April Snow Days

It has been quite an April for snowfall. The month has included one evening where Fiona went to bed sobbing because she was convinced spring would never come. The girls were back in school for one day after Spring Break and then had Tuesday off for a snow day. So much for "spring."

I worked from home and they did a good job of entertaining themselves - except for one little bump around lunch time. I had to take a phone call and told them I would bring them to Subway after it. They chose [poorly] to get ready and stand on the landing, where they had no other option than to get in each other's space. Finally, I asked my co-worker Stephen to hang on for a second and I said in my best Mom voice, "Ladies. I. Am. On. The. Phone." Then I went back to my phone call. Stephen said, "Whoa. That was serious mom voice. I want to shape up and apologize." Fun fact: Stephen is an Olympic shot-putter and could probably bench press me with one arm. That's how good my mom voice is!

We ended up getting about 10 inches of snow, which was the most snow we'd gotten in April in over three decades ... for a couple weeks anyway. When Mike and Declan got home, we went outside and played in the yard. The kids had a great time frolicking in the fresh powder, flying down the slide, and riding the snowmobile. Even Yogs got in on the action and had a blast running around.

Mike was thrilled because the previous base of snow had melted earlier than we expected and the snowmobile was still in the backyard. When he had asked me how we were going to get it out. I told him to stop looking at me and make some burly friends ... because I was sure not going to dead-lift the sled. The snowfall gave us just the base needed to drive it out of the backyard and on to the trailer.

We had a week of not super warm weather and then I headed to Austin for a week. I was really glad that I was taking the mid-day flight home on Friday because a major snowstorm was in the forecast for the weekend. No one really thought it would be as bad as they were saying ... it was mid-April after all. And then it snowed for two straight days and we got somewhere between 16 and 18 inches of snow ... and a new April snowfall record.

We had a great time running errands on Saturday and even stopped at Dairy Queen for a blizzard in the blizzard. Because winter humor works for us. By 4:00 when we were driving home, the roads were awful and the visibility was poor and Mike said we were done traveling for the day. We bunkered down for movie night - only interrupted by a call that church was cancelled the next day because of the weather.

Sunday morning, it was still snowing - but lighter. Which meant it was time for everyone to venture outside to dig out. Winter storms are one of my favorite things because they really bring out the best in people. A few neighbor kids were over playing in our yard, Mike was cleaning up the driveway after another neighbor had plowed us out, and I headed across the street with my shovel to help some other neighbors dig out. As the three of us stared at the giant, heavy, ice-packed plow pile at the base of their driveway, yet another neighbor showed up with his snowblower to take care of it. We were all laughing about the storm and enjoying the clear, crisp air.

Later that afternoon, we took the kids and their best buddies down to the sledding hill. We packed two tracks - a jump track and a speed track. It was the perfect way to spend the last day of winter. Mike even got Ev and Jonah on the snowmobile, thanks to Fiona's hard selling skills. While a blizzard on April 15 is not a normal thing, Mike and I hope the kids will remember it as fondly as we remember the Halloween blizzard of our childhood.