Snowpacolypse 2011

We had the best idea.  Let's just take a day off in the middle of the week and go skiing together.  We'll send the kids to daycare, and get someone lined up to pick them up until dinner time. Ray even found a great deal on lift tickets: $17 for BOTH of us. Fantastic. 

But in the news... alas. Snow. Lots and lots of snow.  Blowing, drifting. Snowmaggedon.  The Great Blizzard of 2011.  Ray and I aren't too worried, initially... It's Michigan. It snows here. Forecast north isn't as bad as locally... if we can get out, it'll probably be GREAT skiing.

Daycare tells me if the YMCA closes, they will close too.  It occurs to me if daycare closes, and the school system closes, then my sister will have a snow day and could take the kids anyway, right?  We'll wait and see.

By bedtime, the storm has started. Ray does a first pass, snowblowing the driveway.  By morning, we wake and look outside.  Yeah.  So instead of having a nice date day... I spend the next two hours calling my staff, closing the office, changing the outgoing voicemail message, and calling as many patients as I can to cancel.  Guess I'm not going to take this as a PTO day after all!

Ray gets started on the driveway.

So the news is comparing it to The Great Blizzard of 1978. I remember that blizzard. I have a very specific memory of my dad opening the garage side door and the snow drift extending up to within 1 foot of the top of the door. I was 3. I may have been barefoot in the garage, in my pajamas.

So, back to this morning:
There's some drifting, but it doesn't look THAT bad to me.

Well. As it turns out... we got about 17 inches.  The Great Blizzard of 1978 - 19 inches.  Huh.

I wanted to send Maia out to burn off some energy, but it occurred to me I didn't bring her snow pants home from daycare. So we've got two options. Her 12 month snowpants or some 3Ts. Surprisingly... those 12 mos pants fit fairly well. A bit short, but not actually bad!


We also had an extra winter coat, as Ray had picked one up earlier this year for $15 at Macys.  Fantastic.

After breakfast, I got Parker down for a nap and bundled myself up to go help.  A shovel wasn't of much use, and we've determined that we definitely want a bigger snowblower.

But after we were done, Maia was eager to go inside for some hot chocolate and a snack.

One bonus with this extra day at home this week is that it gives us another opportunity to work on potty training with Maia. She has all the skills she needs. She knows what it feels like, and hold to stay clean and dry. She just had to want to do it. And she did. Dry all day.  Hours between potty trips.  Super independence.

Well, mostly super independence.  She was eating lunch while I was changing a massive Parker diaper blowout (which ended up with me just carrying him to the bath).   This tortellini is one of her favorite things, so I was surprised when she said she was done and didn't want more.   I figured out why.  Apparently she thought maybe she'd like some of Parker's food mixed in.  Apparently it wasn't as tasty as romano cheese.

When the storm was over and everyone but me got nice naps... the sun came out, and it was beautiful.

And while I was snapping these photos, before getting dinner ready: Maia was playing with play-doh and singing:   Do-do-do-d'do-do-do-do-doooo pulled pork!