Slick..Slick..Slick!

We had a ice storm last week with freezing rain.  All the roads and driveways were a ice rink. I think I prefer driving on snow packed roads than this stuff. 

As you can tell my car decided that it would not make the turn to get out on the street.  It just slid down sideways and then as I was trying to get off the slanted driveway, I buried my front tires into the snow pile because I couldn't get any traction.  I was stuck!  I was on my way to pick up the kids from school.  I then had to have my nice neighbor take me to get the kids that had been waiting for me to pick them up.  The poor kids were one of the last kids picked up that day.

 

Then, my other neighbor helped me chisel the driveway so that I could get traction to get the car up the driveway and dig out my tires.  There was about a 1/4 inch of solid ice to chisel away.  It was definitely a group effort. 

This picture shows the layer of ice on the driveway with the water spots underneath and the area that looks like water was actually solid ice in front of our drive way.

 



These pictures were taken by my other teenage neighbor that was texting her mom to tell her what had happened.  I am glad that I could provide the afternoon entertainment. Too Funny! 

 

The school district decided to delay the starting of school by 2 hours the next day.  So, the kids started school at 10:30a and had early out at 1:15p.  It was a really short day for them!

Lets try this again...

A few weeks ago when the kids were off track from school, they had to come with me to a work meeting.  So, after the meeting I took them to the aquarium to let them have some fun.  Well, poor Carter had one of his allergic reactions to some cheese he ate.  We did not give him benadryl in time so he ended up getting sick with vomiting.  So, we had to end our time at the aquarium.  We had only been there for 15 minutes so, the nice workers there gave me paper towels, a plastic bag and some tickets to come back.

 

Well, we did get the chance to go back.  This time we took along some friends and enjoyed a sick free afternoon and went out to dinner with them as well.   

 

We enjoyed our second time around to the aquarium.

It is COLD here!!

We had a couple of BIG snow storms that hit our area within a week!  There were reported areas that got up to 21 inches on the benches of the mountains.  Matt and I got to experience white knuckle drives to and from work.  It started as a nice calm morning and there were reports of snow heading our way, but we don't always get too excited because the weather people always make it seem more than it is.  Well, sure enough by afternoon the snow was pounding down and not showing any signs of stopping.  Matt had a scary 1hr and 15min drive home from work (it is usually a 20min drive).  Then that same night, I had to brave the storm and head to the hospital that took me 2 hours to get there (which is usually a 40 min drive) It was really scary seeing cars sliding off the road everywhere. I was thankful for my 4 wheel drive vehicle that got me there safely.  Even though the freeway speed was 25mph...my back and legs were stiff when I walked into work from being so tense the whole drive up to the hospital.  The snow kept its pace during the night and then the announcement came across through texts and phone calls that our school district had cancelled school due to the snow.  Yeah..for a SNOW DAY! Utah doesn't get many of these days.  It was actually recorded that this was the 3rd day cancelled for snow in several years.  Crazy!  The kids were bummed because they have been off track from school since Christmas break and were still out of school when they announced the cancelled school day.  So, they didn't get the free day off from school. 

I then had to make the trek home from work the next morning in the snowy messed up roads.  The snow had stopped by morning after my shift and I was not wanting to make the drive again, but I had no other choice but to brave through it again!  It took another 2 hours on the snow packed freeway with speed once again around 30mph and seeing the same sights of people sliding off the road.  People were making up lanes and suddenly the freeway had a six lanes because you couldn't see the lines on the road (where it is a 4 lane road).  People are crazy! 

Matt attempted to head to work that morning but got half way and turned around to come back home.  It was just too crazy!

This picture was a few days after.

 

Our back deck

Matt measured over 14 inches.

 

After the big storm, it has been freezing here! We have some cold days of the highs being in the single digits and getting down below zero at night. The kids headed back to school this week and they have not had outside recess because it is too cold for the kids. It has to be above 20 degrees for them to have outside recess.   

 

 

It has now started to warm up a little and we now have icicles developing around our house.  The kids think they are cool looking.  We still have our Christmas lights that our icicles on the house too. 

 

WATCH OUT if your headed to our front door you might get attacked by our scary looking spears hanging above our entry! It has to warm up soon so those can melt away.

More snow to enjoy!

 

Another fun time sledding with friends.  Matt and Carter decided they wanted to stay home and watch their football games so, Ashlynn invited a friend and we met up with others to enjoy the snowy hills.  The kids made a jump and they loved to fly up and land back on their tube as they hit the snow.  Great memories! 

New Years Fun

This is my new baking toy I got from Christmas and we put it to use for our New Years Eve family party.  Instead of going to our usual neighborhood party and having the kids be watched at another house, Matt and I decided that we would spend this New Year's Eve with our kids.  So, we played board games, made these fun cake pops, and watched the ball drop in New York.  The kids thought it was so cool that they could stay up until midnight.  Ashlynn was so funny because she is our early to bed sleeper and she was getting very tired, but she was determined to make it and she did!  She got her second wind and was telling everyone the next day that she stayed up all night.  Funny girl..she only was allowed to stay up to midnight.

 

  

Happy 2013 to all!  Make it a GREAT year!