Snow Day

Today started out early.  Noah woke up at 5:30 for some reason.  His coughing fit woke his brother up, too.  They were already both dressed when the phone call came from school that it was going to be a snow day.  I was surprised as it wasn't much snow, but it was still coming down.  And we haven't had any real snow this year, except for a dusting.  The kids hit it early, while it was still dark.

Hot Chocolate already at 7am

Noah went for round 2 with Hudson, going back and forth from our house, to his. Shoveling our next door neighbor's drive (or parts of it).  Then he went with Hudson to Suicide Hill.  It was early.  I was still in my pajamas.  Apparently they were the only ones there and had a blast with the hill to themselves.  Once he came home to warm up, it was time to head to the YMCA for Elliot's first swim lesson.

Elliot did great.  He's the youngest in the class and jumped right in.  He has no fear or nerves whatsoever.  He's swimming short distances under water, but still not holding himself above the water yet.  I'm thinking we can get him swimming by this summer though.

With the early wake up call and all that outdoor play, I made the kids BOTH nap today.  Noah went down pretty easily when I told him we'd go sledding at Suicide Hill when he woke up.

I went up and opened up the shades and turned off the fan (white noise) to wake up the kids after 2 hours.  Noah got up pretty quick.  Elliot was another story.  Man, was he sleeping soundly.  And it took another 30 minutes to get him up.  Look how peaceful he was sleeping.  He still looks like my little baby when he sleeps.

Not only did we head to Suicide Hill, but we met Noah's friend and classmate, George (and his older brother and dad).  Noah and George mostly stuck together and were crazy daredevils.  We all started on the more gently sloped side.  Noah and George kept moving north to the steep side.  Before it was over they were planning routes to go over ridges and have "jumps".  Crazy kids.  Elliot and I sled together mostly at first, but finally Elliot got brave enough I got brave enough to let Elliot go down alone.  He just giggled.  He also wanted to go down with Noah and George a couple of times.

We ran into another classmate, Gavin, and his dad.  So much fun for the boys to get to play together in the snow.

Elliot ready for a wild run with the two daredevils.  Noah warned him on the last one "Elliot we are going to do a jump.  Are you sure you can handle that?"  Elliot said, "yes, Noah".  Well that jump was pretty scary.  It ended in a harmless crash, that scared little E, but he was ok. I thought it was so sweet of Noah to be concerned for Elliot and warn him.

Noah and George were preparing to do a final "jump" and I was set to video it, when they kept accidentally letting go of the sled and then sliding down on their butts halfway.  Noah somehow got both boots of his feet and was in the dirt and wet snow in his socks.  I declared it time to go.  We were there for well over an hour.  The kids were wet/dirty/worn out.

What a fun day.  We spent the rest of the day in the house hanging out.  I think we'll all sleep good tonight.

Winter has arrived

Winter came in with a bang.  Yesterday started out in the 40's and sunny, but windy.  By mid afternoon it was getting colder.  It was in the 20's by night time and really windy.  We got a dusting of snow overnight and wind chills this morning were in the single digits.  Brrr!  The kids adjusted much quicker than me.  Elliot could not WAIT to play in the backyard after we dropped off Noah at school.  He would play for quite awhile before coming in to have hot chocolate and warm up.  Then he went again.  We've gone through a few pairs of mittens already today. He loves it.  And I am surprised to say he actually ate lunch with all that hot chocolate and marshmallows he had this morning.

As much as the mild weather was nice (and I do prefer it), it's fun watching Elliot enjoy the snow.  I am excited for the first big snow to go sledding.  I think this year he'll really get into it and keep up with Noah.

Playing in Snow

The day after hiking Mt. Sniktau, we hiked Mt. Royal (in Frisco).  Instead of the clear, blue day we had the day before, it was snowing in the mountains.  The trail was steep and icy in places, and even though it was cold and snowing, we were sweating from the effort.  I somehow managed to lose my camera the day before, so I only snapped a few cellphone pictures of the rest of the trip.

After about 4 hours of that, we had lunch at a great authentic Mexican restaurant in Frisco and headed back to the hotel for a little nap.  We spent the afternoon in Breckenridge wandering around, trying to decide what to do the next day.

