Baby, It's Cold Outside

Snow fell in Boise on Saturday and Sunday. Then it turned cold, really cold. Like high temperatures being in the mid 20s, and the low temperatures being in the teens. It is so cold the snow will not compact in your hand to make a snowball, let alone a snowman. Not to be deterred though, Ryan, Sabrina and Roderic used buckets to make a snow fort (it is a wall to fend off attacks). It has frozen solid and it is sturdy enough for Roderic and Sabrina to sit on it.



This morning, Roderic wanted to go out and play in the snow (it was maybe 18 degrees). I bundled him up in his snowsuit, coat, hat, boots, gloves and sent him out. He came back in minutes later for a knife to use on the snowfort. Hyrum decided he too needed to go outside, so I put him in his snowsuit, coat, gloves, hat and shoes (memo to self: get BOOTS for Hyrum and waterproof gloves). I pulled the boys around on the sled in our front yard, then they took turns pulling each other. We invited our neighbors to come out and then we went for an adventure. We went to the field at the end of our cul-de-sac and let the kids go sledding down the 4' hill. When Susie and I were sufficiently cold, we gave the children a time limit and then came back home to warm up. It was fun - and COLD!





It is 22 degrees F right now. Tonight Sabrina gets to go see "Winter Gardens Aglow" at the Idaho Botanical garden with the Activity Day girls in our ward. To prepare, she'll be wearing her thermals, regular clothes, snowpants, heavy coat, hat, scarf, gloves. Perhaps I'll even send her with some hand warmers from our emergency kit.

I'll stay home with the boys and sip some cocoa.

SNOW DAY!

When it snows overnight in Boise, the snow is usually melted before 11 am. Ada County Highway District doesn't use plows for that reason (unless a lot of sustained snow is in the forcast). In fact I heard a radio news report earlier this week saying they haven't had a need to use plows for more than 30 years.

You can imagine our surprise when on our radio alarm (that usually only wakes up Ryan in the mornings) said that Boise School District was closing all of the schools today. Ryan told me this in my partial sleep and I got so excited, that I got out of bed (at 6:20 am). I turned on the news and sure enough, the schools were reporting being closed. At 8 am, I called a couple of friends who I didn't think would have heard the news and they were happy and thankful that I called. At 8:10, Sabrina woke up (I saw no need to wake her earlier). In fact, Roderic and Hyrum beat her awake this morning. We ate breakfast, called our neighbors, bundled up and went outside.

We happen to live right next to a wonderful sledding hill! A short walk from our home and we were there. So fun! And the best part of this hill is that it is only 6 feet high, so the kids kept going up and down. We were out there for about an hour.

What a great way to spend the morning on a SNOW DAY!