We're Havin' A Heat Wave

After days of being confined to the house and then when you could finally go out, four-wheel drive was necessary, the east winds are gone and it's warming up again.There was sixteen inches of snow on this table Christmas Day and it was snowing again. It seemed as though it would never end. It was like Groundhog Day--the same thing over and over everyday. Each storm was supposed to bring south winds and warmer temperatures, but instead it just brought more snow. I've never been so glad to see rain in my life.It was 50 degrees at 10:00 tonight when we were coming home from the basketball game. Outside of the piles of snow in store parking lots and the side streets that don't get plowed, like ours, most of the snow is gone. Our problem now is that our house faces north and our driveway is getting icy, but a few more days like this and we should be back to normal--45 degrees and rain everyday.

Our Winter Wonderland

Last Tuesday was the last day we saw the sun. We went to the Blazer game Tuesday night and by the time we got home it was starting to snow lightly. It snowed off and on Wednesday, but only accumulated enough to be annoying on the side streets. The freeways and main roads were clear, but the threat of freezing rain caused school closures Thursday and Friday. The freezing rain never came, but it started to snow Friday evening and didn't stop until about 8:00 Saturday night. The freezing rain finally came in the night and left a crispy coating of ice over our six to eight inches of snow.This morning we woke up to this.Everything is cancelled all around the metropolitan area. Roads are closed to the coast and blizzard warnings in the gorge have closed I-84 east and westbound. Our elevation is less than 100 feet at our house, so you can only imagine what it looks like in the hills around town. We took a little drive around the neighborhood before lunch. Not much happening at the park--or on the baseball field.Freezing rain started to fall before we got home to add to the thin sheet of ice from last night.And low and behold, in the midst of all of this--covered with ice--we found the last of the fall leaves.

A Four Mountain Day

Early December found me in Utah doing post-op duty at my dad’s house. I was freezing the whole time. We’ve apparently been away from Utah too long. I was so excited to get back home where it was at least a balmy 50 degrees. Within three days, it was snowing and cold—that was last Sunday. By Tuesday we had east winds and blue skies. It was so clear that it was "a four mountain day."
When you approach the I-5 Bridge from the south, you can see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and on a really clear day you can even see Mt. Rainier. I haven’t figured out how to get a good shot from the middle of the freeway yet, so I drove up to the Washington State-Vancouver campus to take pictures of three of the four mountains.
Mt. St. Helens to the north,Mt. Adams peaking over the foothills to the east,
and Mt. Hood to the south.

Thanksgiving Visitors

We’ve noticed that we’re not the only ones to get too busy with the holidays to blog. Lindsay and Jeremy came up for Thanksgiving and we spent the week before trying to Rylie and Tyson proof the house. With no grandchildren in town, we only have to think about that a couple of times a year.
Blogging pictures from their visit is difficult since every pictureis the best pictureto proud grandparents.
We stayed in Vancouver for Thanksgiving so the girls and I did all the cooking. Ashley prepared her assigned dishes at their apartment, so she was free to help Rylie with her gumdrop turkeys.Lindsay brought her Bosch mixer and so we had homemade rolls.Rylie helped with the relish trayand was in charge of sprinkling powdered sugar for the pumpkin rolls.Saturday, we took Rylie and Tyson to Jantzen Beach to ride the carousel. It goes really fast, so we weren’t sure if they would like it or not. Tyson wasn’t too sure about it,but Rylie could have stayed on it all day.We went to Washington Park to what Rylie calls “the castle playground.”
She was so excited that she just ran from one thing to the next.The rocking seahorse seemed to be a favorite. As always, Tyson loved the swings.There were still tons of leaves on the ground at Washington Park. We found a beautiful pile that seemed to go on forever and made a great background for pictures of Rylie and Tyson. The only thing that could have made this Thanksgiving any better would have been if Brad and Mel could have come.