Snowy Days

So we didn't do much for our anniversary yesterday. The kids tried really hard to get us to leave the house, and we would have liked to, but circumstances just didn't allow it. Reason 1 - the snow. It's been an all or nothin' winter, and yesterday we got all of it. We got piled on. Usually I know when a storm is coming, but this one I wasn't paying attention, cause when we woke up Monday morning I was surprised to see it out on our balcony. So that made me scratch my plan - I was thinking it would have been fun to go have breakfast or lunch in Midway at the Blue Boar Inn, where we went for our first anniversary. But, alas, we don't have a car with 4 wheel drive. And the van is making weird noises anyway. And it's check engine light is on. Snow is reason #1, the car is reason #2. We don't have a vehicle to go up there. We have 3 cars, but the van is having issues and I don't want to drive it anywhere but straight to the repair shop. The Fiesta is no good in the snow, and probably just got worse in the snow cause of bald tires, (I'll tell you that story in a minute...) And Corey lent his car to a friend from Brazil for a few weeks until they buy one. It's made logistics a little trickier around here, but Corey, you are nice to your friends. So, yeah, no car to drive in this snow anyway. We probably could have still tried to go out to eat, but reason #3 - Corey was catching up on consulting hours since he had spent a lot of time doing MM stuff last week and cause he had been sick and laying low over the weekend. He still wasn't feeling very good, and that is reason #4. So that is how our anniversary went this year. Better than our anniversary in 2007 though. When the kids were buggin us to leave, I said "It's okay, this isn't as bad as 2007..." and Ethan looked at Corey and said "SEE! She remembers when the anniversary is bad!" Lay off kids! We'll do something! We promise, our marriage is a priority! And our marriage will be strong whether we do something on the actual anniversary day or not. So relax, we'll do something, but we're not going to be able to do anything today.

Another circumstantial issue - so, we got our garage fixed a year ago, and during the fall last year, the garage openers started to only work about half the time. Yesterday when Corey drove home from church, the garage opener didn't open the garage, so Corey left the Ford Fiesta in the driveway and forgot about it. It was left out overnight and got piled on. And that little car doesn't drive well in the snow, even just a 10 foot drive up our driveway into the garage. Ethan wanted to drive it in to the garage before he finished plowing the snow. Corey said okay, hoping to help Ethan gain experience and become aware of one of the many things he doesn't know about yet, so Eth tried and tried and the car was revving and he got it stuck even more and there was black tire dust covering the snow and the smell of burned rubber in the air. Great. I wasn't aware any of this was going on until Abi came in and said the neighbors were trying to help Ethan get the car unstuck, then I heard the revving and told Corey to go help. Corey took the keys and told them to finish plowing. But first Ethan and Hy needed a break for lunch. So the driveway was unplowed, car stuck, and the ate, played a game of Go for it, and then went out to finish plowing. As they made a pass by the Fiesta with the blower, forgot they had left the Fiesta car window down, and Eth snow-blew it right in the window so NOW there was a nice coat of snow on the interior of the car. Joseph, who spent the weekend in St. George, took the Fiesta today, and I told him how the tires are a little bald now and told him why. He then left for "Temple Tuesday" but before leaving came back in with a towel... "The inside of the car is wet... ?" Oh yeah, forgot to tell you that part. Ethan snow blowed in straight into the open window, sorry. Joseph shook his head and and said "I leave you guys alone for five days!!!!" I know Joseph, we're a mess!! Don't go a mission! We won't make it without you!!!!

We got more snow this morning. Luckily the older kids had a late start (cause Mel and the junior class were doing ACT prep stuff) so that gave me time to get in my exercise before plowing. This afternoon, the snow plow finally cleared the street, and it shoved a wall of snow boulders into our driveway entrance, trapping us in! Hyrum and I cleared it while a neighbor, Brian, visited with us. Mel brought out Daniel, who she said was crying at the window wanting to play with us. Mel got him all decked out, SO CUTE. There is nothing cuter than than a toddler in snow gear.

One fun thing we did today was watch little Daniel as he discovered the snowy world

He's such a cutie pie. We love little D, and it's so fun to watch him.

If you can't tell how deep it is by the videos, just us that it's deep. It kinda shows in this pic on top of our garbage can.

Had I been thinking, I would have moved the garbage can into the front yard before the snow came, cause now there's a good chance it's stuck. I'll try to move it tomorrow before the trash collector comes. Maybe... I'm not sure how I'll drag that heavy thing through so much snow. Oh, another thing that was nice for our anniversary - Mel and Abi had stayed up late cleaning the kitchen. Thus, there wasn't a pile of dirty dishes in the sink - the dirty dishes were stacked up around the sink in neat piles!

That is a big improvement over the kitchen sinks that have been greeting me in the mornings lately. That looks nicer that usual to have the sink clear! Thank you!

A kinda clean sink, yay! Happy Anniversary to us!