Yesterday, we went on an adventure!

First day of school?? No just a visit to Butler's Orchard - Bunnyland!!

(Notice the Bumblebee haystack in the background!! So cute!)
Lillie tried to be the train conductor, but didn't quite make it to the front. As you can see, lots of people, but it didn't feel crowded at all, since it was on a fairly big orchard. (Notice Keola on the side - yes, working on his blackberry)

Lillie and Daddy decided to try ou the Wildcat Run. Lillie was pretty excited!

On your mark! Get set...

AAHHHHH! Go!!! Despite the look on her face, she really did have fun!

Can't take a ride to the country, without seeing a few animals. First a little pet of the sheep.

Then, the softest, cutest little bunny. Can't have Easter without a bunny.

And a cute little chick.

A moon bounce never goes unnoticed by this little girl.

There were lots of wooden structures to climb and play on.

Would you expect anything less than a John Deere tractor?!?!

Little tricycles were a struggle, but fun.

Cheesy grins everywhere!

Ahoy!!

All aboard!

A few games. Here's a woofle ball throw.

A Rubber Ducky relay. This was so interesting. They had these water pumps set up with long silver trays to hold the rubber ducky. Then the kids had to pump the water into the trays to get the ducks moving. Hard, but fun.

At the entrance of the festival, there were all these bunnies lined up. All the kids, and some of the adults, thought they were chocolate bunnies. They really did look real.

Here's a small look at part of the Bunnyland Festival. So much fun and a great kickoff to the Easter weekend!!

Spring is finally making an appearance, after a LONG winter! So, of course, the first warm, dry day, Lillie and I (and our visitors) head to the park!!

Lillie loves finding unusual pinecones.

Here's Andrew checking out the park.
While there, we met up with a friend from DC.

Here's Lillie with Maya.

Lillie was so excited to be out and meeting new friends.

Visitors

A few weeks ago, we had some friends come to stay with us. "Elder" Barrett, as know him, served his mission in DC years ago. He came to visit us before, but this time, he brought his family with him.

Here is Andrew and Cole.

Lillie had a blast playing with the two boys...for 10 days!
Watch her moves!

Lillie went to her first friend birthday party since we've moved. Here she is singing Happy Birthday!

Here's the birthday boy, Dane. They know eachother from Primary.

Here's Lillie with the birthday boy, holding her "magic wand" from the birthday goodie bag. Oh, did I mention what kind of birthday party it was??

BOWLING!!! Very first time, VERY first turn. She's got pretty good form, don't you think?!??

Here's the girl half of the party. On the left is a new friend, Mckinley. And in the middle is Abby, another friend from Primary. Can you tell Lillie loves her!!

Here's the whole bowling team. Actually, the two teams since they played boys and girls in different lanes.

Here's Lillie and Mckinley...well, you'll just have to imagine the two of them jumping like professional cheerleaders performing, "Go Abby! Go Abby! Go Abby!"

The kids had so much fun. Now Lillie wants us to go bowling again and again!

Here's Lillie with her latest love...making cookies. Well, not actually MAKING cookies...

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!!!