And then it melted...

The driveway at 2:30 pm.

Maggie's Video

I found out it's much easier to upload a video to my Facebook page. Here's the link;
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1786224771#!/profile.php?v=wall&id=1786224771

No, I don't know why there is so much background noise. I DO know it's annoying.

Spring?

Clothesline gets a blanket

Chuck helps the tree limbs

Already starting to melt

Wind "closes" the fences

A couple of broken branches

The gate before the sun came out.

Less than an an hour later

These fir trees were in the worst shape

Chuck to the rescue

Sumac

We are never sure whether to believe the weather people or not. But this time they were right on. Our storm started yesterday afternoon -- first wind, then rain followed by the REALLY heavy snow. It started to stick immediately and it was still snowing hard when we went to bed. This morning there was plenty of it -- and absolutely beautiful. Lots of drifting so I am not sure how much we really got -- somewhere around 6-7 is my estimate.

Chuck went out to help the tree limbs recover. We did have some broken ones, even though there are no leaves out yet. It was just too heavy. And the wind was blowing out of the northeast about 25mph.

We are going to Steamboat Springs tomorrow. Gary and Emy get married Saturday. We are SO looking forward to this weekend. Roads should be clear by tomorrow, as it's going to be in the 40's today, and 50's tomorrow.

Going to go out and get some exercise -- that would be ME and the snow shovel.

Visiting the GRANDS

We decided it was time to visit Maggie and Emmett, as we had not seen them since Christmas. Wow, have they ever changed. They are both taller, they talk all the time, and they are much more independent than they were at Christmas.

We had fun with them as they showed us their new house in Portland, read books to them, and watched them play with their toys. Chuck spent some time the last few weeks getting reacquainted with his scroll saw to make them two trains -- one was a train with traditional cars and the other a train of zoo animals. The kids were really excited to pull them around and around the living room and dining room. They were quite the hit and Maggie just loved reminding us that PaPa had made them for her and Em.

We took Greg out to lunch for his big FOUR-O. I am quite sure he must be mistaken about that number; I couldn't possibly have a son THAT OLD. I must have been REALLY young when he was born, don't you think?

We spent four days in Portland and now we are gearing up for Gary and Emy's wedding celebration at the end of next week. More fun for us!

Getting my D's

We are enjoying a week of temperatures in the 50's and bright sunshine. So today I went out and started raking the front yard. There are thousands(?) of brown seed pods from the locust trees all over the front and back yards. I don't like them and I don't know why anyone would plant them but they were here when we moved here (1973). I usually rake them in October. But last year they didn't fall off the trees until December when we had a strong wind storm which blew them everywhere and then we had snow and cold. It was a nice day to rake but of course the hard part is picking them all up and hauling them away.

Circle Tricks

Way back in December, Emmett was doing circles. It was fun to watch him, and sometimes he got dizzy. This video was taken Christmas Eve at Denise and Roger's. Near the end of the circles, there's some marching going on too. Needless to say, they have learned MANY new tricks since then.