Winter Storm 2014

So it snowed this week.  And they called it Winter Storm 2014, and I'm glad because I hate dumb names like Snowmageden.  Back to the actual snow--Beautiful, fluffy, lovely snow.  Really, I love to look at snow--play in it...well...And then the whole state shut down again.  And by "and then" I mean, two days before it started to snow.  But to be honest, it was great.  I know my last post mocked the South for shutting down just for a little snow, but this time I didn't mind at all.  

It started snowing on Tuesday.  Nothing stuck. Mostly just flurries, but school let out at 11 anyway.  But, oh my, you should've heard the news.  Seriously, they way the anchors were talking, had my Utah family calling to see if we had been buried yet.  No.  In fact, we got a fairly normal amount for a good snow in Utah.

Wednesday I woke up to nothing and thought, "Holy cow these people exaggerate."  I had planned to go play at the mall, but Greg was staying home because the weather was bad and it was going to be a huge snow/why not work at home when he had a good excuse, so we stayed home too.  Around 11, it started to snow.  Enough that I thought, you know, I'm glad I'm not out driving in this.  I could drive in it if I wanted, but I'd rather not.  So Greg and Rex suited up and headed out to play in the snow.  I attempted to get Alice all suited up--had on two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, boots, a long sleeved shirt, but she faltered at having to put a coat on and decided to stay inside.  Rex didn't last long anyway and was back in after about 15 minutes.  Greg went back out to play with the teenage boys that live behind us because Greg is also 15.

Greg helped the neighbor boys make a tow hitch so they could pull each other on skis behind the truck--Greg did talk them out of tying their feet to the skis though.

 Thursday I knew we weren't going anywhere and Greg decided to "work from home" again after getting his truck stuck on the Wheatley's driveway.  Rex had told me on Tuesday to get a snow shovel, but I didn't believe there would be that much snow plus I was being lazy plus I hate shopping even for important things like snow shovel.  After Wednesday's snow, the van door barely opened so there went my hope of leaving.  But I was prepared, I spent all night Wednesday night on Pinterest looking for fun things to do in the snow.

We started off the day with sledding with the Wheatleys.  Surprisingly, Rex went down by himself and was not scared.  Alice even agreed to put two coats and went down three times before her un-mittened hands got too cold and she started crying. (PS getting my kids dressed to play in the snow brought back at least a million memories of going to the snow with my dad as a kid--when you live in California you have to drive two or so hours to get to the snow.  We didn't have proper snow equipment since we only went to the snow once a year, so we did things like wear grocery bags on our feet and pretend like jeans are water proof.  No wonder my mom usually opted to stay home.  I wouldn't have been seen with us either.  My kids looked the same--rain boots are the same thing as snow boots right?)

 After lunch at the Wheatleys, we came home and painted snow, inside, because it was cold outside.

 And then they ate some of it so I let them use the rest of our root beer flavored snow cone flavoring.

Rex painted/ate snow for a good hour

Around 3, Greg started getting antsy from staying home for two days (see there are hard things about being a stay at home mom), so he dug the van out and after many attempts finally got out of our driveway and very carefully drove to Target, and then ripped a plastic piece off the bottom of the van on the way home.  I had a few very nonessential things I wanted to get for Valentine's Day.

After dinner, Greg and Rex harvested some snow for us, which was hard because although it had snowed a good 8 inches, it was already starting to melt.  The kids and I made snow ice cream for dessert, which tasted like a creamy snow cone and not so much like ice cream but it was fun anyway.

Friday was back to life as usual, and I was actually really sad and part of me wishes we'd stayed home on Friday too.  Our two and a half snow days were a little magical.  There was no wondering, well should we leave--think we can make it out to do X, Y, or Z?  We were all stuck in the same room (we only heat 1 room in our house) and we had to get along and play nice.  It was like our own little Baker Bubble--no body else existed or mattered because we couldn't get to them anyway.  Except for the Wheatley's, but they're pretty much like family anyway.  Or at least I tell myself that because I'm a little obsessed with their whole family.  And then when we left on Friday, the bubble popped and we had to deal with crappy drivers, and traffic, and overcrowded stores, and we couldn't just be and play together any more because other people reentered our world and I was little sad.  So South, thank you for not having enough snow plows and for shutting down for two days so that I had to stay home and just play with my family.  It was magic.