Blizzard of 2016

Fortunately all the hype over Winter Storm Jonas got Shea home (from his TX trip) just in time for us to get stocked up and ready, on Friday morning (the 22nd), just in case all the predictions were true.

And Friday Shea started to doubt how much this would really amount to. We went to bed with maybe 6 inches, and a break in the storm.

But Saturday we woke to this ...

With about 2 ft of snow Shea immediately got out there to ensure our glass door didn't get us stuck inside, and then he started on the first round of shoveling.

The winter reports and warnings for the day didn't give us a lot of confidence that our blizzard was stopping any time soon. 

Issued by The National Weather ServiceBaltimore/Washington, MD9:35am EST, Sat Jan 23 

... BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM EST SUNDAY... 

* HAZARD TYPES... HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW.* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS... 22 TO 30 INCHES... UP TO 36 INCHES ABOVE 1200 FEET.* TIMING... HEAVY SNOW THROUGH THIS EVENING. BLOWING SNOW INTO SUNDAY.* IMPACTS... HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW WILL CONTINUE TO CAUSE DANGEROUS CONDITIONS AND WILL BE A THREAT TO LIFE AND PROPERTY. TRAVEL IS IMPOSSIBLE. VISIBILITY WILL BE REDUCED TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES IN WHITEOUT CONDITIONS THROUGH TONIGHT.* WINDS... NORTH 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH.* TEMPERATURES... IN THE LOWER 20S. WIND CHILLS SINGLE DIGITS.PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT CONDITIONS... MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRAVEL. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL... HAVE A WINTER SURVIVAL KIT WITH YOU. IF YOU GET STRANDED... STAY WITH YOUR VEHICLE. PREPARE FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF POWER OUTAGES DURING SNOWY AND COLD CONDITIONS.

So since we decided we'd be snowed in for awhile, we decided to make the most of it. Dad promised pancakes for breakfast, and we sprinkled "sugar snow" on top and then they were all ready for a day of play.

The kids were ECSTATIC! And I don't blame them the kid in me loves it all but this giant 9 months pregnant belly can't fit into anything, so I'm kinda sad I don't get to enjoy it too. So I am living vicariously through them all, and they make it pretty easy (and so does our glass door loved having that for all of this)! And KUDOS to Shea who was an amazing snow buddy. 

Snow Fort Building

Snow Fort Defending

First One In

And Happy

Snow Fort Tunneling

About 30 mins later,
it is declared that snow is cold.

Very Cold, but Fun!

No doubts tomorrow we will be enjoying round two, especially considering the blizzard isn't over yet, 30+inches and still going.