2 Snow Days

In the 8 1/2 years Shawn and I have been married, we've had very few snow days. Shawn had one while we were attending WSU, but that was because we had like 2 feet of drifted snow that was impassable. The university closed down.

The kids had a snow day last year because they could get the buses out of the bus yard. We had around 18-20 inches of snow.

Now we live in Oregon. March 28 and 29 we had around 5 inches of snow between the two days, and we had 2 snow days. Emma thought that is was crazy. I thought so too, but we only got to play in the snow in the morning because it all melted enough by afternoon, you couldn't play in it.

This is the Van after a full night of snowing.

We lost a few trees on the side of the house, but the park lost a bunch of trees on the other side of the park also. The snow was very wet, and very heavy.

So naturally, the kids and I made a snowman. IF the snow wasn't so heavy we would have made a bigger one, but I couldn't lift the mid section any higher then this. He turned out pretty good looking and the kids were so happy.

.....too bad Luckie liked him also as he ate his nose, gloves and scarf...

While the bigs kids play

I sleep. And I'm so cute when I do.

And the big kids were pretty cute while they played.

Snow Morning

The kids were so excited to wake up to snow outside, but it wasn't just little snow. Shawn measured 7 new inches of snow in the driveway before he started shoveling. It was a very good thing that Shawn was off today, or the kids would have been stuck in the house all morning because Mom's been too sick to go out.

The kids were so excited to get to go out and play. They have been stuck in the house for a while now, since Mom has been sick and not feeling good. Luckie was so excited just to have some playmates and he was all over the place for the first 15 minutes or so. He has so much energy.

When Shawn started shoveling the driveway, I took my shower. He took some cute pictures of the kids moving snow their own way. I think their tractors took too long and before long, they gave up and just played in the yard.

As Shawn cleared the driveway he decided to make the kids a snow fort. The weather prediction was for it to warm up and there was a chance for rain later in the day, we knew it wouldn't last long, but the kids really enjoyed the making part of this fort.

They all took their turn getting their picture taken on top of the "mountain" of snow that was to become their snow fort.

Shawn was such a good sport with them walking on the hill and knocking snow down that he had just put up. Once they got the idea of packing the snow on the hill, the knocking part stopped and it got bigger, faster.

When the fort was all done, I gave the kids cups of Hot Cocoa to drink in the fort. It was so cute watching them all sit there and drink their cocoa. It was really warm too, so I am sure that after playing out in the snow for 2 hours, it felt good.

After Cocoa we had to come in and get Emma ready for school. It was so nice that she had afternoon kindergarten today cause when she came home, the snow was all melted and it was 45* outside. Here are a few pictures of what the backyard looked like when Emma came home at 3:30.

Welcoming Winter

Winter couldn't have arrived at a better time than this. We got 7" of new snow in the early morning hours on December 20. It was so wet and heavy, which makes it so beautiful on the trees and bushes. Oh, so pretty. Shawn went out and cleared the driveway and walks before he left for work. It was a big job as the snow was so heavy.

Around 10 I went out to clear the walks and drive again. While I was out the plows came by and I got to clear what they threw in the drive area. The Honda would never have gotten through it to get into the cleared driveway if I didn't clear it.

It snowed all day and we got another 4 inches that actually stuck. The road ways were slushy and wet when Shawn came home from work, but when he left the house around 7 it was starting to stick again.

December 21, the first day of winter, we woke up to 11 new inches on snow in the driveway, 18" total in the yard. I remember how good it felt to get lots of snow when we were in Pullman, the feeling hasn't changed. Shawn and I got up at 6am to start clearing the drive and the walks so he could get to work and clear the parking lot. It really was a chore. Here are a few photos I took this morning while we were out.

The driveway doesn't seem like much from this view, but it does slant down hill, you just can't tell.

When the day light finally arrived, I took some shots of the snow piled up. So beautiful!

Luckie loves the snow. We was out digging around in it while we were clearing the walks and just loved it. We think he is such a funny dog in the snow. He likes to chase snowballs and catch them in his mouth. He must like the snow as a blanket as he has covered himself up with it many times already.

Plowing Snow

We wanted to take the kids out sledding the first snowfall early in December, but Mason had been sick, and still looked sick, Paige had a yucky nose and it just wasn't the best timing. When they got better, Shawn had a crazy work schedule and things just didn't fall into place to allow all of us to go. We have a small berm in our back yard that allows for small sledding, which the kids have liked, but we wanted to take them out to some good size hills and really show them what fun sledding can be. It snowed last night. Not much, but enough to put a fresh layer of snow on the icy snow that has covered the hills for the last few weeks. Shawn has this weekend off. Perfect timing. We got out by 9am. It was 22 degrees when we started. We had so much fun. Paige was so cute. She looks like a little pink marshmallow walking around in her snow suit. When Shawn or I took the kids down, the snow sprayed up on to us, and we plowed out trail down the hill. Emma really hated that part. She didn't like getting snow sprayed on her face, but, who could blame her? We stayed out about an hour, and all the kids were tired and ready to go home and rest. We all had so much fun.

I was walking up the hill with Paige on the sled riding up, and she started sliding off the sled. I sat down to get her back on the sled, but ended up laying her on the sled and carrying the sled with Paige on it the rest of the way up. Poor kid, couldn't even get a good ride up the hill.

It's beginning to look like Christmas

We woke up to a lot of white stuff Monday morning. Shawn's parent's and sister were planning on heading back to Idaho also. I told them that if the roads were too bad to come back and we would let them stay longer. I'd rather be safe than sorry anyway. This picture was taken right before they left around 10am. We had about 3-4 inches at that time.

Here they are driving away, Shawn and I were both hoping they would be safe and have a good trip.

After lunch (and Paige's morning nap) the kids came outside to play while we were getting ready to leave. We had to go get Mason and Emma new snow pants since the ones I have have gone M.I.A. I have no clue where they went, but I just spent 4 times as much for the new ones as I did for the ones that are missing.

Paige was in HEAVEN! She has been dying to get into the snow since she first saw it when we moved in. All she wanted to do was eat it and roll around in it. When we put her in the van, she locked her legs in protest and cried. She didn't get to go out anymore the rest of the day since she took a long afternoon nap. Hopefully she will have plenty of time in the cold snow.

This was Shawn shoveling around 1:30. We had about 6-7 inches at that time.

This is a picture of the porch in our back yard. It is taken at ground level so you can see how high the snow was. Sunday evening, this was clear, no snow.

Evening time brought us back outside as Shawn was working in the garage. The kids played, made snow paths, and made snow angels while I shoveled the driveway and sidewalk.

Emma decided that bike riding wasn't only for good cleared sidewalks, but for snowy sidewalks as well. Just after this picture was taken she said to me "Plow a path for me too". Silly girl.

Here is a picture of our house. Lights are up, it looks like Christmas in air, and we have some great snow. It will stay for a while as we are not going to get out of the 20's all week. No worries, we will just play in it as much as we can.

Shawn's parents said that the worse snow they saw while driving, was at our place. 5-10 miles North of the freeway was wet roads and good driving. By the time they were on the North side of Salt Lake, they had clear, sunny skies. Glad we live where we live, so we can have good amounts of snow, just like we've had in Pullman.