It's Hot Then It's Cold

I always tell my parents and my friends from high school that the difference between winter in Iowa and winter in Colorado is that in Iowa, it snows for the first time usually in late November, and we don't see full grass again until mid-March. It's very, very cold and windy here in winter... usually. This winter we had awesome weather. Honestly, I think we used our snow blower once, maybe twice, and I shoveled once as well, too. We never had a really big snow, and Zach had no snow days. Compare that to my first winter in Iowa post-college, when I was teaching, and we had 10 snow days that year.

Anyway, the last time it snowed enough to warrant shoveling, I took Drew and Jake outside with me. Drew loved it, of course, and Jake was ok until he fell down. In his snowsuit and boots, the poor kid just couldn't get up. So he'd lose his balance and fall and be stuck in downward dog position until somebody came to help him up. It was kind of funny and sad at the same time. So, he didn't enjoy being out too long. I did manage to get some cute pictures of the time that we were out, though. I don't know what was going on with the camera; I think it somehow got into a weird setting or something, so these pictures have weird lighting, but they're still pretty cute.

Less than a month later, we were outside eating a picnic lunch on a nice day,

blowing bubbles,

and shooting hoops at the park with somebody else's ball.

A few days after that Jake participated (or didn't really participate, actually) in his first Easter egg hunt. He didn't care about the eggs, but he knew candy when he saw it (must be some innate thing I passed down, because he's never had candy before).

On St. Patrick's Day Jake was out swinging golf clubs, one of his favorite activities. I think he likes hitting (or attempting to hit) golf balls as much as his dad, so it's probably no coincidence that his word for golf ball went from daf to dah-daf, very much like Dada.

The boys also enjoyed some time in the sandbox. We might have some sand leftover in the sandbox at the end of the summer, though not if Jake has anything to say about it.

In March we also got in a family game of kickball when Aunt Katherine, Sam, and their friend Kate were home from college for spring break.

We did have one day where it was pretty warm but did rain a little. I let Jake go outside to see what the rain was like. I think he enjoyed it.

Then the weather warmed back up and Jake got outside for some more golfing.

This is one of my favorite pictures, because even though his grip isn't quite right, it looks like he just hit a big hit off the tee and is watching his ball off in the distance.

The boys have been out to the golf course with Mike a few times already. I have not. One Sunday Zach and Drew got to play at Grandma Linda and Grandpa Curt's after church, then that afternoon Mike and Drew went out to the golf course with a friend of ours and his daughter, and that evening we had our church small group over. After bugging me and bugging me for bites of this and that before dinner, Drew finally headed to the living room. Once I got the boys' plates ready and most of the kids were sitting down for dinner, I realized Drew wasn't at the table. So I went to look on the couch, and this is what I found.

Even this last week we had some great weather. One afternoon, a day that was chilly enough that I wore pants and a light jacket but the boys wore jeans and t-shirts, we headed out on our pretty regular bike/scooter ride/dog walk (complete with Jake calling out every single basketball hoop we see- "Baa-Baah!"). We decided to stop and see if our friends Anna and Lucy were outside. They were, so we stopped for a while. They were dying eggs for Easter, so Zach and Drew got in on the action. The next thing I knew, Drew was soaking wet, complaining that his clothes were stained ("I'm STAINED, Mom!"), and refusing Susan's (Anna & Lucy's mom) offers of dry clothes. Susan offered two or three times, and after the second, Drew said, "I said no, and no means NO!" Yikes! So Drew insisted on stripping down. He wanted to take off his underwear, too, because it was wet, but I told him there were laws against that. So I can only imagine what people in the neighborhood thought as they saw us on our way home. Thank goodness it wasn't any colder!

Of course, after all those nice days, Zach's first soccer game was quite cold. We had to raid Mike's trunk for extra jackets (I didn't have a blanket) and a stocking cap for Zach.

My tulips have all bloomed and mostly died already, and it's only April! Normally the tulips are at their peak in late April/early May, so that tells you how weird this winter has been. It makes days like today, when the weather was a very normal 58 degrees, seem downright chilly. I appreciated the mild winter, to be sure, but any way you look at it, I'm ready for summer.