Digging out

Thank you all for your good wishes and thoughts! We are so thankful to have a warm house and plenty of food and diapers and all the other necessities. Other than the inconvenience of having our vacation delayed, we're fine and we're safe, which is the most important thing.

When I woke up this morning I could hear that the howling wind had finally quit, so I though perhaps a miracle had occurred and the storm was over--no such luck! It was still snowing hard, although yesterday's winds had calmed down so the snow came down vertically, not horizontally! It finally quit snowing about an hour ago (2 pm MST) and I can see that the clouds have really lifted. There are even clear skies showing around the edges of the horizon. The weather guys are predicting that the clouds will break tonight but unfortunately that means it will get really cold and all that snow that's on the roads will turn to ice. We are going to try hard to get an early start in the morning so we'll have to see how that goes.

This morning while it was still snowing we put Maren down for a nap and went out to tackle the snowdrifts. All the other neighbors were out at the same time so it was kind of fun! The neighborhood kids are just about delirious with excitement--school's out, Christmas is only 4 days away and there's 3 feet of snow on the ground--could it get any better than this? There are enormous snowdrifts all over that are just perfect for being made into snow caves and sledding hills and the like. I think maybe we'll get bundled up and take Maren out to play for a while.

I've posted some photos that I've taken around the house today to give you all an idea of what kind of snow we're dealing with. Yes, this is Colorado and we're supposed to be used to dealing with snow, but storms like this are definitely the exception and not the rule! Three feet of snow and sustained 30 mph winds will bring any city down, I don't care how used to snow you are! The top photo is the view of up my front walk this morning, and the next photo is the same snowdrift from the inside looking out. The drift at the front door was almost as tall as me! I stuck my yardstick in so you could see how tall it is.

The next photo makes me laugh! It's what the driveway looked like when we opened the garage door this morning. The flat area is the part that was blown up against the door. You can kind of see my yardstick poking out of the middle of the drift. That's how much snow we had to shovel off the driveway today! Quin did most of it; I did the front door and part of the driveway. And last is a closeup of the yardstick so you can see exactly how much snow there was. I guess it was closer to 2 1/2 feet than 3, but it really depends on where you were because of the drifts. I still don't know how much snow we truly got because I can't find a place that wasn't affected by the wind to be a true representation. All I know is that there is A LOT.

Anyway, I'm off to fold the last of the laundry and drag my suitcase up from the basement so I can start packing. Maybe I'll take Maren out for a spin on her sled first. :)