Snowmaggedon 2013

Not two weeks ago I was lamenting that our kids, in their lifetimes, had not experienced real snow. At least not snow that they would remember. Sure a few years back we got a couple of decent snows that Gabe got out in, and we got the requisite video to remind everyone of it. But the last two years, nada. Last year, our biggest snow was less than three inches. And this year looked like it was shaping up for more of the same. Three different times we've had forecasts for "sure thing" snows (or rains), and all three times we got bupkiss. Not surprising during a drought, but definitely not great for the "memories of a lifetime" department either.

And then, last week, it snowed. Quite a lot. We were told that, at about 15 inches, it was the second biggest snow in recorded history for our area. School was cancelled, which doesn't happen all that often around here, so Gabe got to experience his first snow day, too. And his second when the snow lasted longer than was expected (and our region is pretty woefully prepared for such storms as they happen so infrequently--main roads will be cleared but side roads are often impassable by smaller cars).

He got a four day weekend out of the deal. By Saturday the sun was out and things were starting to melt. By Sunday, the roads were pretty good (except for the ones with tree cover, like the one that goes by our house, which keeps snow for at least a week longer than everything else because the sun doesn't hit much of it) and the yard was starting to melt down. We got out and made a snowman and Gabe insisted on building an entire igloo made out of little blocks created with a square bucket he found. He ended up only getting one block into the project, however, and the snowman became our only accomplishment of the day.

By Friday, we were starting to hear rumbles about another storm system that would move in Sunday night or early Monday morning. The weathermen insisted that it wouldn't be a significant system and we shouldn't see much additional accumulation. Either they were badly misinformed, the system unexpectedly built up a lot of steam, or they are liars. Cause it was a second wave of blammo. By Sunday they were predicting a full-on blizzard, with high winds and gobs of snow.

Sunday night, they cancelled school for Monday--a preemptive move that the schools in Kansas almost never make. I remember one time back in the early 90s a storm was being predicted and all the schools cancelled. Then we ended up getting next to nothing and people pissed and moaned. Since then, winter weather has to be a lock before they cancel (and, probably, with good reason since, as I said earlier, we've got a history of weather systems petering out and producing little or nothing when they get here).

I went to bed Sunday night to clear skies. Sunday had been quite a beautiful day, really. Filled with sun and warming up nicely. As I was preparing for bed, I pondered on how lucky we are to live in the time we do. Can you imagine what it would have been like prior to us being technologically capable of watching weather systems as they moved over large areas and predict what they are going to do? Say, during frontier times. People living in log cabins see an enormous snow move through. They spend a couple days digging out and getting their lives back in order. They spend a nice, pleasant Sunday, enjoying the warm sun and, when they go to bed, they see a clear sky and not the least bit of a sign of anything on the horizon. Then, overnight, WHAM! Another foot of snow moves in.

That was what was supposed to happen to us. It didn't. I expected to wake up to a fresh winter wonderland Monday morning. Instead, I woke up to the exact same thing I went to bed to. Our meteorologists kept insisting that it was still going to move in, it was just taking longer than expected, but I kept watch of the radar and nothing impressive was happening anywhere. I took the kids into work for awhile. Nothing was happening. Everyone in town was out and about. It was looking more and more like we were back to our old ways of missing the weather. People were beginning to grumble about having to deal with their kids. Then, around 10:30, the first few flakes started to fall. By 11:30 it was coming down pretty well. By mid-afternoon it was a white-out and I was VERY glad that they had cancelled school, because it would have been a misery trying to get out in it with Norah to pick Gabe up at the bus stop, especially considering both of our cars are about useless on the snow--they are front wheel drives, but so low to the ground that more than six inches of snow means we're either high centered or plowing a path.

