Snow Day!

Oh, Pacific Northwest. How you taunt us with your mild weather. In winter we balance on a fine line between wet and ice, rain and snow and the reality is we are almost always on the side of wet and rain at about 42 degrees day and night. Then when it does get cold it is only because the rain has gone and we are left with freezing dry weather. Then the rain comes back with the warmer temps. So every once in a while, just a couple times during winter, we get a tiny overlap. Freezing temps come in over the top of rainy weather (or vice versa) and we get a brief snowy day. Some winters are better than others (if you love snow like we do!).

The last couple weeks or so, we have had lovely sunny, cold weather. Cold like highs in the 30s, lows in the 20s (could be worse). Then the rain came back and overlapped with the cold weather and we got a good amount of snow during the transition. It started snowing Saturday evening right before I went to work. I had a large group of painters (22) who all braved the weather and painted anyway. We decided my mom better head home since she lives 45 mins from the studio and who knew what the roads would be like at 10:30pm. And 10:30 when I headed home it was a winter wonderland. So beautiful! I wish I would have taken some pictures!

In the morning we knew we had to get out there fast if we were going to enjoy the snowy treat. We had almost 4 inches, but it was warm. The driveway had already melted. We didn't even have breakfast. Everyone found appropriate clothing and out the door we went. Probably 8:00am. :)

Sleds. Snowmen. Snowball fights. We did it all as fast as we could! The next morning you would have never known.

 

We got a delivery of new hats and mittens just in time!

 

Her chariot

 

Brendan looking a little man-ish

 

She's gotta learn how to hold her own in a snowball fight

 

Buried

 

A word about Sammy...

Sammy LOVES snow. I think she loves to hate it or something. She goes ballistic!  She DESTROYS snowballs. We have to put her inside if we want to build a snowman because she goes nuts ripping it to shreds like a mad-dog. It. is. hilarious! She's getting kinda old, but you wouldn't know it when we are out in the snow! So we held her off while we buried Wyatt and then we let her loose to dig him out. Oh my word, it was so funny!

 

Dig him out, wonder-dog!

 

Oops. Hadn't thought about all the snow flying onto his face! :)

 

Annabel to the rescue

 

This picture was taken just a little later in the day, in the afternoon. You can see how much the snow had already melted. But Wyatt managed to get a snowman up!

Fun snow day!

Promotion Day

Woot!! I got back here in about a week! Improvement!

Not sure I've managed to write about the boys and their martial arts before now. Brendan and Wyatt have been taking Brazillian Jiu Jitsu since about September. I can't quite wrap my brain around what it is exactly and what type of people learn Jiu Jitsu, but many MMA guys use it. And there are many military and law enforcement guys who take classes there as well. All I know is the Jiu Jitsu dudes look tough. Like, scary tough. So, self-defense is the name of the game and rather than striking and blocking they are learning grappling, take downs and submissions. You'll have to ask them....

This was actually their second promotion day. Belts work similarly to karate, but they don't have as many colors. Instead you receive stripes on your belt as you promote. Both Brendan and Wyatt received 2 stripes during their first promotion day a couple months ago. And then Monday received another stripe. Little pieces of athletic tape are a big deal!