Snowpocalypse 2011

After Nola’s birthday party on the 29th, Caleb went home to Hot Springs with LaLa and Pops.  We’d had it planned for a while because Rudy had a very busy week ahead with 3 concerts and a night of class.  He was going to be gone Monday-Thursday, so we asked my parents if Caleb could stay with them so that I didn’t have to pretend to be a single mom for a whole week.  All went as planned until…

We went to work on Monday and kept hearing forecasts of snow.  Actually, the local news forecast showed a 110% chance of snow with a high temperature of 13 degrees.   As a preventative measure, I drove out to get Rudy’s grandmother to stay with us.  The last time we had a major snowstorm, her power went out for a while.  We didn’t want to take the chance of her being stranded in her house without power, so we had her stay at our house.  We wondered how much we would have, but you just never know if we’ll actually get what’s forecasted, so we didn’t worry too much.  We woke up Tuesday morning (Feb 1) to a blanket of snow.  It was the biggest, most beautiful snowfall I’ve ever seen.  I watched out the window as those giant flakes fluttered to the ground all day.  Caleb had left a junior-sized soccer ball in the backyard and I watched it gradually disappear under the blanket of white.  We ended up with about 7 inches of snow on top of a layer of ice.  Rudy was able to get his grandmother home on Wednesday, but it was slow-going.  We were out of school for the rest of the week.  The roads were slick and no matter how hard we tried, Rudy couldn’t safely get out of Northwest Arkansas to get Caleb until Saturday.  We were so sad that our little man couldn’t be here to enjoy sledding and playing in the snow like he loves to do.  When they got home, they couldn’t wait to get out on the snow.  Here are some pictures of their adventure (scroll over for description):

By the weekend, things were pretty clear.  We were able to get out and about, but still had to watch for slick spots on the roads.  We went to church on Sunday and then out to lunch with some friends.  We watched the Super Bowl on Sunday night while getting ready to go back to school on Monday.  (I was in the minority of viewers, because I loved the Black Eyed Peas’ halftime show.)  We went to school on Monday and Tuesday, hearing forecasts of another possible 2-5 inches of snow on Wednesday.  Everyone was expecting to go to school, because there was no ice forecasted.  I woke up at my usual time, checked Twitter, saw that school was closed and went back to sleep.  Rudy let me sleep in and when I woke up at 9:00, I was dumbstruck.  By that time, there was already a massive amount on top of the snow that was still on the grass from the previous snowfall.  The forecasters were WRONG.   We did not end up getting 2-5 inches.  We got 18-20 inches of new snow.  It snowed all day like crazy.  Rudy couldn’t stand it and decided to go out and shovel the driveway.  While he was out there, he took some pictures.  Here’s what it looked like at our house on February 9th:

Caleb REALLY wanted to help his daddy shovel the driveway.  We almost lost him out there in the deep, deep snow!

We decided to take advantage of all of that fluffy white stuff and make some snow ice cream.  Caleb thought that was the coolest thing ever (pardon the pun)…

The good thing about this snowstorm was that it was followed by some really warm days, so it didn’t stick around for long.  The boys got to do a little more sledding, but the roads were clear within a couple of days.  I even managed to get a day of scrapbooking in on Saturday with Stacy before going on a pre-Valentine’s date on Saturday night with Rudy.  By the time we went back to school on the following Monday, we were sick of snow.  We ended up missing 10 days of school (so far) this year for snow.  That means that we’re getting out in June instead of May.  That’s a disappointment, but I loved those snow days.  We all hung out together and made some memories that will last forever.  But – really – we’re okay with no more snow this year.