Powerless Weekend

As everyone has probably already heard, the DC area was hit by a major snowstorm this weekend. Call it what you will: snowmegeddon, snowpocalypse, or snowzillia. It was a lot of snow. I woke up around 4 AM to find that the power was out - we aren't sure when it went out, but sometime after 10.

This was the view from our back deck when we woke up. Snow still falling:

The house was 61 degrees in the morning, and with no heat, we knew it was just going to get colder from there. Thankfully we only lost a degree every few hours. The boys didn't seem to notice the lack of power - they just played with their legos all day. Harrison actually commented at the end of the day: "You keep calling today and emergency day, but it just feels like any other day."

The boys were disappointed to not go outside and play in the snow. But with no way to warm them up, or dry their clothes, we decided that playing in the snow wouldn't be the best idea. We were also trying to limit the number of times we opened the front door, to try and keep as much heat in the house as we could.

Sam did shovel a pathway to the car so he could listen to the radio and get updates on the storm and the power outage (we had some crank radios in our emergency kit, but they didn't pick up any useful stations. We'll be investing in some better ones for sure.):

There was definitely more snow than our storm in December. And we were very excited to see this site:

A snow plow. Thankfully our HOA seems to be really good about clearing all the streets.

Olivia preferred to hang out in a coat. And I don't blame her. It was cold.

And the snow kept falling:

When Sam measured it in our yard he got a measurement of 26 inches. The official measurement was 30.
We packed up our freezer stuff in plastic bins and stuck them in the snow. Then we loaded baking dishes with snow and put those in the fridge. At least the food didn't have to spoil with the power out.

Once the sun set, we were able to make use of our emergency kits. We had matches, candles and flashlights and batteries. We ate dinner by candlelight, and cooked by candlelight. Thankfully we have a gas range, so we were able to make soup, quesadillas and hot cocoa.

We felt very fortunate that we had both charged our cell phones, and the laptop had been charged. Our home phone forwards to our cell phone, so we didn't miss any calls, and we were able to keep our families up to date on our situation. They also tried to find information for us, but it seemed that the only information available was that a lot of people were without power, and it could be a while before we got it back.

Once dinner was over and Olivia was all bundled (tights, 3 pairs of PJ's and a furry lined jacket, with an extra pair of socks):

and in bed, we let the boys watch a movie:

that photo was taken with a flash. This is what it really looked like:

Sam taped up the doors with towels, hoping to keep the house as warm as possible. It was 57 by bed time, and we knew it would be dropping quite a bit during the night. The outside temp was suppose to fall to 12 degrees.
And then we bundled up the boys. They seemed kind of excited to wear hats and gloves to bed.

And everyone slept just fine. Each boy had several blankets, and Sam and I stayed warm with our new down comforter. We did get the power back right after putting the kids to bed, but it only stayed on for about 20 seconds. Just long enough to get our hopes up. But come morning their was still no power, and now the house was at 46 degrees, and dropping. BURRRRRRR. We ate breakfast (hot cocoa, oatmeal and eggs) and decided it would be best to go somewhere in the car. The car had heat, and we figured we could go somewhere with heat. So I threw a bunch of stuff in the car, while Sam dug it out and warmed it up. Olivia at this point was done with being cold. The boys on the other hand were back at the Lego table, and questioning why we were leaving. We finally got everyone in the car with extra clothes, blankets and food, and chargers for our phones and computers, and headed over to Sam's office.

Thankfully the roads were passable. But there was a lot of snow out there. The trees were all bent over with the weight of it all:

And their were huge snow banks at intersections:

We got caught up on email, tried to get any information we could and charged all our electronic devices. The kids loved wondering around, and snacking as we did.

Then we had to figure out our next plans. There was someone at Sam's office that lives across the street who offered to have us come over. But letting us know they have a small apartment with a loud dog. Regent, our sister-in-law, has family in VA, and they very kindly offered to pick us up and let us stay there until we had power. But we figured finding somewhere closer and more kid friendly would be a good idea. So we called our friends the Fredins. They were so kind to let us come over, warm up, and play. They fed us yummy lunch and dinner, and provided great company. They have 3 boys about the same age as our kids. The boys were able to go out in the snow, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. At dinner time we sent Sam back to our place to check if the power was back on. Thankfully it was. We are back home now, and enjoying another snowed-in day, this time with power. Sam has no work, the boys have no school (today or tomorrow) but I can do things like catch up the blog. And prepare for our next storm, headed this way tomorrow. The most recent prediction I heard was 12 inches. I thought I moved to DC, not Chicago. What is up with this weather?

Snow Day!

On Friday night, on the way to a school function, Harrison and I overheard the weather report for the next day - 2 to 4 inches of snow! Harrison exclaimed, "Yay! No school!" I said, "You're right. It's Saturday tomorrow, there will be no school. And maybe no Christmas party at church either..." He explained to me that it was a win win situation. If it snowed we could play outside in the snow all day, and if it didn't, we had a party to go to. Well, it ended up being win-win-win because it did snow all day, and we still had a party to go to! We also decorated the much anticipated gingerbread house - we didn't do it on Thanksgiving this year, but the boys both remembered it being a new tradition, and I finally got around to making the parts, and building the house just in time for a fun snowy Saturday. Harrison and Noah had a great time in the snow, and Olivia and I joined them for a few minutes. Sam braved a much longer time outside, building a big snow fort with the two boys. It snowed all day long, and I think we had about 3 inches of accumulation. Here's some of the pictures/video I took while I was outside.



And here's a picture of the fort they built - I didn't get any action shots - it was cold out there, and I'm still a bit of a wimpy Californian when it comes to snow. But Sam got a shot of their hard work.

Gingerbread House

Last night we finally got around to doing a gingerbread house. I had been telling the boys that we would do one for a while now, but on Monday I was at Trader Joe's and picked up a cute kit. I just didn't realize I had to make my own icing, so we had to wait until Tuesday night to put it together.
The kit came with a cute little set of characters - I think they are suppose to be Hansel, Grettle and the evil witch, but they were cute nonetheless. I controlled the icing, but the boys determined where each blob should go, and placed all the candy pieces.
Harrison seemed most proud of his pretzel fence in the front. We managed to get through it with only taking a few tastes of the icing, but the boys wanted to stare at it forever - they both ran out to get one last good look before bed time, and it was the first thing they asked to see in the morning.

Puddle Jumping

Today San Diego had a much needed rainfall. I believe it's what they call a "winter storm" 'round these parts. But to me, it was just a good rainy day. Since we don't get rain very often, it's quite a novelty. After we walked Harrison across the yard to go to preschool, I let Noah play in the rain. I bought a rain coat this summer off a clearance rack, and I guess this was my way of justifying my purchase. But Noah loved it. He ran from puddle to puddle jumping, kicking and laughing. At times there was a pretty good down-pour - reminiscent of the flash floods we used to get back in Virginia. This is about as close to playing in the snow as we get here in La Jolla, so when we came in, we warmed up with some hot chocolate.