We ended up getting about 10 more inches out of that one. SUPER wet, dense snow. It stuck to everything. The trees and the north side of our house were covered. It was quite pretty. They cancelled school again on Tuesday. Four snow days in a row. I think we might have had that many days off after the ice storm in 2005, but that's the only time I can remember having that much school cancelled at once. Even though it had stopped snowing by Tuesday morning, I was really glad they cancelled because I couldn't get out of the driveway. The deep ice ruts in the road in front of our house that were left over from the last snow had all the new stuff on top of it, so we were pretty much snowbound until Tuesday afternoon, when it had finally melted enough for us to be able to plow our way out of the drive and get somewhere. We did our due diligence, though, and tried to make it to the store--I work Tuesdays, and we weren't closing since nobody else was. This resulted in me backing into the road and being instantly jammed in one place, high centered on an ice rut. I had to run and get the snow shovel and dig the front wheels out, which allowed me to spin the wheels like a maniac and squeal my way back up into the drive, where the car stayed until things started to melt.

So there's that. I also managed to get some pictures and videos of the kids enjoying their first real snow.

Snow angels.

Gabe decided that the only way to make a snow angel was face down. He soon discovered how uncomfortable it is to have snow inside all of your clothes and we had to go in shortly after.

Snowball fight. Sort of. Mostly it just amounted to each of them picking up wads of snow and dropping it on the other's head.

The backyard after the first snow had finished.

Norah, using her "jumperoo" pretty much the only way she will. Before we ordered this for Christmas, it seemed like a winning idea. She likes to jump on trampolines. Or, at least, she did. Until she had one of her own. We figured it would be good exercise, which she kind of desperately needs. This is her idea of exercise, though.

See that square head? That's Gabe's igloo. Since he went to all the trouble of making that single block, it seemed a shame to waste it, so we made it the snowman's head. Then stuck decorations on it from our bag of pumpkin decorations because I was having a hell of a time finding any rocks or anything else that could be used to make the face. And then he decided to lick it. Also, it has a sword and a fez because it is a badass.

Monday night, around 10 or 11, after they cancelled school for Tuesday and I wasn't stressing out anymore about how I was going to get the kids around and delivered and into work on time if I was going to have to dig out a path in the road, I looked out the back window and saw a pretty extraordinary thing. Snow was stuck to EVERYTHING. And the cloud cover was trapping all of the town's lights down around the ground, which was reflecting off all of the snow. When I went to our back porch, I could see clearly all the way back to the back of our property. It was like dusk, but it was four hours after dusk. I tried to get a picture, but our digital camera is nothing special. I did manage to get this one. This is a little solar light, which gives off almost no light, that is on our back patio.

And this is what the backyard looked like Tuesday morning. After five days and more than two feet of snow (and quite a bit of melting and snow shoveling, but you get the idea).

We didn't really get around to using the toboggans properly. The only hill near enough to our house for us to easily get to is the one that falls off our yard and into the little drainage creek that runs along our property (after the hill part, it literally falls a couple feet into the creek--though that might have been filled in with snow, who knows). And, while it MIGHT have been fine for them to use that (well, Gabe would have, Norah wouldn't have even tried it as she's too timid to even go down slides right now), we didn't really want to trudge through all the snow to get over to it and then have to pretty much fall our way down into the creek to wait for them. Maybe when they are older and able to think of stupid, dangerous things to do on their own. So this was all the sledding they got out of the snow. 

The snowball fight.

Friday, this was the ONLY thing Gabe wanted to do outside. Our house makes some pretty awesome icicles. Because our insulation is shite, any snow that accumulates on our roof melts slowly and steadily from the moment it starts to fall on it. And there are a few points where the water funnels and falls off (because we've never gotten around to installing gutters) creating massive icicles. Gabe wanted to knock those icicles down with a sword.

Honorary Kick. I have NO idea where this song (or the word "honorary" for that matter) came from. It's just something they started to do. There are other actions other than punch and kick, too. There is an honorary dance, and an honorary shirt (not sure what that means) and honorary stripes (again, no clue). 

And while I'm on the subject of weird things kids do, there's this. He came from school with this song. "Walk it out like Grammy." I was going to do a post of some of the miscellaneous things we've accumulated here on the camera, but this seems like as good a place as any to put this (especially considering my recent record of getting things uploaded).

And, finally, me trying to coax a back story out of Gabe for our snowman. I wasn't very successful.