A Winter to Remember

It is hard for me to recall the exact date that the snow began, but it was weeks ago.

Since that time, we have had cold temperatures, daily soaks in the hot tub, school cancellations and late starts, brief power outages, chains on the truck, lots of cocoa, and immense fun.

The weather forecasting has been tricky for this La Niña year.  The precipitation in the prediction above materialized, but the high temperatures never warmed above freezing, so we ended up with more snow than expected....and it just kept coming!

The snow was appreciated for the holidays and New Year.  I happen to love seasons, and I much prefer a true cold, snowy winter to the grey and rainy ones typical of the past decade.

Blurry, I know...but how cute and cozy does our little winter cabin look?  I've always had a fantasy of having a summer cottage or cabin in the woods...so I have started referring to our home with those darling titles in order to embrace the charming qualities of a tiny house.

Ezra LOVES the snow.  He would post up by the window every day and yank on the blinds until I would open them.  Then he would stand there, head tilted back, giggling as the flakes fell from the sky.

Daisy, on the other hand, did not appreciate the winter conditions.  

She would get giant snow-marbles stuck to her hair when we would go on walks.  And once the snow was over 8" she was confined to our shoveled paths.

Jonah sure had been a trooper through all the schedule changes.  It's the 19th and since the New Year, he's only had FOUR days of normal school plus three late start days.  We have been embracing the time at home though with lots of "outdoor school", baking, coloring, and card games.

As I'm sure you gathered from my last blog post, skiing right from our house is one of my favorite things.  It's been a great year for zero-commute outings.

Skiing the old hwy is also an easy local trip.

So much grinning!

Animal tracks.  My snowshoe tracks on the left and deer tracks parallel to the right.

The pace of the last few weeks has had a unfamiliar energy.  It reminded me more of summertime than anything else.  Days where we were unbound by schedules and effort was made to pack the activities in like the snow might melt....but it didn't....so we kept going.

There were bluebird xc ski days with friends: Tabitha, Kerry, and Rich.

There were blustery snowshoe outings to the river.

After dark snowshoe and sledding adventures with Jesse.

More sledding while Jesse was at work.

Play dates with friend, Josie.

A sunset ski with Tabitha, Jen, and Rich (kitty cat).

Full moon snowshoe with Amy.

Sunrise snow shoveling.

Downhill skiing with Daddy.

More snow shoveling.

More sledding.

Drinking hot chocolate with preschool friend Sophia.

Trying out Mommy's snowshoes.

Trying out borrowed kids snowshoes.

Through out this time, Jesse was able to get to work, so the photography ended up being mostly of me and the kids.  I have a few more photos to share.

Keeping track.

Ezra celebrated his 1 year Hearing Birthday on the 11th....
so Jonah and I made him an applesauce molasses cake.  He didn't really love the cake, but we did!

Staying cozy.

Master snow shoveler.

Our beautiful son.

Our silly son.

Winter textures.

Our deck piled high.

Snow even makes our shed door prettier.

An ice storm was the grand finale.

We are just beginning to thaw today.  Jonah is outside now "ice surfing" on 2 inches of frozen rain.

Although it is treacherous, it is also beautiful.

Lots of love from our winter playground.

xo

-c

Snow, Snow, Snow!...

...It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow...

I've been singing this classic song from White Christmas all week!

There's nothing like a timely dose of snow to get into the holiday spirit!  We got a bunch last week.  Schools were closed for a few days and so Jonah helped me decorate our Christmas tree.  Ezra is more of an "un-decorator"---so there's a bit of ornament strategy involved.  Jesse and I were commenting that it's kind of like having a kitty cat around.

I was able to cross country ski from home on the first day before they plowed the roads.

It was lovely!

Ezra is a snow maniac.  

He spent the day standing by the window laughing at the snowflakes falling.  And later, was perfectly happy getting iced up as I towed him around the block.

Jesse is recovering from a concussion and a couple fractured ribs from a downhill ski fall.  He was up on the mountain before this most recent storm.  He clipped a barely hidden rock on the slopes and went down hard.  Fortunately, he was wearing a helmet.  Jesse took Jonah sledding a few times, but otherwise, has been trying to take it easy.

Jonah played outside with our neighbors for HOURS.  I remember playing in the snow for hours as kid too...but I would leave waddling in layers of thick wool and come back damp and frozen.  I remember my Mom making custom mittens for us as kids because there weren't warm, waterproof, options available at the time...especially ones designed to sand up to hours of play time.  Jonah has no idea how privileged he is.

Super Snowman!

It was so cold, that we couldn't build a snowman until several days later once things began to warm up enough to get snow to stick.

Ezra, being adorable.

Hey, Mom!

Pretty cool Snow Throne.

The holiday party for Jesse's company was planned for right in the thick of this snowy weather.  My Dad watched the boys and we had a great night away.

The drive home was beautiful.

xo

-c