Thomas Family Visit

Our dear friends & our kids' Godparents, Will & Christa Thomas and their 3 kids came to visit us on the 26th of Mar, 4 days after sprinkler & sun fun and the weather they arrived to was a cold, snowy blizzard! It was nice that they made it in right before the storm and we didn't need to go anywhere so we could enjoy each other's company, then venture out to play in the snow after the sun came out again! Here are some pictures of our fun in the snow:

We walked to a nearby hill and everyone took turns sledding:

After the sledding, there was a snowball fight, then Adam and Liam (Will & Christa's oldest) dug these cool tunnels in the really high snowdrift in our backyard:
The next day, the weather was nicer again and we ventured to the Academy for a visit. Tom and I posed in the chapel where we were married:
Here's Liam and Will posing with the chapel organ in the background:
All of the kids in front of the chapel:

After the AFA, we went to Focus on the Family and the kids had fun running around the play area there and we ate at the snack bar. Here are Jonah & the Thomas' youngest, Alden:

Jonah & Catherine:

Jonah, Alden & Catherine:

Catherine & Sarah, the Thomas' daughter:

Here's a group shot with both entire families at our house after church before the Thomas family left that day. We had so much fun during this visit - the kids played and the adults laughed, reminisced, shared, and laughed some more and played several games. We are very thankful for this family and their friendship - they are really an extended part of our family & we look forward to when we will meet again - maybe in Dallas this summer!

Sprinkler Fun

So, it's March 22 in Colorado and you think it might be cold, but this Sunday afternoon was so warm, the boys asked to play in the sprinkler! First, we got out the slip-n-slide while Catherine was napping - here are the boys getting ready to enjoy the fun:

Then Catherine woke up and we switched to the sit-n-spin sprinkler where they enjoyed filing up buckets with water and Catherine enjoyed dumping them out. She LOVED the sprinkler and when we turned it on full blast she stood back and screamed with joy as she watched the geyser of water - too cool & very fun!

So that was Sunday, then the weather took a cold dip...

Garden of the Gods

Sorry that I have not made any entries lately - missed many thankful Thursdays...Anyway, today was another beautiful Colorado day and I am thankful for my family and His beautiful creation! My wonderful husband decided to stay here this weekend so that we could try and have some family fun. We've been enjoying watching March Madness Basketball games. Everyone in our family (except Catherine) filled out a bracket - we have a little competition to see who gets the most points from the bracket, then that family member gets to pick where we go out to eat for a celebration. Today was a beautiful day so we decided to take a picnic and go to Garden of the Gods. It was gorgeous and we had so much fun getting dirty digging in dirt with sticks and climbing dirt and rocks (some in a couple of steep places) to get higher and enjoy the views! One of the first rocks we saw was this on that is called "Kissing Camels" - look close on the top and you can make that out!

Here is everyone standing next to one of the large rocks.
Catherine loves dogs and there were some very nice friendly dogs that walked by us - Catherine was showing the dog her sunglasses and then she thought the dog might like to try them on, so the next two are Catherine's encounter with the dog and sunglasses:

You can't really tell from this picture, but we all climbed up pretty high through some steep places and are sitting on the top of a rock with big drop-offs all around. It was very fun, then we needed to leave for a bathroom break, so we decided it was time to head home. Our whole family enjoyed this beautiful trip!