Lest anyone think I have my act together because I am regularly posting updates on here, let me assure you I don't. Judson's behavior this week has nearly made me crazy, and despite what I'm about to tell you about all of my household accomplishments during the snowstorm, my house is currently an out-of-control, overwhelming mess.
Anyway, my mom had planned to come down last Thursday to pick up Judson and Cooper for the night. I had my two-week postpartum appointment with my midwife and a number of errands I wanted to run with fewer kids. I had NO idea it was supposed to snow. I don't check the weather. It's either depressing this time of year or not accurate, so I don't usually bother to look.
My mom called Thursday morning and said it was supposed to snow eight inches or something crazy like that. She was willing to come get the kids, as long as we were okay with them potentially being in Vancouver awhile. We were. :) Still, I assumed if the snow really did stick, we'd have them back by Saturday. Wrong.
It snowed for two days straight. I never measured how much snow we ended up with, but it was somewhere around a foot. Crazy for the Willamette Valley!
I'm not going to lie. I was pretty happy to not have to deal with bundling little ones to play in the snow and then having a bunch of wet clothes everywhere. Snuggling a sweet, sleepy baby while watching the snow fall was MUCH better. I also got lots done, except for my errands, of course. Nate and I spent the (quiet) weekend sorting, organizing, and purging. We really got a ton done...and again, still had lots of quality time with the babe. It was wonderful, except for the fact that Judson's cold got much worse and he and my mom were up until 4 am one morning. I felt terrible about that, but my mom was glad she was the one he kept up and not me.
We did venture out Saturday night, as I'd been stuck at home for days. The Xterra does great in the snow, especially with studded tires, so we were safe (and Nate is very careful). Salem was pretty much shut down, but we did find an open Mexican restaurant.
We didn't get our kids back until MONDAY afternoon. We probably could've gotten them Sunday, but they were doing great by then and there was no reason to risk it. When I met them in Woodburn on Monday, Judson was playing in every little patch of snow we walked past. The poor kid basically missed out on all the snow play because he felt so lousy. :( He and Cooper napped when we got home, because they were SO tired. I woke him up when Nate got home so they could have a little time in the snow. Good thing, because it poured that night and the snow was mostly gone by Tuesday morning.
|
Porter's first snow :) |
|
The surprised look |
|
Notice the corner of our retaining wall to the left of that little tree... |
|
Nate spent a long time shoveling snow so we could get to the Xterra without getting soaked |
|
Our fire pit was completely covered |
|
The stairs... |
|
Making a snow castle in the fading light |
|
Our snowman, which we decorated with a snowman accessory kit we got from Grandma Becky. So fun! |
|
Cooper insists on wearing her jammies for her naps (no clue how that got started), and then she rarely gets dressed once she wakes up. |