The Big Snow--January 2012

Sunday morning we awoke to SNOW!!! We still had church, but barely made it out of our parking lot since it's a steep hill to get out either entrance. On Monday Tristan and Ethan couldn't wait to get out and play! You can tell we just moved back from warm climate since all we had to play in the snow with were beach tools!!! Ethan scooping it up!

Building another snowman
Grandma Bernard, Aunt Tennille and Aunt Desiree brought over this awesome sled for us on Sunday night. Ethan kept calling it a "boat" and loved sitting in it (both inside the house and outside).
Later that day I decided to venture out with the boys and introduce Carter to the snow. He didn't really like the cold, so we were only out for about 15 minutes, but we tried!
Ethan talking to me all about the boat as we head to a small hill nearby.
Tristan pulling Ethan through the parking lot
WIPEOUT!!!
All smiles and ready to go again!
Heading up the hill
Tristan and Ethan
Beautiful scenery

Ethan making a run on his own
Eating the snow
Giving Ethan a snow angel tutorial
Ethan trying it out
Fun times!
Ethan loves the snow! I'm so glad he got to experience it with his dad here so he could do some playing while I took care of Carter.

The Big Snow--Snowing Double Digits

Tristan had to fly out Wednesday morning to head back to work. The same Wednesday morning that the 12+ inches of snow was supposed to come...I was NOT looking forward to driving an hour to the air port and 3 a.m. in the horrible, snowy conditions with two kids in the backseat. Thankfully, our friend, Rich, offered to take him. Tristan stayed the night with them on Tuesday and they headed out around 7 the next morning (his flight ended up getting delayed). It took them almost three hours to make the normally one-hour drive and they saw multiple cars off in the ditch on the way up. I'm so glad I didn't have to make that drive (especially since we couldn't even get our car out of the parking lot). This was the scene on Wednesday morning when I woke up.

Since Carter wasn't too much of a fan of the cold, I got Ethan in his gear and let him play on the porch. Thankfully, there was enough accumulated snow on our porch to keep him entertained for a little while.

Later that afternoon, we had the pleasure of a front-row seat to some "tractor" action! This little Bobcat kept coming through to clear the snow in our parking lot, which was fascinating to Ethan!
Since we were all cooped up, I took the opportunity to take some 4-month pictures of this little man. He turned 4 months old right in the middle of the crazy snow.
Cheerful and happy!
Carter it obsessed with his tongue right now. He is constantly playing with it!

We also took advantage of being stuck inside to do some tummy time practice.
By the end of the day on Wednesday quite a bit of snow had collected on everything!
By Thursday morning, not only was it snowy but also incredible icy as well. In fact, the snow had a thick layer of ice over the top of it. You can see on the carports how saturated and heavy the snow was. There were actually 4 (maybe 5) carports in our apartment complex that collapsed due to the weight.
Trying to get a picture of the ice (about 1/4 inch thick) on top of the snow.
It has been so long since Western Washington has seen snow like this. I was bummed that Tristan left right as the fun was starting. Being snowed in would have been so much more fun with him here. But I was grateful that he got out and down to Louisiana o.k. His flight was one of the last ones that got out that morning, so I'm thankful for his safety--and friends who helped us get him there!

The Big Snow--Coming Down Off the Mountain

Our power finally went out around 2:00 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. After debating about what I wanted to do, my parents finally decided to come up and get me and the boys so we could go stay with them. Their power was out also, but they have a generator and a gas water heater so we would have a way to be clean, warm and fed. It was nice to see some other adults after a 24 hrs. cooped up by myself!

There was a lot of damage to trees all over the place. This is the large magnolia in my parents' backyard. It lost 2 rather large branches.

Some of the snow accumulation at my parents' house
Ethan was being silly and found my Dad's reading glasses and decided to wear them. I thought he looked so funny!
My parents have 5 Japanese Cherry Blossom trees along the side of their house. They completely lost the one up front and lost half of two of the others.
The branches were completely encrusted in ice. It was pretty, but so damaging to the trees!
The Japanese Maple in their front yard lost a large branch.
Ethan and I shared a fold out bed and Carter had a pack and play to sleep in. Ethan kept climbing in to lay with Carter. It was really cute!
Friday my dad went out to try to do some damage control. The snow was done, we just had to wait for it to go away and power to come back on. Here he was trying to get some of the snow and ice off of the branches to prevent any further breakage.
Ethan went out to get some fresh air, too. The snow was ice on top but snow underneath so he kept punching through the top layer and falling. Then he couldn't get footing to stand back up again. I felt so bad for him. I think he looks like a sad little seal pup in this picture!

Papa to the rescue!

Carter and I just snuggled up inside. Carter has gotten really roll-y poll-y and likes to put EVERYTHING in his mouth.
My parents regained power in the middle of the night on Friday. We got power later in the day on Saturday. I was grateful to be more comfortable at my parents' house, but I was glad to get home and settle in again! It was quite an adventure and the snow stuck around for weeks afterward. I was glad when we could start getting around normally again and things returned to a normal pace again!