2007-02-25 Big snow

We finally got a blast of winter snow this weekend. It started to snow Saturday morning and has now been snowing for a full 24 hours. The heaviest snow was late Saturday night and Sunday morning.

The airport had closed down due to some freezing rain on Saturday afternoon, but fortunately it was after Ray arrived back from the Philippines. He went through patches of heavy snow, no snow, sleet and freezing rain as he descended through the clouds upon arrival.

Waking up Sunday, we found a good 10 inches of packed snow on the driveway, with some drifting areas up to about 2 feet. The residential roads have not been plowed as of 1:00, but some people are venturing out with various success. One neighbor got stuck in the snow outside the house and after a little bit of pushing, he decided to head back home rather than venture out. He had a hard time backing up through the snow, and Ray ended up clearing a path with the snowblower for him to drive back to his driveway. Mariah helped clear the driveway and got to run the snowblower besides helping to shovel.

When the plows cam around, one of them got stuck right in front of the house out by the mailbox. He was slipping and sliding towards the curb and mailbox and got sideways, so his backend was over teh curb and even touched the mailbox, so he stopped. The front-end loader then cam and pulled him out from the back, so he was then able to get going again. The snow plows left a big pile of heavy snow at the end of our driveway that we will have to go and clear out now.

Mariah took her first adventure driving through deep snow as her and Ray took the van around the neighborhood. It was not easy driving and we did not make it up the hill. She did go around the cul-de-sac and in and out of the driveway. She said she will never drive in snow, but we are sure that will change at some time.

Hailey and Mariah have spent some time playing in the snow and sliding on the plastic sleds on the hills in the backyard and and at the neighbors. Kara is not feeling well today, so she is staying inside.




LeAnn has been painting Kara's room this last week, and is almost done. She painted Mariah's room last month. The kids have gone for some nice, bright colors in their rooms.

It finally looks like winter in Minnesota after a very dry fall and early winter. This most recent snowfall will probably double the amount we have received this year.

2007-02-18 Snow Tubing

Today, Hailey and her friend Emily went snow tubing at the local city hill. We had not been tubing yet this year, mainly due to the lack of snow. We have only have about a foot of snow total so far this year, compared to about 3-4 feet normally by this time of year.

Because it has been so cold now for the last 3 weeks, the snow we did get has not had a chance to melt. It has been compacted and is very icy on the hill, however. The warming house attendant told me they had groomed the hill a couple of times to keep it usable.

The city has upgraded the tubes at the hill this year. Where previously, they had a wide variety of tubes in various sizes and conditions, this year they bought actual snow tubing tubes. They have a hard plastic bottom and a fabric top with at heavy duty tire tube inside. They even have handles on them to hold on to as you glide down the hill. To help offset the cost of the upgraded equipment, they are charging a nominal fee ($2.25) for the first time.

The kids are now big enough to haul their own tubes up the hill. It is about 150 feet to the top and has a vertical drop of about 75 feet. It was not too crowded today, and when we left around 5:00, there was no one else there. A lot of families use the hill because it only allows tubes, so it seems less dangerous than uncontrolled locations that have sleds, toboggans, tubes, and sometimes even snowboards all going down together.

We went into the warming house a couple of times to warm up. They have fireplace going to help keep everything toasty. It felt chilly outside today as it was windy and damp. We have had a lot of sunny, but cold, weather the last few weeks. The sun this time of year can really start to warm you up not matter how cold it is.