I'm Done Believing the Weatherman

About three weeks ago we were slated to have the Winter Storm of the Century. Universities closed a day early for the Thanksgiving Break. High school athletic games were cancelled. Public school districts closed. Signs flashed up and down I-15, warning of the impending blizzard, and news reports encouraged everyone to go home early to avoid the whipping winds and forecasted blinding snows. At our house the morning following, we woke up to about an inch and a half on the roads. Those roads were icy, prompting my husband's school to go ahead with a late start rather than canceling school. But that's all we got out of it. No wind. No blizzard. And I missed going out to dinner on my birthday because I was worried the roads would be impassable by the time we would be leaving the restaurant. Hmph.

So over this past weekend Mr. Weatherman informed us that the next few days would bring temperatures in the forties and rain. Here's what we woke up to yesterday morning. The blue photos were taken around 7:30 a.m.

Bronwyn is going to help knock heavy snow out of the trees so it doesn't break the branches.

Liam thinks you can conquer anything with a loud enough yell and a shovel. The power even went out for two hours at our house, just as I was opening our garage door. It got stuck half-way up. Fortunately / unfortunately Justin's car was in the driveway. Fortunate it wasn't stuck in the garage. Unfortunate that it had to be cleared of mountains of snow. Power was restored just a little after we finished our shoveling. Since we needed to help Justin and Owen get off to school, I roused the kids around 7 a.m. and they ran around the house laughing because they got to use their flashlights to try to find all of their winter things before coming out to help.

Someone has evidently thrown in the proverbial towel. We got about 16-18 inches of snow. It was hard to say, because every time we got a spot shoveled clear, the snow kept covering up our work behind us.

Bronwyn caught me knocking snow out of our tree. I kept trying to catch a similar shot of her, and she ended up covered countless times, but I always missed the downfluffer thanks to an over-excited finger pressing the shutter too soon.

Phew!!! The crew has finally finished the driveway. Bronwyn and Liam were particularly hard-working and cheerful about helping for the whole hard job. You can see there is still snow falling, even though we declared it quits.

Check out our mini-Everest! Evan is trying to show how high the pile is.

Liam could get lost in a landscape like this. One of our neighbors has a fluffy little ankle-biter dog and all we could see of him on the streets was an occasional tail flash as he ran about the tire tracks.

The view off my back porch. This pile of snow is taller than the step from our house down to the porch.

Good thing our chickens have gone to live at someone else's house. After I took this picture and uploaded it I found myself wishing I hadn't used the bright snow setting on my camera. It washed out the scenery and it's hard to see just how much snow is piled on that coop.

The city got our cul-de-sac plowed yesterday, but the street at the bottom of it didn't get plowed until today -- they left huge snow boulders at the bottoms of peoples' driveways for them to try to navigate out and around. This plow couldn't lift its shovel any higher to dump snow on the top of our Mount Everest. The kids were about speechless with excitement over the fun they were going to have with digging and sledding on this mound.

We eventually ran out of winter clothing to wear outside for work and play. This snowfall was such a wet one that I could almost wring out my jacket hood once I finally went inside. The dampness soaked through to even my sweatshirt, making my arms feel damp. I caught Liam later in the day using my hairdryer to dry out his coat so he could go back outside to play. I nipped that in the bud and helped him put his coat in the dryer as long as he could stand to wait for it.

Welcome to Winter!! And next time Mr. Weatherman forecasts rain, I'm getting out my snow boots.