Gung Ho!!!!

Last weekend we attended the first official birthday party Luke has been invited to. Sure, he's had invites before, but from people we knew before he was born. The fact that Tanum and his family are people we didn't know before last fall made this really special...at least in my eyes.

Tanum just turned 3, and he said he wanted to go snow tubing. Step one for his dad was to make sure the agreed upon location actually had snow. Let me pause in this moment to say that last fall I had suspicion this was going to be a dry winter for us. Granted, I thought it would be really cold, too.....which was only partially right. December was frigid. But the dry!! Anyway, there was enough snow at San Isabel to entertain us all for a few hours. So the decision was definitely set to meet at a central location and caravan to the High Country.

We were stuck in an inversion last weekend, so we ventured out into the 15-degree weather and hoped we were all dressed in enough layers to stay warm. Knowing we were heading into the mountains would usually be answer enough since they usually fair better during inversion situations (warm & sunny above the stuck clouds), but we weren't going that high. We need not have worried. Literally within 90 seconds of leaving the gunk the temperature rose by 20 degrees! By the time we reached our destination, the temps were at 39, it was sunny, and we all ended up shedding layers. Okay, not everyone....the little ones were tortured, but they obviously didn't care.

This was the first time Luke had been sledding or tubing, so he had no idea what to expect. He was a trooper and gamely followed me all the way to the top of the hill, climbed into my lap, and giggled all the way down. Now, I'm not overly careful in most things I do like this, but this time I was hitting the brakes all the way down. It's a totally different ballgame when you've got your one and only baby in your lap! Don't worry, by the end of the day we were full force down the hill.

There was a smaller hill off to the side that the older kids were going down. Luke wanted to try that by himself. Us being the parents we are said "sure, go ahead!" The first trip I climbed to the top with him, situated him on the sled, made sure he was holding on tight, called down to daddy to be ready, and let go. I don't know who was giggling louder, me or Luke! But he was great; held on the whole way and thought it was fun when the sled stopped and he didn't. He plopped into the icy snow and laughed hard. Then he climbed up the hill again....and again....and again. Eventually Tanum's big sister, Laralai, rescued us and started climbing & sledding with us. While Luke was having a ball and gamely going at full speed, we were tired!!

I think we stayed up there for about 4 hours. It was a fantastic time that I don't think we wanted to end. Alas, the time came to drive back to Pueblo for pizza, cokes, cake, and presents. We said goodbye to the very little snow on the mountain and hoped we all stayed awake. The kids, of course, napped.

Each child got the chance to pull the string on a pinata, though I think only the older ones had any idea why they were doing it. The very last string pulled (somewhere around round three of string pulling) was the one that opened the pinata. I've never seen that before!! Anyway, the kids had a ball grabbing up the candy and putting it into their gift bags. Then came presents, cake (the kids were all too tired to eat!) and we decided to head on home. Luke still talks about playing in the snow, and he loves the two days a week he gets to play with his friend who's only a little bit older than him. I think it's safe to say he's a very happy little boy.....

ETA: I have pictures, but it's not letting me load tonight at all....they'll be coming soon!