Snow Much Fun

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from last week's storm.  It started out as a lot of fun - our first snowfall of the season!  But it turned into a whole lot of not fun with ice storms, power outages and broken trees.

Kate sledding with Daddy

 Kate and Jack playing in our front yard

A second round of snow to add to the first

And then the freezing rain and ice storm came

All of the snow & ice weighed down all of the branches on the trees

And broke some trees - that's our Magnolia tree out front with the top half broken off

And took some trees completely down - our neighbors' tree in our side yard

 And once the trees started falling, the power went out - thank goodness for a fully charged iPad!

And our new headlamps from the Schufreiders!

 And then the windstorm came - that's the kids' playhouse turned upside down

We all obviously survived.  The power eventually came back on.  We were able to salvage much of our food by storing it out in the snow.  And thanks to gas fireplaces, we never got too cold in the house.  

Our weather seems to be returning to its normal rainy self.  But the damage has been done.  Trees and branches litter the sides of the roads everywhere you go.  Multiple trees in our neighborhood had to be completely cut down.  It is going to take a long time to clean it all up.  And this Spring will be very telling to see just how much survived.  We were lucky to only lose part of a tree at our current house and one full tree at our rental house.  I know many people that sustained a lot more damage.  Hopefully Mother Nature is done out here for a little while!