BLizzard 2009

Just a couple of months before we moved to Colorado, this section of the country was hit with a blizzard. The remnants of that blizzard were still on the ground when we arrived two months after the fact. This led Campbell to believe that she would get to see a blizzard.

She had read about these blizzards in her story books. She thought it would be great and exciting to live through one of these tremendous storms. Aaron and I were not so much looking forward to these types of storms. Lucky for us, the past two winters have been fairly mild. We have seen our fair share of snow and cold but not a true blizzard. That is until this last Thursday.

The weathermen started predicting the storm on Sunday. They said it would hit Thursday afternoon and last for about 24 hours. Now we all know that weather forecasts aren't always completely accurate. I made sure we had fun things to do during the storm, but didn't really panic about it.

Thursday morning the snow started at about 11 am. I decided to make a quick trip to the craft store. By the time we arrived back at home at 1 pm the wind was also blowing and it was what they call white out conditions. That means that there is no visibility. At this point we were in a blizzard. Campbell went to stay the night with her best friend who lives about 3 blocks from us. The weather was so bad that I would not let her walk over there. I drove her.

Normally Aaron makes the drive home from work in 30 minutes or less. Thursday it took him nearly 2 hours. Along his trip home he was a good samaritan and helped push two vehicles up a hill. He was not dressed for this. He didn't even have gloves with him. He also got to experience 60mph winds blowing his truck on icy roads. He is now researching 4x4's.

That night we listened to the wind blow. We also watched the snow blow into drifts. Thankfully we did not lose power unlike those South of us. The blizzard conditions lasted until about noon on Friday. Then, the sun came out and by 5:00 that evening the roughly 12" of snow we received was about half way melted already.

I grew up in Montana so this does not rank as one of the top worst storms I've been through. However, it was the worst the rest of my family has been through. It was also enough to close down a lot of businesses around the city. Even the military bases here were closed for the day. I would say that since April is right around the corner we won't see much more snow, but this is Colorado.

Prelude to Springs

Yesterday was such a glorious day. It was so sunny and warm. Campbell wore a tank style dress and got a bit of a sunburn! It's not really a burn more just some lovely pink shoulders. We do neet to get the sunscreen out though.

We spent a couple of hours at the zoo. After that Campbell spent the afternoon outside playing with "friends". That's what Caleb calls them. He doesn't care if they have actual names. They are all just called "friend". I had the kitchen window open and it was glorious to hear the sound of the kids playing in the backyard.

I know that it is only March and we are surely in for some more cold weather. But, it is so nice to have this weather. It is suppose to be in the 60's to 70's all this week. We have many walks and trips to the parks planned. This bit of nice weather gives us a glimpse at the spring and summer go come.

Spring is Springing

Yesterday while doing dishes I looked out the kitchen window. Not only did I see a beautiful view of Pike's Peak as usual, but I also a robin in the tree in our back yard. Robins are a sure sign that spring is around the corner. Later in the afternoon I looked in the flower bed in the front yard. To my pure delight I saw the little green leaves of tulips! May favorite flowers are tulips, specifically white tulips. To me they represent a clean, fresh new beginning. They also represent spring. With these two sightings I declared that it was time to get ready for spring.

Back in the fall as I was getting the last of our house unpacked I noticed that one wall in particular was very bare. I went to the store and found some nice sconces but I was missing a picture for that spot. That's when I had a moment of genious. I do get these every now and then. I decided that each season I would have the kids paint a new picture for the spot. I give them each a 8" x 10" canvas and let them go to town. They can use any medium they choose (paint, crayon, oil pastels) and create a picture for the spot.

Yesterday, I decided it was time to do the spring pictures. They both decided they would use paint. They both also wanted the same colors: red, green, and purple. Campbell painted an impressionistic English garden. Caleb painted an impressionistic (is that a real word?) flower. Now the walls are ready for spring.

The Arts

Denver has this great program where some of the organizations have a free day for Colorado residents. The art museum happens to have them on the first Saturday of the month. That also happens to be the weekend that Aaron has drill in San Diego. The kids and I decided to go check it out yesterday.

We drove up to the big city and suprisingly found parking. Parking is my biggest worry when we go to Denver. There are plenty of parking garages but getting into them can sometimes be a trick with all the one way streets and such. But we had no problem yesterday.

We ended up spending about 2 hours walking through the musuem. This is why the free day is nice. The kids are usually done after 2 hours. (And by kids, I mean Caleb. Campbell could spend much more time walking through.) We made it through the first building and through the children's play area in the second building. Next month we may have to try it again and hit the other 6 floors that we didn't make it to this time.

After the museum we hit the mall for some shopping and lunch. Once we started home in mid afternoon we were greeted with a not so lovely surprise. It was snowing! Visibility was maybe 100feet at good times. I was very glad when we made it home safely. We did have a great time out yesterday though.

Rainbow Fun

I saw this idea for a rainbow cake on the internet the other day. I thought it would be a great activity for me to do with the kids. It was a whole lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. I didn't get the recipe for the icing correct. (It still tasted good, it just didn't look as good.)

Hiking and a Picnic

We had a beautiful day here in Southern Colorado yesterday. Today and tomorrow it will be even nicer. This is one of the few times in regards to weather that we are happy to be here rather than in Carolina. How funny is it that we have beautifuly hiking weather and they have snow?!

We decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and go for a hike. Also, Caleb has been bugging me for weeks to go on a picnic. We decided that we could take care of both in one day. We packed our lunch and headed to the mountains.

We went to Manitou Springs which is just a few miles south of us. It's a small, quaint town that is fun to just walk through. They have some really cute gift shops. The whole area around the town has some great history and hiking trails.

We headed to a trail just above the town that use to be a railroad. The rails are long gone but the trail is still there. The trails offers 5 tunnels to hike through. The kids love to drive through all the tunnels here in Colorado so we figured they would love to hike through some as well. This particular hike is a shorter hike. Total round trip mileage was 2.2 miles. The kids did really enjoy the hike. Although, Caleb was worried about bats and made sure to remind us that we had to be super quiet in the tunnels so that we wouldn't wake the bats. There was no convincing him that there weren't actually bats in the tunnels.

We ended the hike with a lovely little picnic. It was a great way to spend a late winter afternoon. This sunny, warm weather is as unexpected here in March as snow is in South Carolina in March.