Winter Fun

Although Spring has shown signs of arrival by poking the sun through the clouds, and scattering some 50 degree days among freezing temperatures, it is still winter. The boys and I have manged some indoor winter fun, including playing baseball, football and soccer in the house, and venturing to an indoor pool. The pool includes our routine of swimming for an hour and a half, and then eating poptarts. I know, not the best fuel, but it's just what we do, and they would be so dissapointed to do anything but.

Winter has also brought us several snow storms, and Austin and Wyatt have ventured into the cold with me, armed with shovels, to help me attack the snow. I love shovelling snow. It reminds me of my own childhood, in which my dad, brothers and I performed the intimate and rewarding act of cleaning off a driveway together. Now, I am the dad, and realize that I bring the kids out with me more for the company they give me, than for the labor they perform. I'm sure it was the same for my dad, despite my childhood presumption that I was performing an indispensable service to my dad. Austin, though, has gotten the hang of the act of shoveling, and Wyatt is just happy to just carry a shovel around, and occasionally use it to flip snow onto my shoe. After our work is done, we go inside, the boys with red cheeks and pleading for cocoa to "warm my cheeks up." With great ceremony, we stir the chocolate into the milk, housed in real coffee mugs, and crown the cocoa with marshmallows. It's family time at its best, if you ask me. No organized sports. No coaching. No driving. Just us.

Let it snow just a few more times before Spring officially arrives with The Masters golf tournmanet. For, we've got some more shovelling to do.