Snow Snow Snow!

I love it. So beautiful. Everytime it snows I remember the words to a song that the Chanticlairs sang in our Upper St. Clair High School Choir.

"Fall fall quiet and pretty

all all over the city

cover every country lane

a month ago it might have been rain

But oh, we have beautiful snow."

New Year's Day Skiing

We decided to go skiing with all the beautiful snow that we got. It was up early after New Year's Eve celebrating. What a pretty day. The fog was weird. It formed ice in our hair. And it was soooo hard to see but we had a great time and no one got hurt! Love the beauty of winter and the quiet of snow. My favorite part is riding the chair lift and looking out at the mountains covered in white. I'm so glad Heavenly Father decided to make snow WHITE! I love the fat face picture. My goggles and scarf made me look so funny!

 

 

Winter Beauty

We have had so much sun this winter.  I am so grateful for blue sky and sunshine even with cold temperatures.  The clear skies make for some very cold days.  We tried to capture the beautiful frost on the car one morning.  Amazing short-lived beauty!

First Snow of the Year

Sue from my book group has a missionary living with them from the South Pacific.  He has never seen snow has been freezing all through the fall.  (He’s never seen dishwashers or washers and dryers or a lot of other American conveniences either…)  So every morning there is frost he asks “is this snow???”  When I woke up this am, I thought about him.  Now this is snow.  I hope we get a lot because I love it.  Last winter we got cheated – it hardly snowed at all! 

Skiing Surprise

Today we took the kids for another day of skiing. The weather was windy and cold. Thank goodness for goggles! But the last hour it cleared up and we had beautiful scenery and a lot of fun. I love hanging out with Megan and Melissa - 10 and 11. The best age! So much fun and so willing to spend time with us.

Andrew is an awesome snowboarder and I loved looking down from the lift and seeing him having a great run. Megan and Melissa are terrific skiers too. They waited for me at the end of every run - because I am cautious and therefore slow. But I did not fall...

Sadly Katie did not feel well so she stayed home. We missed her.

So the surprise came when we got home. After she took a nap, Katie got busy. She cleaned the house and made us dinner - complete with hot homemade cinnamon rolls. It was on the table when we got home. She is 14 and so capable. I was really proud of her.

Wow! Thanks so much Katie. You are a terrific daughter and a very capable cook!

Fun for Valentines!

We decided to celebrate Valentine's Day by taking the family skiing! What a fun day at Mt. Spokane. The kids have all learned to ski in school (except Melissa.) And Mike and I used to ski a lot before kids! So - we put it on our list of things to do this winter.

Andrew was our only snowboarder. He loved it. He said it was a lot like longboarding - which is on hold now because of the snow and ice on the roads...

Megan and Dad were a team - he had a great day with her. Megan was glad to have Dad as a partner because, "No offense Mom, but Dad is a lot braver than you. He's not always worried that I'll get hurt."

And Mom spent the day with Melissa teaching her how to ski and relearning herself. It has been 18 years - no lie. Mike and I went for our Honeymoon to Jackson Hole and then moved to Florida. No more skiing. So this was a lot of fun for everyone. Melissa was a pro in one hour. She gets to go again this Thursday for school and she is excited.

Katie spent the day skiing with her cousin Jayna and some friends.

I didn't get many pictures of her.

SNOW much fun!

Spokane made the national with all the snow-fall in December. Mike just said yesterday, "I'm sick of winter!" And it is only Jan 3rd! I remember taking Megan and Melissa Christmas shopping after school on December 10th and we were only wearing sweaters. I thought to myself, "Wow, it is a really mild December!" How quickly things have changed. It started to snow one week later and hasn't really stopped since.

The first storm brought the record 24 hour snow accumulation of about 23-36 inches. And each storm afterwards brought another 3-6 inches, so it was a beautiful white Christmas! I love the snow. It doesn't bother me - I am a careful driver, and if I have to stay in that's okay too because I love staying home, and I have a husband and son that shovel the driveway so I am okay with the beauty of a winter wonderland.

I much prefer the tropics, but snow is better than winter gray and rain so LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW....

We have been on national news for the amount of snow we received in December. Over 36 inches!!! It was beautiful and amazing. Toby and Tammy were lucky enough to fly in and out of Spokane for Christmas in between snow storms so we were able to enjoy the winter wonderland with them!

Dallas says - "So this is what my parents do while I'm taking a nap! I want to play too!"

Love the air Toby got!

Tammy landed on her tailbone. It hurt sooo bad!

We had SNOW much fun!