Marshmallow World

I'm back and I'm more techno savvy than ever. I finally had five minutes of Photoguy's time so he could help me post some pics. Hooray! I've been wanting to write about our move to Alaska (or, so it has felt this winter) and I just had to have the pics to go with the post. So, here goes my first try at combining text and visuals.

We've had unusually large amounts of snowfall this winter. I'm not basing this on any technical data, but here in Ogden, it is surely the most snow we've seen in over two decades. Early in January, we got 22-inches in one day! We Utahns are so good at handling situations like this that they didn't even close one school and I somehow drove my kids to all their lessons. The storms continued steadily, dropping 2-5 more inches every day, always conveniently during the morning commute, or in my case, carpool. Then, about one week after the big storm, we got a solid 12-inches more in just one day. Photoguy was such a trooper about diligently clearing our driveway day after day, but it was getting to the point that there was nowhere left to pile all that white fluffy stuff.

Here is a photo lest my words seem an exaggeration. January and the first part of February of this year were the most magical weeks of winter in my life so far. Since Photoguy had to shovel it, I don't think he shared this sentiment. Every few mornings I was greeted by the sight of a newly remodeled marshmallow world. I would take Soph to school and the entire grounds were covered in a solid mass of white with kids pulling each other around on sleds between classrooms (Soph's program is housed in outdoor portables). I felt that I had stepped out of some picture from a book about Eskimos, sans the fur skin clothing. Which, by the way, would have been really helpful and totally appropriate.

One day early in February, Photoguy had one of his, hands down, best ideas ever. He was outside dutifully scraping the snow off of our driveway and adding it to the mound now taller than his 6' 1" frame when this brilliant idea formed in his mind. Why not hollow out that enormous mound into a gigantic snowcave? He made some phone calls to some good friends on his way to work and by late that afternoon, we had four other families gathered at our home for the best snow party imaginable!

The guys (or should we say "little boys" trapped in men's bodies as they most definitely were for this affair) worked together to hollow out a snowcave large enough for several full grown adults and children to gather in.

Just look at their boyish grins.




Pictured are a few of the 12 kids at the party.

They also built a 50 foot sledding hill down our parking strip. The neighborhood kids would spend hours gleefully speeding down the hill for the next few weeks. But, on that night, our group took turns gathering in the enchanted snowcave lighted by candles to eat bowls of steamy soup, nibble flat fry bread and sip cups of hot chocolate under the stars. It was truly a night like no other. I know that I will remember it forever.


The surprisingly fast and fun sledding hill was the biggest hit of all.


After the snow party, for the first time in my adult life, I actually felt that I did not want winter to end. We had a fabulous frozen playland right in our own front yard after all.

However, a few warm days since then have significantly diminished the sled hill and the snowcave. So, now I say, "Bring on the sunshine!"