First Snowfall of 2010

Snowing at 8:00 a.m. while the kids get off to school. Yay! Snow!!

3:00 p.m. about 6 inches of snow. Yay...snow.

5:00 p.m. 8 inches of snow. Whoopee. Stuck in snow.

Katie in her new Columbia jacket she just got today and ready to enjoy the snow.

Buck the Dog loving the white stuff while chasing the kids around the yard. Puppy Heaven.

Derek and Alexis enjoying a snowball fight. Buck is right on their heels of fun.

Derek balling up another snow bomb...

HEY! That's coming straight at the unsuspecting camerawoman! Not nice!!

Alexis enjoying her snowball war.

Not backing down from an older brother.

Katie is heading for the hills! (though she maintains she was only getting quickly to her secret snowball stash on the island of the front yard)

Derek slathered a paper towel with petroleum jelly and alcohol and then set Alexis' snowman on fire. It actually burned for sometime. Interesting little experiment.

(clockwise) Evan's friend Grant, other friend Max, Evan, Alexis, Katie and Pyromaniac Derek all warming up to the makeshift snowman fire.

We woke up on Monday to the beginnings of a little bit of snow. It was exciting, but no one thought it would stick so I sent the kids to school and went to Portland with my friend who had a guest pass to the Columbia Sportwear Outlet (OH MY! THAT'S a fun place and it has LOTS of our money...I digress). By the end of the day, my friend and I were getting calls from our husbands in Longview that it was getting bad and we should hurry home. Portland was barely raining, so we thought they were exaggerating. By the time we got back home, we were snowed in at our houses. We had about eight inches dumped on us in that first day. The girls had early release that day at 12:00 p.m. for student/parent conferences, so they were going home early anyway, but their bus home turned sideways coming up our hill and their release was delayed over an hour. All us parents were on pins and needles wondering if our kids were actually ON the stranded bus. They weren't, thank goodness! The boys' after school activities were canceled (except Derek had football practice since they are playing in the semi finals this weekend) and that began our four day snow-in that finally ended on Thursday--Thanksgiving day. The days following the snow were very cold and when it dipped below freezing, we had very thick icy snow. Tough to drive on our hills with that. I shouldn't say we were completed snowed-in because JD did get down to work each day (though his schedule was spotty since people couldn't get into town) and I managed to get to the store to get my Thanksgiving menu items. No school for the kids though. I rather like having them home and who doesn't need a few days to sleep in on a snowy morning? Thanksgiving brought rain, and we now have no more snow.