Snow day!

SSSNNnnooooOOOOooOOOoowWWW!

We've had church cancelled twice now. That's the same as the number of days of school cancelled!

I'd rather go to church than school. At least we should get Monday off. There was plenty of snow!

The city is doing a much better job of clearing the roads after that debacle several years ago.

We have our snow day routine: Sledding with Rah, Silas, and Zora!

The snow had a more ice-like feel. It was warmer than expected, so it could have been part melted.

Made for some fast runs and some rough landings when we built the ramp!

There wasn't enough snow to build anything really dangerous....which is probably a good thing, because I would have been tempted. Shane is on the cusp of doing all sorts of things that start hitting my interest level, but he's not there yet....

But for now, Shane was happy to push snow down a grate as I shoveled it from the street. We each did something we liked.

If it's going to be cold, it might as well snow some. Snow is fun!

Snow Day #2

The roads were much clearer this morning. Cars that weren't cleared of snow still had inches on top, so I felt good about yesterday's shoveling effort. 

Shane wanted to try and make a giant snowman again today. The melting snow made it the perfect consistency for packing. Shane started rolling up the base on his own.

I took over and then Silas and Raheem showed up to help.

We didn't stay at it long enough to finish the base, though.

We took our engineering skills and made a ramp on the hill instead.

Then, we hit the jumps! First, Rah...

Then, Shane...

Then, Silas and I. Silas tried to land on his feet. 

There's no video of me, but I mainly tried not to bruise my butt on the landing.

I would have loved to have keep going bigger and better! We joked about building ramps, half-pikes....

The only other feat of engineering I did was to use some snow to keep the sled in place so I could run and jump onto it. Shame filmed that one.

Boy, he loves the sound of his voice! Rah tried it at the very end of the video with rougher results (if you watched that far).

It was slick out!

Rah had a funny moment where he chose to slide down on his back right past me. I only got the camera out in time for a still shot.

There were still some shaded spots with snow and street parking looked difficult, but the roads were basically back to normal. Wrestling was cancelled yesterday and basketball closed with the schools, so I took Shane to TKD to get back into the routine there.

We missed for a couple of weeks, so it was good to get back in the swing of it.

Right now, they're calling for a two-hour delay for city schools. The county is closed, so *maybe* we'll close, too.....but I wouldn't count on it. The roads were fine and our deputy superintendent seems to feel like more of a man if he makes us go to school while the neighboring counties are closed.

First School Snow Day!

It was a winter wonderland when I looked out the window!

Shane and I did our first round of shoveling early.

I left the snow on the truck for now. It helps show how much fell!

We get early morning sun, so it's imperative to expose asphalt and concrete early.

Shane was useful. Maybe for the first time? He followed some directions and shoveled with me some before the focus faded. I was happy with what I got out of him.

I was surprised to see a snow plow roll through later in the afternoon.

Last time there was a major snowstorm, it took days for a small plow to show up. We were out of school for the whole week.

It wasn't a bang-up job, but it was a start. There was exposed blacktop. Will and I had nothing better to do while the kids played, so we shoveled a ton.

I started to work on uncovering the bug while Shane, Raheem, and Henry goofed around the back yard. My original thought was, "I'll keep shoveling until someone gets cold and wants to go inside."

The boys didn't get cold and they certainly didn't want to go inside. It was above freezing and they played for hours. They were sledding on the side of Henry's house when Will and I largely called it quits.

Like I said, we shoveled A LOT. Between the sun and the temperature, the road was cleaning up the bits and pieces we missed nicely.

Will must be in better shape than I am, because he had more energy to spend on the kids sledding.

I switched to photo-documenter and hype-man.

No one sledded so fast they plunged into the creek, so that was nice!

Shane wasn't really listening at the end and doing what he wanted, so I called it quits. I wanted the break and him sending down the sled empty and out of turn was a good excuse to go in after two hours out.

It's not like we stayed inside forever, either. We went for Round 2 of sledding with Raheem, Silas, and Zora near 3 PM.

I wish we still had our sleds. One broke and someone stole the other out of the yard last year. I'm thankful Silas is happy to share his with everyone!

Everything was about setting a record. The boys would hoot, hollar, and cheer after every run!

If someone went farther, the other boy would immediately want to try and one-up them. Standard, winter fun!

Shane pioneered a penguin slide. He liked to go down on his belly. Rah tried it some, but he wasn't as enamored.

I got some video, but the sun was in a bad spot. I'm going to hold off and post videos tomorrow. There's no way we're going to be back in school!

I don't think we'll be out of school for too many days, though. The roads, where exposed, were clearing too nicely. I got annoyed with Shane when he started to shovel snow back onto the road and made him clean it up ("Didn't you see us clearing the road? Why would you undo everyone's work?")

It's not that I wanted the roads clear so we could go back to school sooner. I wanted the road cleared, so we wouldn't be trapped if we did want to go anywhere. I hope we have more days off and delayed openings ahead!

Snow Storm

The forecast was all over the place. Last weekend, it was "historic." Tuesday, it was a "historic miss." Wednesday brought it up to "Maybe an inch," but Thursday dropped it down to a "miss" again.

Trust me, I checked every day. I checked morning, afternoon, and night. I think it was "1-3 inches" on Saturday when I checked last.

Sunday morning, there was nothing. We all went as a family to Wegmans for milk and muffins. Carrie had tried to go by Costco Saturday for groceries, but the place was packed.

Shane and I geared up for church as it started to flurry. I realized church was closed when the parking lot was empty! We returned to a surprised, sick mommy.

The flurries picked up and the snow started to stick an hour later. This is what the street looked like at 12:22 PM.

A couple of hours later, the snow was deep enough to play in!

Shane and I geared up to investigate.

We were both on cloud nine. Shane's exuberance was less reserved than mine.

We met Silas, Monica, and Zora down the street.

The husband of the friendly Rottweiler couple (I forget his name) was doing a public service with a snowblower (which Shane loved).

We met up with Rah and marched up the street for some winter storm sledding.

Zora hasn't forgotten or forgiven the sled.

She's a little tamer about it this year, though.

We stayed on the hill for about half an hour.

I took a quick video.....not that I remember what's in it off the top of my head.

The snow and wind in everyone's faces cut down a little on stamina. Besides, the thickest snow and best sledding would be later!

Mid-air snowball capture! We bumped into a few other neighbors at the bottom of the hill and talked on the way in.

There's a hill next to our street which was a scene all day. People with 4WD could make it up the hill. People without 4WD couldn't. They were forced to turn around and find a flatter grade.

There's no way there's going to be school on Monday!