Snow Day!

      The second weekend in February we got snow.  Eric, Angie, Mike and I had a date planned that night to go out to eat for Angie's birthday and my parents had offered to come watch the kids, which was HUGE.  Elliot is not the easiest little guy to leave and it stresses me out to leave all four of them awake with a teenager (I probably just need to do it and get over it) so any date nights lately have been after Elliot is tucked away in his bed and we stay close enough that if he did wake up the sitter could call us and we would come home.  Anyways, it was really nice to go out for the evening at a normal dinner time and know that all the kids were safe and happy in the capable, loving hands of grandparents.

     Just as we were leaving, snowflakes started falling, but we didn't think much of it.  Our dinner was 45 minutes north of where we live and it wasn't even snowing up there until just as we were leaving.  As she started our trek back home, however, the snow started to fall heavier and heavier and we noticed more and more on the ground.  My mom called to see where we were and said that it hadn't stopped snowing the entire time we were gone.  

    When we got off the freeway, we discovered the big hills that goes to our neighborhood was closed which began a side roads snow adventure to go up a different way.  Luckily, Eric is a confident snow driver and got us home safely (although there was one part I had to close my eyes and was starting to think we were going to have to leave the car and walk home).  When we got home, my dad had their car already warmed up and ready to go.  It took them twice as long as it usually would to get home and they saw cars on the side of the road, but I finally got the call that they had made it home safely also.  Besides that little bit of driving stress, we enjoyed our unexpected snow weekend.  

       My favorite time to play in the snow is when it is still coming down.  All the kids were in bed when I got home, but Carson and Abby were still awake so I told them to put on their coats and gloves and we went out and enjoyed playing in the stillness and the beauty of snow falling at night.  Mike had went with Eric and Angie to the grocery store down the road to pick up some things we needed for dinner the next day (a trip we were all going to make together, but when we saw how bad the roads were we had decided we needed to get home as soon as possible for my parents so they dropped me off) and when they dropped him off they had received emails and texts saying church was cancelled the next day.
       A snow day! I felt a little guilty that I was excited about church being cancelled, but it wasn't because I don't like church, it was just the unexpected gift of an entire day together as a family where we had nothing planned.

We invited the C family over in the morning for a pancake breakfast and snow play.  We finally got to properly use our "sledding hill" in the backyard (last time it snowed we didn't get much of a chance before it melted) and it was nice to not have to go find somewhere to go play in the snow.

       Mason ready to go outside and play.  He is at the in and out stage.  When he's inside he wants to go out, he then goes outside, plays in the snow, gets cold and wants to come back in.  Repeat for as long as there are people outside.  It was SO nice to have Mike home for snow play.  Usually snow days seems to occur to the week (and even if the roads are bad he still has to work from home) and so it is usually me solo trying to help everyone warm and keep whoever has been the baby/toddler at that time happy inside.

The current babies:  Kaylee and Elliot wanting to get in on the action.


And here is our baby getting in on the action...and hating it.  He wasn't a fan of the snowsuit, the sled Mike and Eric put him in, or the snow.  But he sure was an adorable, angry blue marshmallow.

 The big kids loved the snow and it is so nice that they are both old enough that we can put on all the snow gear and they will actually stay outside and play for an extended period of time.

Carson at the bottom of a sledding run.

Brookey and Mason with Olaf (one of thousands of Olafs that I'm sure have been built this winter).

Our family.

Brooke and Mason needed help getting on the sleds so Mike and Eric ended up just parking themselves at the top of the hill and waiting for the kids to come to them while Angie and I took the babies back inside.

Abby working on the snow house they put together by dragging everything to the side of the house.

We played for most of the morning and then the C family went home and we came inside.  The snow was gone by the end of Monday, but we very much enjoyed our snow day.