Ok, so we knew the east coast had unpredictable winter weather. Of the 12 years we've lived here, we've had snow, ice storms, and sunny winters. Nothing like not knowing WHAT to expect. December gave us a little taste of the typical snow here and there with measurable accumulation. Then we here forecasts of "paralyzing" snows in February. As you read in the last post, that was pretty bad. That was on a Saturday. The next Wednesday we got hammered by another huge storm that produced blizzard conditions. It was pretty brutal. With the wind gusts, we had 5-6 foot drifts! We seriously didn't think we were getting out of our house for a LONG time. We had stake conference scheduled for the upcoming weekend with a broadcast from Salt Lake, and THAT was even cancelled from the church office.

Check out these snow drifts on our deck!

I couldn't get a good picture of the blizzard, but trust me, the winds were whipping snow all over the place.

Look! It's our own topographical map!

Our windows were not let off easy with this storm.

If you look closely at the bottom of the window, you'll see the wind blew so hard that it blew snow INSIDE...between the window and the screen.

I'm so lucky to have a husband who is not only willing, but brave enough to tackle the driveway...AGAIN! Of course, his trusty sidekick is not too far behind. If Keola didn't shovel a walking path for us, there would be NO way we could get out.

The snow was so high, it took Keola 3 or 4 shovels in the same spot to clear a way to the pavement!! Luckily he's smart enough to also take breaks in between shovels.

Overall, Keola was home for almost a week, Lillie loved the days home with Daddy, as well as shoveling and writing in the snow, we got to know our neighbors a bit more as they all helped to clear the street, and it's March 10 and we are FINALLY rid of MOST of the white stuff!!

Can Anyone Say SNOW!!!!

Last week some time, we had quite a snow fall. After some trauma from the last snow fall, Lillie has grown quite a liking for the snow. We bundled her up and decided to start shoveling our MASSIVE driveway.

What can I say, Lillie has REALLY grown a liking for all things white, fluffy, cold...and tasty?!??!

After a small tasting, Lillie got down to work. And yes, Lillie is wearing a dress (with pants underneath). After Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, and Snow White, Lillie wishes she could wear a dress EVERY day!

After the snowfall, after the shoveling, after dusting off, I have to admit, the scenery from the WARMTH of our family room is quite beautiful!
It may be beautiful, but it's a beast to drive thru. So much so, that two hours of church was cancelled, with only sacrament meeting held for those who could get out.

Ok, so last week was THAT snowstorm. By Monday we were hearing signs of another BIGGER snowstorm ready to hit the DC area by the weekend. Tuesday came and meteorologists were not making any definite predictions except that we should be prepared for a heavy snowfall. Finally Wednesday came and words like "crippling" and "paralyzing" were being used to describe this monstrous storm ready to hit our area. Grocery stores started to get crowded, snow shovels were being sold left and right. By Thursday, forecasts were certain that an "ENORMOUS, HISTORICAL" snowstorm was coming and everyone should be prepared. Well, we joined the loads of people at the grocery store to stock up our pantry, freezer, and fridge. We already had bags of salt for our driveway from the last snowfall. Now, we just had to wait.

Friday came, Keola set off to work and Lillie and I took, what I knew would be our last drive outside - at least for a while. By noon, the first snowflakes started falling at our house. I e-mailed Keola and nothing was happening in DC so he stayed at the office. By 2pm. he decided to start the trek home. Although the snow had been falling for 2 hours, luckily none of it was sticking to the ground. Once Keola came home, we hunkered down for what would be a snow-filled, news watching evening.

In the middle of the night, it was deemed blizzard weather as the winds kicked up and the howling outside began. By mid-morning, this is what we got...

16 1/2" of snow, didn't seem TOO bad since we had experienced the same in December, but we knew it wasn't over. The weather predicted another 6-10" by the evening. By afternoon, these are the pictures we took.

We opened the garage door, since that is usually a good indicator of exactly how deep things are. And this is what we saw.

So around noonish, our deck read 17", and by 4pm...

24 INCHES!!!! Yikes!

The snow had tapered down and was nearly done, so Keola thought, if we had ANY chance of getting out anytime soon, he would need to shovel a path up our STEEP driveway to the cars parked up top.

A few things to notice: 1) The WALL of snow surrounding Keola as he shovels!

2) The little dip of snow closest to the bottom of the picture, is the accumulation within 3 hours or so when I actually shoveled about a foot out so the garage door could close properly - compare to the third picture before this one.

Here's a picture of our deck, or at least part of the rail that is peeking out over the moutain of snow.

Again, the trees are actually quite pretty to me - snow covered and a little droopy.

We already got word that church is cancelled again tomorrow. So it looks like we will enjoy another day together as a family keeping warm and enjoying the snow covered surroundings.

By the way, forecasters are telling us to brace ourselves because, yes, another snowstorm is ready to touch down on Tuesday and/or Wednesday next week!!! AAAAAAH!! Think Spring, think spring, think spring!!!

Day 5

Goodbye Cousins!!

Lillie spent the last five days playing, running, laughing, posing, jumping, giggling, and just plain being silly with her cousins. There were many, MANY games of Trouble, hide-n-seek, "This is a...what?", and hot potato. There were fun slumber parties at night. Great picture taking during the day. Some yummy food was eaten. There were funny little sayings, noises, and dance moves. So much fun!!

We sent off Lillie's 2 girl cousins today. We were SO very happy they came. We had a great time! We hope they come to visit again!

Day 4

After church we headed to the Washington D.C. temple. It was raining, so we didn't get a lot of pictures. But we did get some beautiful shots.

The nativity scene was left from Christmas, so of course the girls wanted to take a silly picture.

Day 3

We didn't quite get enough of the museums, so we headed back to the Natural History Museum. First exhibit - Butterflies!

A little freaked out, but Lillie loved looking for the butterflies. Can you find the butterfly?

We moved on to the gems. Here is the famous Hope Diamond. It was originally 112 carats. After passing hands and being recut, it now shines at 45.5 carats. It's pretty stunning.

We walked through a photography exhibit and Haliaka and Kamakea took some funny pictures.

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs.

After the museum, we took a drive to the monuments and memorials

Here's Haliaka "pricking" her finger on the Washington Monument.

After driving around D.C. we headed to National Harbor for some dinner. We found Grace's Mandarin, which we heard a lot about, but were a little leery.
Dinner was actually FABULOUS. We had crispy beef, chicken lettuce wraps, kung pao chicken, and lo mein. Lillie had a feast of chicken dumplings, lo mein, berries, and cookies.

Here's the 2 story buddha that took it's place in the stairwell.

Day 2

We did the tourist thing and headed to Washington D.C. to visit the museums. Don't you just love Lillie's get up for the day!??!

We hit the American History museum first. We were so caught up with the fun things inside. Here's Kamakea and Lillie trying to navigate the windsurfing apparatus.

After the American History Museum, we headed to the Natural History Museum. We noticed an IMAX movie about the ocean had just started, so we just made it inside the theater. It was a

3-D movie, so you know what that means.

After some musuem visiting, we had a friend arrange a tour of the Capitol building.

Here's the inside of the rotunda.

Every state has two statues that they choose to place in the Capitol building. Here is one of Utah's statues, Brigham Young.

After the tour, we visited with our friend who arranged the tour. While we were visiting with her, the girls decided to take a few pictures on the couch.

Happy Faces
Surprised Faces

Crazy Faces

"I Love My Cousin!"

The U.S. Capitol and the Girls

So much FUN!!