Snowstorm revisited

Its back to rain and cold in Seattle and the snowman in the back yard has started to melt - now his head is a pointed pinnacle of snow and on which his hat balances.  Its not as beautiful but temperatures above freezing are easier to dress for and get outside.

Not that the cold stopped us on the snow days. 

The first day of heavy snowfall ended with a bit of a blizzard.  Strong winds blew flurries of snow off the roofs and trees and whipped it into our faces.  Still, we went out to try and build a snowman, and failed.  It was way too cold and so the snow was light and dry.   Growing up in South Africa I never knew the gradations of snow, how it is slippery near freezing, how it makes better snowballs when a bit warmer but you can do it with dry snow if you squeeze hard.  The boys are learning these things a lot earlier and having better success with their aim ;)

Frost and Wren in the neighbors yard after a snowfight

Frost tempting me to come close so he can dump all the snow off the
canopy onto my head.

Wren in the blizzard with a large snowball and silly woolen gloves that
clump snow.  He hates mittens.

 The next day was even colder (14F overnight or -10C) but bright and sunny.  There are various streets in our neighborhood which the local kids have named as sledding runs.  During real snow, these steep hills become too slippery to drive so kids and their parents set up watches at the intersections and the kids sled down 2 or 3 blocks of steep roads - whizzing through intersections market by upturned bins and parents cupping lattes in their insulated mugs.

With news of snow, many residents of steep hills take precautions and move their cars off the steep slopes to flatter streets.  However, when cars or other obstacles remain, folks put garbage cans in front of them so that falling and out of control sledders do not crash or go under the cars.

We even saw snowboarders going down from 18th to 23rd and I did the big hill a few times :)  This big one is called Black Diamond while 73rd down to 24th is called The Bunny Hill.

Elias, Frost and Eli on the Bunny Hill.

The playing fields and parkland at Dahl Field are another favorite snow park.  On the first morning of extreme cold we all walked to Dahl field and sledded.   I haven't managed to import all the clips into iMovie but I have some great ones of Josh descending at speed from the top of a precipitous hill I can barely walk up in fair weather.

Josh after his first descent

Wren and I coming down a small hill at Dahl Field.  Wren said
"It was a bit fun and a bit scary"

Wren at Dahl Field on the first day.  He fell off the sled and got
snow down his back so I had to lend him my scarf to recover.

Frost making a snow angel.  Frost doesn't feel the cold like
a normal person.  He kept throwing off clothing at sub-freezing
temperatures and 'losing' things in the snow.

Snowman Day
On Thanksgiving, after an early flurry, the snow began to melt.  As it warmed it became snowman and snowball snow.  The boys made boxes of them and I made a snowman.  Frost rolled huge snowballs he could barely carry and tried to throw them at Alex.  Alex is far too nimble to be caught by such a colossus and has a dangerous throwing arm (perfected playing baseball) but Frost could not resist the wickedness.

Alex and Frost with a cache of snowballs (they threw at Fred)

Wren with our backyard snowman

Frost bending under the weight of the large snowball