We wanted to go snowshoeing, but we'd been getting mixed signals on whether there was enough snow in places to make it worthwhile.  We could have used them at the top of the trail at Mt. Royal, but they weren't needed at the bottom.  We decided to rent them anyway, and the next morning we agreed on hiking Argentine Pass, which starts high and ends at 13,205'.   To get to the trailhead requires traveling about 4 miles on a 4WD road.  It was covered in snow, but there were tracks of vehicles that had gone before us, so we decided to follow.  About halfway there, the snow started getting deeper, and the tracks disappeared.  We continued on, but a few hundred yards later we were stopped in deep snow trying to crest a hill.

It was a narrow road, with no way to turn around, so I backed the Suburban down the hill.  I promptly got stuck, nearly going over the edge into Peru Creek, which ran right beside the trail.  After we dug ourselves out of that mess and got back on the trail, I continued backing down, trying to stay in the tracks we had created coming up.  Instead, I got sucked into a small ditch on the other side of the trail, which abutted a rocky hillside.  It took us quite a bit longer to dig out of that one, and cost us the driver's side mirror in the process.  A few yards beyond that, we found a turnaround spot, and just parked there.

We were now about an hour past our scheduled start time, and still two miles from the trailhead.  With a flight out at 4:00, we were on a very specific timeline.  We donned the snowshoes and started moving.  Instead of doing Argentine Pass, we decided to explore the area around the Pennsylvania Mine, an old ore mine developed around 1879.  There were no other tracks besides ours, so we had to break our own trail in the snow.  The areas of deep drifts were hard work going uphill, and even downhill, but we eventually made it to the mine and back.

We got back to Frisco, packed up, washed the Suburban to make sure we hadn't scratched up the side, and headed to the airport.  A few hours later, I sat in my bed reading lots of bedtime stories to the boys, who were both very happy to see me.  It was a great feeling to see a huge grin on Noah's face as I surprised him coming up the stairs, and Elliot told me he wanted to give me "the biggest hug ever."  It was a fun weekend, but I was also happy to be back with Mandy and the boys.  Mandy, as always, was a trooper - taking care of the boys by herself for four long days.

Top of Mt. Royal

Sunday morning outside our hotel

Oops.  Digging out with a snowshoe.

Heading uphill in deep snow.

Pennsylvania Mine.  This building still has an ore-crushing machine on the top floor.  It looks pretty dangerous at this point.

 

Another day at the Hill

Noah and I took advantage of the recent snow dump by hitting Suicide Hill again. Elliot was sick, so unfortunately he and Mandy didn't get to join us.  Even though temperatures had warmed, it was still cold, but Noah was really primed to enjoy it today. 

This time I told Noah he was going to have to haul his own butt up the hill rather than riding on my shoulders, or being hauled up on the sled.  It really is a big hill, especially if you make it down to the very bottom as Noah did most times.  I would walk up the hill with him to make sure he wasn't taken out by an errant sledder (which is more of a hazard than crashing), but he was making it up under his own power. 

Uncle Todd and cousin Dylan joined us after awhile, and Noah was glad to see them.  He insisted on going with, or next to Dylan on each trip.  At one point they decided to go down a steeper section, and after a few runs, Noah launched off one of the many bumps on the hillside, landing on his cheek and bloodying his mouth. He shed a few tears until I started laughing and told him his sled looked like Santa's sleigh as it flew into the air.  He finally calmed down and joined me in laughing.  True to Suicide Hill's form, we weren't the only casualty - a few feet from where he landed, it looked like someone had gutted a deer in the snow, with blood everywhere.  It didn't deter too many though.  As long as we didn't get the distances Uncle Steve got, we were ok.  

Speeding downhill

Looking back uphill

Running uphill

He was having a great time

Near miss

Starting from the very top

Lots of people, young and old, catch air on this hill

Cousin Dylan arrives

Uncle Todd gives Noah a hand

Dylan heading downhill

Uncle Todd heading down.  Watch out for the little girl!

Noah and Dylan - Noah riding shotgun

Noah and Dylan - Dylan riding shotgun.  Look at the joy on that face

Post sledding homemade hot chocolate

They didn't get enough of the snow, and went back out to play after dinner

Elliot wanted to play too, despite having a bug

Irritated that his car is stuck

I think he had been trying to eat the snow

Bye bye!

