The 40 year storm

[our neighborhood]

Things went pretty nuts around here the week before Christmas. We had a series of storms that dumped more snow on us than Portland has seen in decades. And it stuck. And it stayed for 2 weeks! Church services were cancelled two weeks in a row, school was closed the whole week before Christmas break started. This place shut down.

I know you folks in Utah & Idaho are laughing, because you see this kind of snow every winter. But here, it is no laughing matter. hahaha. Ok, so I laugh too. They don't have enough plows and such to get to anything but the major freeways, and people don't own snow shovels. I always took those things for granted when I lived in UT & ID. I didn't realize how inconvenient it is when the sidewalks and driveways aren't shoveled, and the roads aren't plowed.

[a neighbor's car]

Spurred by an extreme case of Cabin Fever, I decided to walk over to my friend's house one night, in the blizzard, to watch the lovely classic "White Christmas" (ironic, no?). I got all bundled up in my boots, coat, hat, & gloves ready to roll. When I got outside I realized I had no where to walk except to trudge through the snow. The snow was up past the top of my boots. It was quite the workout. I finally got to a road that had one nice pair of truck tracks to follow. Thank you brave truck. The movie was fantastic, and worth the snowy walk.

Clark LOVED playing in the snow. I went out with him for a couple hours one day. He didn't complain once about being cold. I had to bribe him with hot chocolate (complete with marshmallows) for him to come inside with me. That day was especially fun because there was a 1/4" layer of ice from freezing rain a few inches below the last batch of powder we received. Clark could walk on top of it, then every once in a while would sink into the bottom.

Jack thought it was cool, but only for a bit. Usually until one of his gloves got stuck in the snow. Luckily he didn't have any major hive breakouts from his allergy to the cold. It seems to only show up on places that are exposed. So his cheeks get nice and blotchy, but that's about it.

The crazy part was that when we left for Reid's parents house in WA the day after Christmas, we could barely get out of our neighborhood with all the snow still on the roads. When we got back 3 days later, it was as if nothing ever happened. The roads were dry, the grass was green, it looked like a normal winter day in Portland. Weird.