Winter Wallop

or as the media has been saying, "Snowpocalypse" and "Snowmaggedon." Here in the 'Burgh we officially got 21 inches of snow last Friday into Saturday. We were visiting our friends, the Schupbach's, on Friday evening and left for our car, only to realize we were not going to be able to get out. So, we went back to the Schup's, who graciously put us up for the night. Slumber party! Xavier had a little bed made up for him in their girls' room and they all woke up excited. After a pancake breakfast, they played outside in the snow, had lunch together, and played and played.

We weren't able to leave their house until the late afternoon on Saturday, after Peter and Jonah dug out the sidewalks and our car, which Peter backed down a hill while the kids and I waited in the snow at the bottom. The main road near the Schup's looked pretty clear at first and we thought we should find the other main roads well cleared. We only expected our own street not to be plowed. We were mistaken. The main roads had been plowed, but not very well. And there were people walking in the road everywhere. It was very strange. We began to wonder as we were driving whether we would make it up the hill (Stanton Ave.) to our neighborhood. When we got close, we pulled over (we actually found a spot amongst the piles of snow!), and Peter walked up Stanton Ave. to see what it was like before we attempted it. I stayed in the car and entertained Mara (Xavier was asleep) and fully prepared myself for a long walk up the hill carrying the kids. But thankfully the road was in decent shape and cars were making it up.

We drove up the hill with no issues and then turned our thoughts to our street. And again I prepared myself for a walk if our street wasn't plowed, but it was! So, we made it to our house and had no where to park the car. We just left it in the street in front of the house, with the kids in it running and Xavier still sleeping. Peter ran through the snow and got the snow shovels. We got a decent way shoveling out the driveway before a car came needing the get through. Peter moved the car into the driveway as far as he could, but it took a lot of engine revving and rocking to do so. It woke Xavier up and freaked him out. He was asking "Why can't we get in the driveway? Why can't the car get in the driveway?" He was very out of sorts and scared, understandably. At that point, we got the kids out of the car and waded through the snow into the house. I calmed Xavier down and Peter finished shoveling the driveway. It took us an hour and half from the time we walked out of the Schupbach's house to the time we came in our house. It normally takes fifteen or twenty minutes! It was quite an adventure and we will pay more attention the weather forecasts in the future.

Thanks to our friends for putting us up and taking good care of us!

Here are some pictures of our yard from yesterday:

you can click on the pictures to see them bigger.