Death from above - part 2

No, it's not another bird story. It's Snowmageddon/Snowpocalypse/Snowlocaust!!!! Also known to the local forecasters as "Snowgasm" based on their delight in reporting this impending doom.  We - and judging from the satellite picture of Snowball Earth below, pretty much everyone else in the U.S - got one of those rare weather events that don't come around much any more, or at least nearly as often as we remember they did as children - a real live blizzard. 

The storm really started Monday, with a nice undercoating of freezing rain and ice to make things really dicey, and by Tuesday night the grocery stores had been raided of their supplies of milk and bread, and nearly everything in the city had been cancelled in anticipation of the next day. 

Earlier in the week there was some question about when the freezing rain was going to start, and Mandy was on her knees praying for it hold off until at least she got Noah off to school.  Fortunately Catholic schools are hard core, and don't shrivel in the face of impending doom.  I suppose having God on your side probably gives them some confidence. 

On Tuesday morning, this beast started rolling in, and dumping snow.  Pretty quickly the pace increased to about 1 inch per hour, and winds reached 40 miles per hour.  The governer declared a state of emergency, mobilized the National Guard and eventually closed I-70 for the first time in Missouri's history.  I was hearing reports of expected power outages due to the wind, so I emailed Mandy to make sure our flashlights all had batteries in them.  I don't know what good that would have done - maybe we could have sat around and watched each other freeze to death in the dark as the temperature in our old house plunged to match the brutal cold outside.   Based on our recent energy audit, at the rate our house circulates air this should take approximately 11 minutes. 

We wisely closed work early (for the first time in my memory) like everyone else.  It wasn't early enough and it took me a good five minutes to make it out of the parking lot amid the drifts that had already piled up.  There are days I really miss that crappy Jeep I had. The one thing it was top notch at was getting through snow with ease. 

I made it home without killing anybody, although I was sorely tempted to.  People, this is snow, not radioactive ash.  You have tires that will let you drive on this stuff at more than two miles an hour.  Visibility was a little limited, but the roads were actually in fairly good condition, not that it mattered to some of these nancies, creeping along a highway at 10 miles per hour while everyone else was going 40-50. 

I got home, and most of the way through the through the second day of having the kids trapped inside with her, Mandy met me at the door practically begging to go out and shovel the driveway.   She was dressed and outside before I took my coat off. 

By ten minutes later, I had figured out why she wanted to go out so badly, as Noah managed to wear through every last nerve I had in a short time.  My God, kids can sure get all button-pushy when cooped up. I wasted no time getting him dressed and he was still talking as I booted him out the door and closed it, with the words "I think Mom's around the corner somewhere.  Good luck.".  Slam.   He showed back up about 20 minutes later, covered in snow and snot, barely able to see out of the balaclava we put on his head that had now covered his eyes.  A little less steam in his engine though, and that was the important thing.

While she was out shoveling, I finished cooking the dinner Mandy made earlier. She and Noah also made a  chocolate sheet cake, because, you know, it's a storm and there's baking to be done.  I found out later it's a trait that runs in her family - every last one of them was baking bread, rolls, muffins and cakes during the storm of the decade (which is now 32 days old).  Judging from the grocery store shelves the night before, having bread available in an emergency is some sort of primal instinct. 

 I was too cold and lazy to get out and get any good pictures, but here are some of Mandy hard at work from the warmth and safety of the kitchen.  They really don't do a good job of capturing the amount of wind and blowing snow that was going on. It did a great job of removing any dead skin on one's face, and she looked like she had had a partial chemical peel when she came back inside.  With the wind, the news was reporting windchills of -25 to -35. 

"Hey, pick up the pace!"

Our hero hard at work!

That looks like it will hurt in the morning...

Yeti!

Mandy "finished" shoveling the driveway while the blizzard was still raging, and she and Noah delivered cake and food to the neighbors.  I went out later and dug out the front sidewalks.   The next couple of days were brutally cold, with lows of -8 and windchills in the quick-and-painless-death range.  This weekend, we'll teach Noah the fun of making snow caves with all the piled up snow, and probably make another visit to Suicide Hill. 

