"Wonderful, amazing, we-can't-go snow!"

We've finally got a bit of snow around here.

We did get one pretty good snowfall to give us a white Christmas, but that's about it. For the past week we've had reports that there was supposedly big snow coming, and then Dev called me on Wednesday to tell me I should try to leave work early because he was looking at the weather reports. Then he started texting me satellite images of the storm moving in to convince me.
On the way home I stopped at the store and realized it was coming down pretty thick and heavily. 

And then it just keep coming.

We began to get buried.

The back deck.  That huge 15 foot Christmas tree is still taking up most of the space, but you can't see much of it anymore.

Before 9:00 pm the college had decided they'd be closed the next day.


The kids started getting excited about maybe getting a snow day, too.

Snow Day by Lester Laminack.. . . my kids dug put this timely book as they planned what they'd do if they got a snow day

By morning the ambulance had already responded to three vehicles that rolled and slide off the roads that were becoming increasingly impassable.

The kids did get their snow day.

Although the handful of city roads were getting plowed, they were covered a again a few hours later each time. The school buses couldn't even get out from where they were parked, let alone get out to all the country roads that were covered in more than a foot of snow and had yet to be plowed.

As my kids were reading a snow day book, this description seemed about right for things around here lately:

It's definitely been that "wonderful, amazing, we-can't go" sort of snow.

My brother's snowpack on Thursday. . . he spent a few hours shoveling. . .

They were still digging the school buses out Thursday afternoon, but that didn't stop the kids from getting out and enjoying the snow.

Zoran clears a little snow so he can use the slide in our front yard

I sort of doubted, even with all our four-wheel drive vehicles, we could get a few miles up into the mountains to some of our favorite sledding hills.  Or, if we did get in, I wasn't optimistic about getting back out. Luckily, the one right in town, wasn't too bad.

The sledding hill serves as the community outdoor amphitheater for most of the year.

The stairs made for interesting sled jumps.

Or sometimes just giant holes where you could get stuck.

Azia and Jenna tried out all sorts of teamwork approaches to the sledding.

Israel. Overseeing things.

Eldon & Bryce

Iyezk trying to catch the girls

The hill isn't too steep, so it's not the most exciting sledding hill, but it's about perfect for figuring out snowboarding.


It didn't really ever stop snowing all day Thursday, and many of the roads still hadn't been cleared by that evening.

So, by Thursday night the kids already knew they were getting snow day number two on Friday.

So, it was yet another day of sledding, hot chocolate, books and movies. (And, for Azia,  a lot of sewing and crafting).

I think it's going to be difficult to get back into that routine where we actually go to school everyday.

For more than two days in a row.