Snowtastic

Porter experienced his first snow as a human who reacts (and can sit, etc). His introduction was a nice quiet way to start the crescendo to the snotastic climax.

A couple of Sunday's ago, it started snowing before church. Since we get to have church at 3pm, there was plenty of time to frolic and taste the white flakes that were not sticking at all.

Superb photo grabbing opportunities for sure--even with a line of snot coming down your nose.

We worked hard to catch and taste the snow, and enjoy it as much as possible.

Everyone started to get really excited by Tuesday, when word came in of a blizzard that was headed our way the following weekend. Especially as the estimated snowfall kept climbing. So, of course, no one paid any attention to the inch that was reported to come during rush hour, on a 20 degree weather day. It was definitely a minor dusting, but we were sure thrilled to not be on the road Wednesday evening when 10 min drives turned into hour and a half parking lot crashes. And what a shocker to have no school on Thursday!

Blizzard warmup:

This was Porter's first snow playing outfit, and we were glad we found some other clothes by the blizzard...

...because that snow sure came! And boy howdy did we play like crazy. Friday there was no school again, as it was to start snowing at noon. So, we had a sledding party when there was enough snow to handle the sled.



The driveway was a fantastic warm up to the next day's snow dump.



Porter was much more prepared clothing-wise during the blizzard. The first 4 times I took him out in all his gear, he helped me find it, and asked to go out. After that, he fought it. I can't imagine why--I'm sure he had all the mobility he could ever wish for.

By Saturday morning, the snow was too deep to sled on our own hill, so we trekked it to the dream hill of the neighborhood, that you can never use because of cars, and we used it! There were no cars, but some car tracks, which had packed it down a bit. A perfect sledding spot!

Jackson's gauge throughout the whole ordeal was if we could see the bush or not. This was taken Saturday afternoon, but it was gone Sunday morning.



Around 1pm on Saturday, I thought the storm was dying down, but it just kept coming, clear until 11pm on Saturday night. The kids went out during some of the heavier wind, and only stayed out 20 min (compared to their normal 2 hour stamina). We were so lucky the winds weren't worse--most of the storm was just plain fun!

Sunday morning, the bush was buried, and there were the most interesting snow drifts, creating a sand dune dessert throughout the yard. 25" was the reading we heard, and that was exactly what it felt like.

Here's the steps to our basement. Quite the artful snow wave!

We had quite a few lost boots as the kids went tromping around. At one point, it took us 10 min to find Allies boot among the snow. We banished her from un-touched snow for a while.

We were all dug out by Monday, but we didn't dare leave the house until the roads near us were plowed. At least 5 cars an hour were getting stuck at our hilly intersection. On Tuesday, we got heavy machinery and we were able to make it to the grocery store. Jackson got to stay home the whole week (+ Monday's teacher work day[!]), and Mark didn't have a full day of work until Friday. 

The snow thankfully helped to quell the onslaught of potential cabin fever, as Jackson and the neighborhood boys had all sorts of snowball fights, sledding extravaganzas and fort digging escapades all week.

Allie enjoyed sledding, shoveling, eating snow (inspired by Jackson who took in copious amounts of very dirty snow), and good naps everyday. Awesome.

Porter definitely preferred the lighter dusting, and wasn't much interested in moving once he got outside. I'm not sure if it was the overwhelming height of the snow, or the size 6 snow boots I thrust onto his feet. Either way, he's excited to hopefully visit parks a bit more, now that it's melting a bit.

We felt so lucky to have such a fun week of family time, and we're feeling glad the groundhog said spring should be a-comin' soon, we have had a great fill of snow for the year! And to our friends and family who live through this all the time, we have no sense of envy. We're happy to live a bit further south, and have this feel like an anomaly!