Snow Days

Winter: a poem by Drew Watson

You can sled in winter....
but don't get a splinter!

You can sceey (ski)...
but don't overpay the fee!

You can snowboard so...
don't stay at a doe (dough) board!

This super snowy weather has resulted in school being canceled for the entire week. On Monday, we have Presidents' Day too, so it's another day off. That is 11 1/2 days with no school and the roads are too crazy for driving on. So, in order to keep cabin fever at bay, and to take the advice of Drew and his poem, we are trying to" get away from the dough board" and have some fun in all of this snow. Above, Matt is the same height as the snow on the sides of our stairs.


The city had to use a front loader to clean up, because when the plow went first it kept getting stuck.


Sydney had a hard time getting around in the snow that was up to her waist, but she loves sledding so she took it in good stride.


Uncle Steve came by, and when the kids threw snowballs at him, he launched snow at them with a shovel. Uncles make good snowball fighters.


Sydney made a slide out of a snow bank.


On Sunday (no church), Drew and Sydney and I took a walk with my parents and Steve and Wendy. It was beautiful and sunny, and we went to a local sledding hill (not very sabbath-like probably but I chalk it up to an appreciation of the beauty, really). The snow depth created this bumpy ride. The kids got some good "air" on it.

On the indoor side of things, we were fortunate that we never lost power, except for a few minutes. We ate lots of homemade goodness.. chili, bread, cookies, and other treats. We consumed plenty of hot chocolate with mini marshmallows, and had some movie nights.
Kids occupied their time in creative and often messy ways, with the messiest so far being a "karate board breaking contest". It involved chopping and kicking apart foam pieces that ended up as tiny specks in most of the house, sticking to clothes and hair.


It has also reminded Sydney of Christmas. She came up with a plan to put sticks and a clown nose on our cat Yarrow, and tie a sled to him. Then she wants to dress Matt up like Santa and have Yarrow pull him around as Rudolf. We will see if the cat is up for it.


Drew gave snowboarding a try and really likes it. This is with my snowboard which is too big for him, but fun all the same. Now he wants to be an olympic snowboarder. Andy still went to work on all of the weekdays, and when I wasn't attending to drying snow clothes and getting little people in and out of many layers, I had some fun in the snow too.