Snow-MG

Winter finally showed us what she's got - all 20 inches.  Blizzard of 2011 was hyped since late last week and the weather folks did not disappoint.  School was canceled for Wednesday by 1:00 on Tuesday.  The big snow started flying at student dismissal and I was happy to walk out with the kids.  Matt picked up M and I grabbed G so we were all home by 4:00.  The wind was horrendous by nightfall and we were happy to hunker down.

We went to bed seeing lightning through the blinds and the snow pelting the windows.  The kids slept until almost 8:00 and that's when we caught our first glimpse of what the blizzard left behind.

One whole panel of the garage is hiding. That was the low part of the driveway drift.

Mickey Mouse almost didn't make it.

We watched a little bit of the news coverage and shook our heads at the crazy totals.  The official measurement at the airport was at almost 20 inches at that moment.  There was still a significant lake effect snow happening so that total was sure to increase.

Matt and M bundled up to start shoveling around 10:30.  He started with a path to the garage and then along the front of the garage.  After about 30 minutes he realized that shoveling the whole driveway was an insurmountable task.  We made the decision to kindly ask our next-door neighbors, the ones we like, to borrow their behemoth snow blower.  They were more than gracious to hand it over.  Matt had the drive cleared in just over an hour.  We have debated for several years whether or not to buy one of these.  The snow we get is not usually so bad that we can't just shovel it real quick.  When these big snows happen we really wish we had one.  The return on investment is hard to quantify since it might be absolutely needed once or twice a year.

M's new perch

Matt made it to the garage

G trying to figure out how to climb the drift

Matt's first pass on the driveway

We heart this machine.  Thanks, neighbor!

 After the drive was cleared we all took a break for lunch and G's nap.

M went out to play with the neighbor kids and the most glorious thing happened, a phone call to say that school was canceled for a second day!  I'm not quite sure why, but I'll take it!  Another day at home with my babies that are not sick, watching TV and making cookies is a beautiful thing.  Maybe we'll even think about taking showers, maybe.