warming house

Drew landed the perfect work gig for him this winter. He was a rink attendant at one our outside hockey rinks warming house. This was a perfect fit during his own busy hockey season as he was able to do homework, hang out with friends and do some skating… all while making a bit of money.

Can't beat that!

snow day #6

This winter has been crazy with all of the extreme cold temperatures and the abundance of snow. So much so that today we had another 'snow day' (no school). This is the 6th 'snow day' of the winter, which is absolutely crazy!

Yesterday afternoon the rain turned over to snow and then the blizzard winds picked up. This morning we woke to a day off of school for Drew and over 9 inches of fresh blowing snow. This is the view out our front window.

And out the front door there was a 3 foot snow drift.

I received a text from Jake.... who did not have a snow day at his college. :)

And also a text from Tyler at his college. :)

At least all of this snow makes for a beautiful scenic day!

On top of not having school today, Drew was very happy to be able to watch the USA vs Canada Hockey Olympic game. This tweet from the MN Wild made me smile.

Which is exactly what Drew did this morning. :)

And now I think I am ready for Spring!!

before the next storm

Drew shoveled off the deck before the next big storm is scheduled to hit tomorrow. 

A true Minnesota boy- warm in 40 degree weather.

'snow' days

Today was our 5th snow 'polar vortex no school day'... in just 3 weeks!! This weather has been crazy, even for Minnesota and we very rarely get days off from school for snow let alone cold weather.

These are a few screenshots I took of some of the temps the past few weeks. So, yes with -23 temp and -49 windchill it has been pretty cold around here!

it's snowing!

So pretty!

snow day

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland of 8+ inches of snow...and a snow day for the boys! It is the first time in years that our school district has had a snow day, so needless to say the boys were extremely surprised and very happy when I told them they could turn their alarms off and go back to sleep.

snapshots of our snow day:

snow blowing

shoveling (with doggie supervision watching from inside)

perfect snowy morning with a cup of coffee and time for my bible study

Later in the day the roads were clear and we were able to take Bella to her grooming appointment. She came home all clean and with a nice new haircut topped off with bows and a bandana. :)

We all enjoyed our bonus day off, and Jake summed it up perfectly when he said; 

"I didn't know how much I needed a day off!"

snow

Today we woke to an icy, snowy, slushy mess. The boys enjoyed a two hour late start due to the weather and Tyler had a 'snow day' with no classes at his college. I received a text from him at 7am:

The rest of the day was a whirlwind with visiting my Dad at the hospital, haircut for Drew, a nail appointment for me, drinks and appetizer at Lucky's, moving furniture at my parents house... It was a little bit of everything kind of day. :)

wordless Wednesday

As I look out my window I see winter shadows.

These cold and snowy winter days

have me looking ahead

with much anticipation and excitement for....

warmth and sunshine!

Snowy Weekend

All of last week the weather people were predicting snow for Saturday.
All of last week the inches predicted kept increasing, starting with 3 inches, then up to 6 to 9 inches, a foot, and then late Friday they said that it could be as much of 2 feet of snow in some places.

And just like that we were under a ‘winter storm warning’ and then a ‘blizzard warning’.

And silly me was not believing that we would get that much snow thinking for sure these weather people were overestimating the snowfall amounts. Ha! Let’s just say I was wrong!

The snow started flying late Friday evening, and the winds picked up with more snow all day Saturday. Everything was canceled or closing: no high school hockey game for Jake, no hockey tournament game for Drew, the Mall of America closed early, my gym closed, the busses stopped running, the airport closed, and basically the entire storm area came to a standstill.

So instead of the busy day that we thought we were going to have, we ended up literarily snowed in. We used this unexpected free time to do a little more Christmas decorating, did some cleaning, and watched a Christmas movie with the fireplace going! I love ‘snow days’!

(The snow drift was up to my kitchen window!)

Pete went out 3 or 4 times to snow blow and shovel snow off the deck. All said and done, we have close to 2o new inches of snow!!

The first plow didn’t even come down our street until last evening. Such a welcome sight!!

And with all the snow yesterday, today’s Viking football game was rescheduled for tomorrow so they could get the snow off of the dome. But they weren’t able to get this done in time. This morning the weight of all of the snow ended up collapsing the dome. Unbelievable!!

(Photo from Michelle G. )

 And in other non-snow related new; Drew received "player of the game" at this mornings tournament game! He had 2 goals and 3 assists!! I am so poud of my boy!

It was a nice weekend, snowy and all!

let it snow

Yesterday morning we woke up to a glorious sight.

Snow.

Our first snowfall of the winter season.

Simply beautiful and breathtaking.

There is something so magical about waking up to all that fresh snow that has fallen over night while the world is sleeping.

When the snow finally stopped falling last evening, we had a good 8 to 9 inches of powder fluff.

Drew went out with his dog to play in the snow for a bit.

These pictures have me chuckling, because I think that only in Minnesota would you find kids in shorts, a hoodie and boots…playing in the snow.

And today, with a bit warmer temps, the snow is slowly melting. Which is ok, because soon enough we will have another magical, winter morning.

snowmobiling

Last Saturday, after spending the night with ghosts, :) we did some snowmobiling at the North Shore.

Let me start by saying that neither my husband nor me have really ever done much snowmobiling before.

My one and only snowmobiling experience happened when I was about 5 years old. I remember wearing my favorite purple snowsuit (because doesn’t a girl always remember what she was wearing:) and riding on the back of a snowmobile while my aunt drove us out to a field. And then we broke down. I can’t really remember how we got back and this was the day before cell phones, so maybe we just walked back. But I do remember having a lot of fun!

My husband only has been on a snowmobile once before as well, so needless to say we were both novices when it comes to this sport. But the place we rented the snowmobile from was absolutely wonderful and explained in detail everything we needed to know.

We hopped on the groomed trails and spent hours just tooling around and enjoying the beautiful winter day.

(adorable helmets :)

 

It was so picturesque out on the trails; the trees had heavy snow on them and these pictures can not even begin to capture the beauty.

(a shelter)

(me driving)

We had such a great day and immediately upon finishing; started talking about when we could go again!