Snowmageddon 2011

What did we do during this fierce snow of the century?  Well, take a look.  And, for the record, it was truly a let down.  I mean sure, the snow practically covers my mailbox and sure, my 4x4 truck got stuck for several minutes in my parent's culdesac, but 18"?  Is that it for our said "Snowpocalypse"?   I thought for sure we'd be snowed in for days at a time or something...like power would go out and we'd warm ourselves by the stove while we played games by candlelight.  Not that I am complaining or anything, but I'm just saying.  It was a slight let down.

I stayed at mom and dad's house, due to the fact that mom doesn't like being alone, let alone in bad weather and she certainly can't handle my being alone at our house with 5 kids when we could possibly be buried under tons of snow, starving and freezing to death...or something like that.  OK, so a little drama there for you readers, but nonetheless, we stayed at mom and dad's house.

We got up and made some Cinnabon cinnamon muffins that tasted NOTHING like Cinnabon, but the kids liked them for sure.

They may not have tasted like Cinnabon, but they were still good...especially with all the drizzle.

Finger-licking good!

Lip-smacking delicious.

And they washed it down with a cup of Joey.  Kid coffee.  Hot chocolate.  You never stay at mema's house without it!

The snow plows did finally make their rounds, even though it wasn't even close to being done snowing yet.  Check out how high the snow is to the truck!  We had plenty of time to take pictures and check it out because in this picture, it's stuck.  It was spinning wheels long enough for us to really get worried about what was going to happen...then as quick as he was spinning, he was back to plowing. 

The snow piled pretty high on the back deck, as you can see here.  The drift in the corner ended up being well over 3 feet.

Levi was the first to go out and play in it...

...followed by Kevin.  Levi was the only one to pack his snow gear to take to mom's house, so I left to go get the rest of the kids' stuff and to plow our driveway. 

 

So, just before I got out the door, Micah comes out dressed like this and says, "OK, I'm ready to go outside."  Then, when we all laughed at her, she just started making faces and being typical Micah.  I love that girl...mini me, I think. 

Now the next several pictures are just going to show you the snow and all those things "not so exciting unless you actually live here, so pretend to like it".

This is our driveway early Wednesday morning.  I took one pass with dad's snowblower and realized just how much work I would have to do.  

I even did the sidewalk for all those visitors we would get in this "blizzard."

This is a terrible picture, but the driveway snow was up to my knees.  Not that bad I say.

Poor mail box.  Poor mail lady.

Poor snowblower.

Treacherous driveway...but looking good.  Tim, you owe me.

I know that the beauty of the day gets lost in photographic translation, but these are my attempts to show you the scenery.

By the way, it is not foggy...

This is at mom's house again.  You could barely see to the lake at times.

The snow in mom and dad's driveway passed up my door...so that must have been over 2 feet I guess.

Dad had to snowblow the deck.  

Leave it to dad to break out the tape measure.  This is probably actual snow fall and doesn't account for any of the massive drifts.

This was while dad was snowblowing the deck.  Kinda funny!

Micah finally got dressed right, only with no snow pants.  I think all the other kids put on the wrong ones leaving her with none (Eden can't find hers...Micah has to pay).

They used mom's popcorn tubs as buckets or whatever in order to build a wall of some sort.

A scooter...not too sure what Levi was intending to do with it.  I think he was attempting to make a ramp and fully expected to go over it...in thick snow.  Whatever.

The scooter was short-lived and soon he realized he could find REALLY BIG snow chunks which was, by far, more interesting than ramping in the snow.

The mandatory "would you all just sit still long enough for me to get one good picture of you guys?" picture.

 Now one from the front.  Photography can be a full time job...

Elijah really wanted to dig a tunnel, but this is powdery snow.  It was not going to conform to anything he wanted it to do.  Poor guy.  Any time one of the kids would walk around it, part of it would cave in.

Funny girl poses for the camera...then pops up and says, "Can I see?" 

The tunnel.

Looks more like a cave for Kevin.

The boys found this huge ice chunk and it didn't matter what they could or could not do with it, they had to carry it somewhere.  So they did.

The kids got cold and one by one made their frozen way into the house.

Poor Elijah had swollen cheeks...you know the kind where it's actually white cheeks with the red outline?  Yeah, he was done!

 What?  Do I look like a deer caught in headlights or what?  Yes, so it is a flattering picture.  It was funny to me.  Can I help it?  It was stinkin' cold out there.  The heat was shocking.

We had a long day.  We had a full day and in the end we were all ready for bed...our own beds. 

Kevin wasn't the only tired one.  We went home that night and I couldn't get in the driveway again.  I had to shovel almost 5 inches out of the way so as not to pack it all down, causing ice.  (Our driveway is a "you better use the emergency brake" driveway and driving over and packing down the snow is not a smart idea, if Tim wants to be able to park.  His little 2 wheel drive can't make it otherwise.)  Needless to say, I was very tired by the time I got in the house.  I certainly was among the happy to find that there would be no school on Wednesday.  Time to sleep in for sure!!!