snOMG!

I wish I could take credit for that title, but I can't... I got it from an autocross friend.

Anyway, on Wednesday night, we finally got The Big One.  We got about 5" over the course of Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.  Then on Wednesday evening, we got a thundersnow (a thunderstorm that's too cold to rain so it snows instead) that dumped at least another foot on top of that in a matter of 6 hours or less.  At one point, it was white out conditions.  If this has been a summer storm, we'd have gotten hammered with sideways rain and flash flooding.

Steve and the trusty snowblower got us unburied in about an hour and a half on Thursday morning.  I drove the kids to daycare and on my way, I realized just how heavy the snow was.  None of it had fallen from any of the trees overnight.  And what's more, a lot of it hasn't even fallen today!!  That also means it's perfect snowball snow.

When Steve brought the kids home from daycare, we partially cleared the deck to get to the grill.  A dedicated grill master has no fear of grilling in... weather.

A foot and a half of snow is not a deterrent to a master griller!

While the grill was heating, I spotted a stinkbug (cannot confirm if it was actually alive) attached to the top of the garage wall.  As I mentioned earlier, this snow was excellent snowball weather.  So Steve and I started to throw snowballs at the stinkbug to see if we could hit it.  Curt Schilling we are not, but eventually, Steve hit the stinkbug square.

Making and throwing snowballs gave the kids the idea to throw them at us, and so the "fight" began!  DJ had the BEST time trying to make a snowball and throwing it at Steve and me!  He also enjoyed just picking up piles of snow and throwing them up into the air as far as he could, and watch the flakes come down again.

DJ's glasses are wet from throwing snow up into the air.

 Meanwhile, I got the idea to knock down a big icicle for each kid.  DJ threw it to see what would happen when it landed.  Elektra, on the other hand, put it right in her mouth.  Once she got ahold of that icicle, she was absolutely content.  She didn't want to let go of it, and she didn't want to stop sucking on it.

Elektra sucking on her icicle.  Someone's going to love popsicles this summer!

I tried to get a picture of the two of them sitting on a mountain of snow, but that didn't work out so well.

DJ and Elektra happy in the snow!

 Then Steve got a wild hair and decided to go DIVING into the snow in the yard.

Not a great picture, but you get the point!

Once you're *in* the snow, you may as well embrace it!  The kids LOVED it when Daddy did this!  we heard lots of laughs and giggles, and DJ wanted to join him with a snow angel of his own.

Steve making a snow angel.

Steve's snow angel

Boy that white stuff is COLD!!

DJ made a snow angel of his own as well!  Unfortunately, those pictures didn't turn out.

In addition to all of this, DJ also couldn't wait to help shovel.  He loves the shovel that we have that is just his size, and helped us shovel at the house.  He also was a HUGE helper at daycare by helping Sonny clean the walk and the driveway!  Sonny was so proud of how hard DJ worked that he gave DJ his first earned $1.  I'll pull down his piggy bank and we'll put it in there for him.  We are very proud of him!

Sonny's BIG helper!  Thanks for the picture, Eleanor!

And there you have it... Snowpocalypse 2011.