January Snow

On January 12 Scott and I headed to Phoenix for our annual getaway. It was a nice weekend being with Carl and Michelle and enjoying the sun and warmth. We slept in, read books, shopped, watched football, and I ran the Rock n Roll marathon for the third time. The kids were happy in WA with Grandma and Grandpa Chasse where there were starting to be some rumblings about snow.

Scott and I arrived home around noon on Jan. 16. There was some snow on the ground- enough to make some snow balls and the main roads were pretty clear. Mom and Dad decided to head back over to Kennewick while the weather was decent so they left about an hour after we got home. Good thing they did!

Tuesday morning my school district was closed due to snow, Isaac's ran 2 hours late. That would be the last day Isaac would have school - just about all schools in the Puget Sound were cancelled for the rest of the week.

We had a great time on Wed- played outside with neighbors, went sledding at the school and just enjoyed the snow.

Saraya and Brandon.
We made a snow fort in the front yard.
Wednesday night we lost power, but luckily had just made dinner so it worked out okay. Since Isaac and I already knew we didn't have school the next day, the kids and I decided to sleep by the fireplace. Just as we were heading to bed, the power came on. Oh well - still decided to camp out.

Thursday morning at 7am, the power went out again. Right as the Today Show was starting - my favorite thing about being at home - getting to watch Matt, Ann, and Al. Little did I know the power would not return until Friday evening.

The kids and I spent Thursay in front of the fire, outside it was a wet, icy snow that was falling, not something you really wanted to play in. We started to notice branches of trees starting to bend over. Luckily I moved the car out of the driveway right before this tree fell over!
The cement you can see at the bottom of the picture is where the car was parked. Close call!!

These were the birch trees in our front yard.
The kids and I took a walk around the neighborhood in the early afternoon to survey the damage - lots of trees had fell over completely and many had lost branches. It was a really eerie sight.
Daisy kept warm by the fire.
Scott had to work every day of the storm - snow time makes Progressive a busy place! They also lost power at his work on Thursday, though, so he came home a little early. Our friends Zach and Suzanne were nice enough to have us come over to their house that night for dinner, hot showers, and electricity. It was a nice way to spend the evening until we came back for night #2 in front of the fire.

We woke up again to no power on Friday. At this point I needed some heat and coffee, and to get out of the house. Scott reported that the main roads were good, so the kids and I headed for Starbucks and then onto the mall where we hung out for a few hours with many other powerless people. That afternoon we drove by our vacant rental where we discovered power! We ran home, packed up a few things and headed back. The kids watched a DVD, I read a book, we enjoyed warmth and light. We had all of our sleeping bags and were prepared to camp out there until I got the call from a neighbor around 4:30 that our power at home was on! As I started packing up, the kids were crying about how they wanted to sleep at the rental. Ugh. No - I wanted my bed!

That night we invited two families over to our house where we had heat, hot showers, food, and games. It was a fun night and we were happy to return the favor of providing a warm place to stay. Later we learned that we were the lucky ones, some people still did not have power going into the next week.

Some interesting observations I made during the storm:

*Having no power allowed me to slow down and not feel like I had to be "doing" something. We played lost of games and did lots of puzzles. It was a nice time with the kids. Having no TV or computer was painful, but good.

*The neighborhood Starbucks really did seem like a gathering place - people were friendly - sharing tables and talking to each other.

*The mall was also a gathering place. Every store we went in, the question was "Do you have power?" and the conversation would begin. The Food Court was full of families playing card games and eating warm food. The movie theater was packed. It was actually a fun time.

*Being in a situation like this brings neighbors together. People were more friendly as they worked together to remove branches, talk to each other about the storm, and just compare stories. Our neighbor that ignores us actually had a great conversation with Scott has they were both outside cleaning up damage.

It was an adventure we will remember for a long time!