Blizzard 2 / 2013

Dear future EmBen, What a crazy few months of weather we have had! I'm going to have tshirts printed up that say, "We survived a rolling 12 months on Long Island!" But let me remind you because you are possibly too young to remember, we have been having a ton of fun. This past weekend dumped 30 inches (yes, THIRTY inches) of snow on us in an 8 hour time frame. How is that scientifically possible, you ask? I can't explain it. And if I hadn't seen it with my own eyeballs, I may deny it happened. I'll also offer up some photographic proof. Exhibit one: Benjamin at 12:45pm on Friday, February 8th.

Storm, schmorm. What's all the hullabalu about, Ma?

Well, I woke up at 4:30am Saturday morning and couldn't fall back to sleep. I looked out the window and was stunned at what I saw. A blanket of snow where a line up of cars used to be! I put on my snow clothes and figured I'd get to work. I spent the next 90 minutes shoveling a 15 foot long path to what I thought was the door of our minivan so that I could charge my dead cell phone (Yep, we lost power as we ate dinner Friday night at 5:35pm). My efforts are recorded for all posterity here:

This is not the mini van I was looking for...

It turns out what I thought was the minivan was actually Daddy's car, phew, so I freed the passenger side door from it's snow death but knew I didn't dare turn on the car until I cleared out the exhaust in the back, too. By that point I was physically toasted, so upstairs I went and tag teamed Daddy. He came down and continued the mission, we got the car fired up and the phones charging. While that was happening, we transferred the contents of the frig onto our deck into the snow to keep them from spoiling.

Who wants some cheese? Cheddar? Cottage? Laughing Cow?

Surprisingly, after we tag team shoveled for a good 7 hours, a snow cat appeared and started clearing out the 3-6 foot drifts that had formed in our street. You kiddos loved climbing those giant mountains of snow that formed.

I am Queen of the mountain!

Benjamin, you weren't concerned with climbing the mountains - but you were obsessed with carrying around giant SNOWBALLS wanting more than anything to bring one into our house to play with:

But I found it, Mom! Why cannot I bring it into our house?

(By the beautiful way, Ben, you don't use contractions and WE LOVE IT. Everything you say is so very literal and perfect in our view. But Daddy, I cannot eat my broccoli... I cannot put on my sneakers. I cannot go to bed... etc). We got our power back finally after 49 freezing cold hours on Sunday evening. You both were getting ready for bed and just like after Hurricane Sandy, I didn't let on it had turned back on. I'm sorry if that feels deceitful to you 20 years later as you read this, but Daddy and I really needed you to go to bed without a fuss - we were tired tired tired! You did - thanks, kiddos! - and I snuggled with Daddy on the comfy couch and watched a dvd before we passed out. You woke up this morning unaware the power was on. I turned on the tv so you could watch Sesame Street but did not turn on the lights. It took you a good hour to realize YOU WERE WATCHING TV and we had POWER again before you mentioned it. Then you went mad through the penthouse turning on lights making sure each room was indeed electrified! (They all were and you were wildly happy!)

It rained all morning which helped to wash away a good portion of the street slush, so we made our way down the street to the high school for some sledding. It was a ton of fun and you both showed off some amazing athletic balancing skills on the bumpy trail. You were not afraid and Daddy and I were very proud of your mad skills. Em, your sledding position of choice was forward facing criss cross apple sauce. Ben, you preferred to go backwards on your hands and knees with your butt up in the air. Too funny!

Hold on tight!

I assure you that is a face of JOY!

It was a crazy weekend. My trip to CA got postponed for a week because there was no way I was getting to the airport, but I trust it all happened for a reason. I'll let you know as soon as that reason makes itself clear to me!

Wandering down the street with no fear of cars as it was too snowy for anyone to get through! Look at all the abandoned cars!!