It snowed a ton on Saturday night. Corey and the kids were at his office and didn't know it was snowing outside until I called and told them. Corey tries to avoid driving in the snow at all costs, so I told them they better hurry and leave. I called because, around 10:00, after assuming they would be home soon, I had gone out to shovel the driveway. But it was coming down so fast, it quickly covered areas I had just cleared. It was also super slick snow. I didn't even have to walk down the driveway, I had my feet planted and I just slowly slid down shoveling in front of me. So those two things made me call to tell them it was snowing, mostly so that they would tell me when they were almost home so I could go shovel right before they arrived. I'm the chief of the "do not drive on the driveway if there is snow on it at any costs because we live in a north facing house and it will be there all winter if you do" police.
So, they leave. Corey couldn't hear me very well when I called (which I didn't know) and didn't hear me say it was snowing. But then Joseph told him, because I called him because Corey hadn't let me finish with my instructions, which was that I wanted them to call me when they were close so I could clear it on the driveway before they drove on it. Once Joseph was gone and I didn't even know it had snowed and he called me from the street so I could go clear it off real quick. What a good boy! So then Joseph told Corey it was snowing, and they left. It was super slick on the road ~ there were cars stuck and cars that had slid off. They didn't come on the freeway, Corey was nervous the whole time. As they turned off of 13th to come up the hill, they were spinning their wheels and Corey didn't think they were going to make it. Luckily they had a small miracle - a small patch of the road was cleared off - whether by some person clearing it off in front of their driveway, or from a sewer under neath? Either way, that blessed patch of cleared asphalt helped them make it up the hill without sliding off the road and getting stuck. Then Joseph called and I cleared off the driveway and phew! Everyone was safe at home.
So, the snow was so deep, after church I told the kids my idea. It is an idea that I always have when I see the snow up to the level of the slide in the backyard...all you guys would have to do is cover that and finish off the walls around that backyard playset thing and it would be like an igloo. So they set out to work. Wes started his own fort in a corner by the fence, and Hyrum worked on the igloo...
Abi asked if I could come help. Ethan said he would watch Owen, so I geared up and went out to play in the snow. (Because I was quite the snow fort builder when I was a kid). I thought Ethan would come get me after an hour or two, but he never came. We started around 3 and played in the snow until it got dark at 6. Check out our work: Mel wrokign on the wall, Abi peeking up through our "gopher hole" which I thought was really funny
We used a few of the boards from Corey's ice rink from last year to help support the roofs.
And the lids from a few rubbermaid bin. on the other side, we used some snow tires for an entrance. We need to finish off the roof there where Mel is standing, or maybe we'll use it as another gopher hole. After we finish the fort, Mel is going to furnish it. She started making a a chair but I told her she had to wait cause it was in the way. She called it a "snow-fa" which I thought was so funny. "Did you just make that up yourself or have you heard someone else say that?" Get it? sofa, but made of snow? Snowfa! Such a funny girl. Wes helped us too, but he and Hyrum were having a snow war when I was taking pictures.
It was really fun. I haven't gone digging in the snow for a few years. I do remember making a snow cave when we were living at the Crosswood house. My arms might be sore tomorrow from shoveling so much snow during our three hours out there! It was fun to be a kid again and play and talk with my kids.
