Snowy Day in April...

Remember back on February 2...when the groundhog (take your pick) came out of his hole and if he saw his shadow we would have 6 more weeks of winter (which is what our local groundhog did) or if he didn't see his shadow, we would have an early spring (which is what happened to Punxatawney Phil). Well, either way early spring or 6 more weeks of winter... both have passed! February 2 was 9 weeks ago!! We should definitely be into spring by now... enjoying the tulips and daffodils poking their heads thru the sun warmed dirt.

But not this year... oh no... we had to get a freak snowstorm that dumped at least 8 inches on us. I didn't hear any totals yesterday but I did have to drive in it. After getting stuck in my driveway (which this winter was almost unheard of... we bought great tires for the van), I then had to traverse the roads and only go 1.5 miles away. But the road was horrible!! And the more well traveled 4 lane road wasn't any better... all I had were two little tire tracks to the pavement to follow. I am not normally a "fraidy cat" when it comes to winter travel... hell, you should've seen me take the road when I was trying to get to the airport during our first snowstorm of the year on Dec 1st. I was trekking down the interstate then. Of course, I was trying to leave town then and nothing was going to stop me whereas, yesterday I was just trying to take K2 to a friend's house for the afternoon.... yeah, nothing in it for me. Although when I picked her up a few hours later, the roads weren't much better and I said "to hell with it"... if I had to be out driving in that crap than I was going to get something out of it for myself so we did a trip to the library to pick up some holds and then stopped at Starbucks. Funny how I hated driving in the slop for 2 miles but then extended my trip to 10 miles to get a little enjoyment out of it.


But I will admit that it was very pretty outside... the snowfall was one of those big wet heavy snows that just covers everything. Yeah, it was purdy... but I also knew looking at it that I wouldn't have to look at it for very long. Barely any time for it to turn to that grey sludge that most snow on the road turns into. Today the temps hit 40 degrees and the snow is already well on its way to melting.

Let it Snow... Let it Snow... Let it Snow!!!

Normally I would not be jumping up and down at receiving over 12 inches of snow but we haven't had that much snow this winter and the last time it snowed this much I was trying to leave town (which I did thru some determination and some AWESOME friends!) so I didn't get to enjoy(??) it. But this time, it fell on a weekend...J's boss took the trip this week so he was home and in all honesty it was really very pretty.

But due to the amounts that fell, we all went out to shovel and it took us 3 hours and it still wasn't done (a little remains yet). This is the joy of having a foot of snow fall on a driveway that is 4000 square feet (one square of it being 40 ft X 40 ft). The temps were actually very mild... I was out in just a turtleneck and sweatshirt. The worst part however was the entrance to the driveway where the plows had piled up the snow 3 ft deep... J, K1 and I took turns at tearing that lovely work down.

The kids never complained the whole time we were out there and actually had some benefit from it. They built a snow fort right outside our backdoor. They used to do this when they were younger but we haven't had enough snow in the last couple of years at any one time for them to build one. This year... no problem.

Here are some pics of our snowfall and their fort... Enjoy!






Our mailbox which sits 52 inches off the ground... thanks to the snow plows it is now almost buried (I suck at editing photos..)













K2 adding a second entry (or escape route???) to the snow fort.

















K3 do some cleanup work on the sidewalk and adding more snow to their fortress.