Christmas Eve Snow Fun

Well, we had a lot of snow fall in a week and a half. We got about 15"-18". That's a lot for the lowlands of Western Washington (we're less than 500' above sea level). It was so beautiful, though, and we all had fun in it. Rueben's brother Alex and his girlfriend Nikki were here for Christmas and along with Rueben, April, Micaela, and Seth, built a gigantic snowman. Here is a picture of April and Micaela with the big man himself!



And here is Micaela, Alex, Nikki, and April, relaxing on the couch and mugging for the camera. Alex and Nikki took the girls out to see the horses and got a great shot of April and Beau.

Micaela's Adventure

Now that Micaela is here, and we have lots and lots of snow, we had to take her out to play in it. We started her out on the toboggan on the "bunny" slope; not so steep, a nice gradual descent, where she wouldn't go too fast. She loved it!

This afternoon, her Daddy took her out to the driveway, a much higher hill. As Micaela put it, she wanted to go down a hill that "goes all the way up to the sky." From the bottom of the hill, the driveway does go all the way up to the sky. Watching her on this slope was amazing. She went so fast, she looked like an Olympian doing the luge event. It was great and we even got it on video. Unfortunately, with only dial up Internet access, I can't upload the video. :o(

I did get some beautiful pictures of the driveway, though. That's Seth and Micaela also in the frame. They're straightening out the "luge" run with the shovel so they stay on track and don't go into the bushes or the culvert.

Snow

It's been snowing now on and off for several days. I didn't go into the office at all this week. I teleworked four days (took leave for appointments one day). Thursday, it snowed so hard. It was so beautiful!

Today, Rueben and I went to the airport to pick up our grandaughter, Micaela. We left home about 3: 30 PM and got home about 10:15 PM. The storm was at high force this evening. Of that 6.75 hours, we were at the airport only about 1.5 hours. And we live less than one hour from the airport. On the way there, I don't think we drove more than 40 or 45 mph and on the way home, I don't think we went more than 30 or 35 mph. It was very slow going, but we finally got Micaela home! No pictures from today, I forgot to bring my camera! :o( But, I'll try to remember to get some great pictures tomorrow when we are all tobogganing down the driveway in all the fresh powder! :o)

Storm in Port Orchard

We were expecting a great storm in Port Orchard this weekend. When I got home from work on Friday, the power was already out. Rueben was prepared, though. He already had bottled water ready and two battery powered lanterns lit. For dinner, he cooked chilie on the camp stove. We invited our neighbors over for dinner since they had lost power too. We sat and talked for awhile while the chilie was simmering. When it was done, we all enjoyed the chilie with crackers and butter. We had shredded cheese, diced onion and diced pickles to go with it, too. It was delicious. At about 9:30 PM, the lights came back on.

We didn't get the low temperatures or snow on Friday night that the weather forecasters had predicted. However, on Saturday, it tried to snow all day long. Finally, after dark, we got some snow. It snowed on and off all night, but it wasn't much. The flakes were so small, they were like sugar crystals, not like the big lofty flakes we got last year. So, we only got enough snow to dust the grass and trees and make the yard look pretty. Today, it has tried to snow a few times, but mostly, it looks like the snow is melting off the trees.

This morning, I saw the snow on top of the sheep trough. It was about an inch thick, and smooth. It was the only place the snow was undisturbed, pure white, and beautiful. I almost didn't want to open the trough to feed the sheep. I didn't want the snow to change. I was very careful and was able to feed the sheep without disturbing the snow. I left it just as pretty as it was when I got there.