Monday was COLD. I woke up and took the dogs out, and the air took my breath away and bit at my face. It was one of those days where I felt chilled most of the time.
And honestly, I can’t exactly figure why. It’s certainly cold and brutal in lots of parts of the country right now, and given the morning temperature here was in the single digits, but it’s not like that is so unusual and it did get into the 30s by afternoon. But still, there was something just hard and bitter about the air that day.
Inside, things were warm enough. Amelia had school, I had work, and Henry had the day off from ABA therapy since his therapist took a few days off. He did have occupational therapy in the afternoon, and the therapist worked with him on some fun Valentine’s Day crafts. Amelia got in on the action too. Henry was proud of a little bunny he made, and Amelia made me this super cool bookmark.
We originally had grand plans of taking our guest for a hike at Red Rocks after Henry’s OT, but it was so cold outside, we opted instead to walk around nearby McKay Lake. It’s also right by the tunnel park I often write about here, so we figured the kids could play around there a little bit too.
Again, the temperature read mid-thirties, which in Colorado can sometimes be pretty comfortable, but today was not one of those days. We all felt like we were on some kind of arctic trek. The views around the lake were beautiful and I did my best to take that in and be present, but mostly I just wanted to walk as fast we could to get to the end.
Henry was less than enthused to make the walk…less because of the cold and more because he just really wanted to play at that park. So we promised him he could have some time to play when we got there. We were all really chilled by the time we finished, so we told them they could have ten minutes. Erin and Kallin and dogs went off to the car to start warming up and I spent a few minutes out with the kids.
I was a popsicle, but was amazed by how little the cold seemed to affect them. They just ran around and had a ball. Amelia remarked, “we’re the only ones here!” And we were indeed the only living things in that park. Because everyone and everything else had the good sense to be somewhere warmer. Even though there was nobody anywhere in sight, I wore my mask just to stay warm.
The kids ran around on the rope bridge, went up and down the slide, and played some hide and seek.
I powered through close to 15 minutes before finally pulling the plug on the whole endeavor. They were strangely agreeable about leaving, so maybe on some level even they realized how brutally cold it was outside.
Back home, we stood around the fireplace a little while to warm up, and made a nice dinner. It was a nice walk and I was thankful to get the fresh air and steps in, but in the end I was mostly thankful for our furnace and toasty warm house.
