it would take me so much time, but it was quite the undertaking! Fortunately, the boys helped me intermittently, on breaks from their other activities; Tommy definitely helped the most by crawling across the drawing and giving it a lovely 'smudged' appearance!

And the sunset did not disappoint.

Later that night, while the littles and I hung out at home, Adam took the bigs to the Air Force Ice Hockey game, using tickets given to us by some friends of ours who buy them for the season. Apparently, Zach made a new BFF during the game. He and the lady sitting beside him, who was a school teacher, talked and laughed much of the night. Man, he's a friendly kid! The pictures weren't fantastic because under no circumstances could there be a flash. Everyone had a great time...I mean, it's a hockey game! Even if you know nothing about the sport, it's hard to NOT enjoy yourself!

Today in church Josh drew me a picture. It was a Josh-style version of my mural....{heart}

It's supposed to start snowing tomorrow afternoon, and the high for Tuesday is expected to be 5, but I've loved this week's little springtime in January!