And now he has at least one snow storm where he can reminisce when he's old like me and say, "When I was a kid, we had huge storms where the snow came up to our hips."

Slip, slidin' away

Our second taste of snow arrived yesterday, a nice winter snowstorm that dropped about seven or eight inches.  My Pilates class (yes, Pilates - a story for another time) was called off, so after work I met Mandy out for dinner while the kids were with a sitter.  It was a quiet night at the nearby Mexican restaurant, given the heavily falling snow, so Mandy and I got a chance to catch up on all the things we'd been missed during our busy  week.

After dinner we drove around for a half hour or so, just enjoying the beauty of the snow coming down and trying to avoid the drivers who, apparently, were from Florida and had never driven on snow before.  It would be work in just a little while, but for now it was quiet and scenic, like driving through a snow globe that had been shaken up. 

 We got the boys put to bed at a decent hour, and while Mandy got started on making a cake for Elliot's birthday today, I spent a couple hours shoveling off the driveway and sidewalk.  I was a little surprised at how much snow had already accumulated, and how quickly my work was being covered up.  I finished late, and didn't get wound down until after 11:00.  By 4:30 AM, the snow had quit falling, and in lieu of a morning workout, I re-shoveled last night's work.  Mandy left for the YMCA at 5:30, but while they had managed to clear their parking lot, the city hadn't managed to clear the side street that led to it and she got stuck in the snow.  She managed to dig out and come home.

It looked like a good day to go sledding - the weather was in the low 20s, but clear and sunny.  Noah's been sledding once this year, but not to Suicide Hill, and not with dear old dad, so after a half day of work, I came home and we got ready to go.

Noah was a little nervous at first, and we shared the same sled on that first trip down the hill.  It was the only time we did so.  After that, he insisted on going alone, and wanted me to go down right behind him.  Somehow, he managed to make it down much faster and much farther than I ever did.  Suicide Hill is a big hill, and after the first walk back up the hill, we both felt overdressed, even in the 20-degree weather.   Noah tried to cop out and ride my sled as I pulled it back up the hill, but I made him walk.  I did carry him up on my shoulders a couple of times that day, but that is hard work. 

After a while, we broke for a snack back in the van, then resumed our fun on the hill.  Most schools were closed today, and we weren't the only ones with this idea.  The hill was crowded, but not so crowded as to be out of control as it has at times in the past.  At those times, walking back up the hill can be more dangerous than sledding down, as you dodge missiles coming at you from all different directions.

There are several sections of Suicide Hill, some more adventurous than others.  In one particular section, there is a natural bump of the ground that drops sharply before flattening out for a few feet, then dropping sharply again.  Covered in snow, it makes a deadly efficient ramp; if you hit it just right, you pick up speed from the already-steep hill, flatten out, then launch into the air.  I usually try to avoid that bump, and it's the site of many a winter train-wreck (including a few of our own).   This is easier said than done, as the slope of the hill at the particular spot where we like to start at the top tends to drain right into this section if you don't actively steer away from it.

Somehow, Noah managed to hit this ramp perfectly, four times in a row, and each time he launched farther and farther into the air.  It kind of scared me the first couple of times, but he absolutely loved it.  When I finally caught up to him down the hill, he was so excited and said "Daddy, did you see me on that big jump?!?!"   The last time, he probably flew five or six feet in the air, but landed perfectly and managed to hang on for the remaining 40 yards or so of the ride.  He didn't want to quit, but with Elliot's birthday party tonight I didn't want him to get over-tired (too late?) and I was running out of steam from all the walks back up the hill.

We went for a bite to eat, then home.  Driving back, I got a nice little compliment from otherwise quiet back seat - "Daddy, I had fun sledding with you today."

I think Noah is jealous of how that little girl next to him is getting up the hill.  This year, I made him walk back up the hill (most of the time)

 Making it those last few, steep feet

 Poor guy - it's hard to grab the sled with those mittens

 Uncle Steve, you may remember that pole just over Noah's left shoulder...

 He liked taking bites of the snow

 Having a great time

 Noah made it all the way to this picnic table, and decided it was a good place to rest