You paint with pastel, but colored pencil?

I have long since answered the question "Do you paint with pastel?" in the affirmative for myself. You choose and blend color on and off the support, you compose, you under paint, all the features of oil or acrylic painting with pastel. My mine was made up, as a pastelist, I am a painter. However, the final argument for me was experiencing Degas pastels in person at in New York, at the MET - http://www.metmuseum.org/. Having seen these works in prints and on the internet, it was explosive to see the use of color in these works.

Now I struggle with the medium of color pencil, can you paint with it? I am leaning toward yes.

(Seeing you are just getting to know me, I should clarify. I also paint in Acrylic and use watercolour for studies.)