Just Thoughts....

What a beautiful day! As I drove home from school, I noticed a nearly cloudless sky that allowed me to see forever. I could see the entire expanse of the Wet and Sangre de Cristo Mountains, including the Spanish Peaks and most Southern peaks of the the Wets. I was actually pretty shocked at the amount of the snow there! Not so much for the Spanish Peaks, they rarely are completely free of the white stuff, but of the Southern Wets. If I were high enough, I'm sure I'd have been able to see Raton, New Mexico today....it is that lovely. The view to the North was less impressive. While the view of the Front Range is spectacular, it appeared to still be foggy in Colorado Springs (much like it was here this morning).

As spectacular as it is here today, I couldn't help but think a classmate of mine is feeling that fog. He's had a rough weekend. He has surgery, which was a good thing, but also managed to have two of his cousins die while his rib was being repaired. They died in separate car accidents. I couldn't believe he was even at school. My heart breaks for him.

Pueblo West and vicinity missed out on the storm we experienced in Utah. We did get a little rain on Tuesday, but that's it. It's a little frustrating! But I'm so glad my niece was able to experience the 17 degree snowfall in the mountains, complete with the obligatory white-washing. She also was able to experience the snow in the valley later in the afternoon while her crazy little brother and cousin ran around in the white stuff like maniacs. Funny, considering my child was ticked off over being bundled up (he's been that way since birth) and my nephew was obviously unhappy over being cold and didn't understand the concept of being in the mountains.

It's kind of ironic looking at the pictures, though. I couldn't believe the amount of green and the leaves still on the trees! It's been doing the fall browning for a while and the leaves here are mostly gone now. Anyway, the fact that we had snow amidst all the green part of the time we visited Utah was almost eery.

Bearing in mind this was the first time we've met our nephews, along with my brother and sister-in-law meeting my son, and the kids meeting for the first time, it was an amazing trip. The kiddos all got along VERY well and played past exhaustion. Poor Luke was so tired! He finally got a great night's sleep last night and seems a little more himself because of it. But they just ran, and played, and ran, and played, and made us dizzy. It was great, though, because we weren't sure how well they'd get along.

Poor little Ryan, the youngest, was a little over his head in the chaos, though. He's 13-months old and wants to be able to do everything his cousin and brother do. Luke, of course, is 2, J.T. is 3, but they're the same size and equally yoked in what they can do (save for talking). Ryan's frustration was evident, but he also laughed at the two older boys rather often.

Then there's Kristen. She's 12, very tall (I was shocked, she was just a little girl last time I saw her!), very beautiful, and a ton of fun to be around. I felt bad because she was kind of stuck in the middle. A bunch of adults, a bunch of toddlers, and her. But she made the best of it and had some fun. She's another one who is good at and enjoys math, so she had no problem helping me with my homework. I admit, it's rather embarrassing to be 32 and have a 12-yr old have a better understanding of what you're doing that you can ever imagine having, but it was so much fun sitting at the kitchen table with her. We laughed over our goofy stuff while baking cookies until it was time for her to go back to the hotel. I wished she could have stayed, but that wasn't to happen. Still, it's time and memories I'll treasure forever.

I wish we could have had more time with our extended family, but that doesn't always work out. It was a nice trip, a fun trip, and a little chaotic at times. It was so much more fun to watch the kidlets playing together than anything else....

(Pictures to follow...too many to do anything other than a slide show!!)