Kite Flying

We flew kites today. I had been planning to take the kids out with their kites for the last two weeks, but the weather was either too cold or not windy enough. Or there was other stuff to do.

Today was perfect, though. Nothing else to do, sunny, cool and with a perfect wind. So we headed to an open field with our kites. As we crossed the street, I saw a huge gray cloud in the distance. No big deal, we see them all the time since we are on high ground.

As I was putting together the first kite, the wind picked up a lot. The temperature dropped noticeably. Then, all of a sudden, it started to rain. Wait. That's not rain, it's actually frozen, making it sleet or hail or snow -- whatever you call it, it's frozen and it stings when it hits. Samuel was stumbling around blindly because he didn't want to open his eyes.

We took cover in Jennifer and Caleb's van and tried to decide if we should wait it out, or call it quits. Just as I was getting really disappointed and about to suggest that we leave, the snow/hail/sleet/rain blew over and it was sunny again. Weird Colorado.

Anyway, we had a great time flying our kites. The kids took to it really well, especially Miriam. She couldn't get her kite off the ground, but if someone else did it for her, she could control it and keep it from crashing. Yay!

We were having so much fun running around the field to avoid crashing kites that we didn't even notice the inches of mud caking up on our shoes. The grass in the field is pretty new and it is in very loose soil. The little bit of moisture that fell made a subtle mud that we didn't notice until it was too late. The kids thought this was hilarious. We spent a good ten minutes scraping mud off of everyone's shoes after we put away the kites.

All in all, a great afternoon! I can't wait to take the kids out for it again.