let it snow!

On Wednesday night, we went to sleep with a gentle snow falling outside.  When we woke up on Thursday morning, there was 13-inches of beautiful snow on our stoop and the snow was still falling hard to the tune of more than 1-inch per hour.  Schools were canceled, the Federal Government and airports were closed, and life came to a screeching halt while everyone worked to dig themselves out from Mother Nature's gift of winter magic.  (Our planter lights continued to work despite the fact they were submerged under snow...)



By the time we went outside to sell Girl Scout cookies to all our neighbors who were trapped inside and had No Where To Run, No Where To Hide, we were trudging through nearly a foot and a half of snow.  Here are some photos of our day:

Charlie, shoveling snow off our front steps and flipping it on to his unsuspecting daughter.



Carolyn, trudging through snow with me to sell Girl Scout cookies.



William trudging through snow with us.



Henry, who could trudge no more.  It's exhausting to walk when you're six-years-old through heavy snow that nearly comes up to your hips.



Louie, bounding through the snow.



After running around most of the day Thursday, he's been asleep for three days.



A picture of our neighbor that Carolyn apparently shot with my camera while we were selling Girl Scout cookies (I know I certainly didn't take this picture!)



The plow that came down the street immediately after we returned home from walking a mile in knee-deep snow. Excellent timing since we were on the quest for a major cardio workout!



Building a snowman.



The snow was so deep, the children couldn't even sled on it without their sled sinking. So I grabbed a sled and laboriously made a course that I then carefully sloped and built up on either side with walls so it resembles the bobsled track of the Olympics.  By Friday morning, this track was so slick it would carry the screaming rider all the way to the bank of the creek. I'm sure I burned more calories making that track, and hiking up and down the hill most of the day, than I burned when I ran a marathon in 2009.



The bank of the creek.  I stood here for a long time, soaking in this view while the snow continued to gently fall and I thought about how perfectly awesome this moment in time is, and how I needed to sear it in to my memory to last forever.



Ammunition.



Building an igloo.



Smiles upon hearing the news that school would be canceled on Friday, too. (Yes cousin Michael, the coat I'm wearing is the one you outgrew and sent to our children. But until they're big enough to wear it - it's been added to my wardrobe. Rock it, Spyder!)



Charlie, on Thursday night, when the snow started to fall again and we accumulated another two-inches before Friday morning.  Notice he's now wearing long pants...



Although his shoes are missing.  So too is part of his mind, says his easily chilled wife who was wearing snow pants, wool socks, and boots that were embedded with heat warmers.

I love the snow, though ... and so long as you have the correct gear and attitude, wish we could get another foot. Or four.