Part 1: Snow Is Beautiful!

Beginning on January 14, our family began an adventure which I will share in 3 parts: the beginning, the middle, and the end. So here we go! The Beginning:

It doesn't snow much here. Not enough for me, anyway. But to be fair, I am comparing our snow levels to Chicago. It's not the snow that I love, it's the beauty and freshness! In Wichita we had one Evergreen tree and when it would snow, the snow would gather on its branches and be so gorgeous. I loved it. I'm sure you can picture an Evergreen tree with fresh white snow laying on its branches. It's beautiful! So imagine snow-covered Evergreens surrounding you, everywhere you look! It is truly more beautiful than I can describe. Truly one of the joys in my life is being outside and smelling the fresh snow air mixed with a fresh evergreen scent. If you mix in a little bit of burning logs, you get my favorite smell in the world!

The snow continued on and off through the 17th. This was exciting! Snow days! Sledding! Cocoa! And Beauty! Not only was school closed, but other lessons, church activities, and other obligations were postponed everywhere. It made for those nice stay-at-home feelings where you could just relax because you knew everyone was at home enjoying the time off! We assumed the snow would be gone in a few days, so we didn't worry much about the gloves and scarves on the floor. Reid even shut down the office and stayed home to play with us! We hiked around the woods. We went sledding on our small hill in the backyard. Each sled ride made the ride longer, with Mike finally sledding the furthest, stopping right at the creek. So that no one went IN the creek, Reid got the idea to make a more exciting sledding path in our woods. It was SO FUN!! We had to sled around trees, had some fun bumps, and was the best sledding ever! And in my own backyard no less! (No pictures, unfortunately). After sledding we built a great snowman. In the evenings, Reid and I sat out on our porch and watched it snow, warm cocoa in hand, talking and relaxing. Yep, they were the best days in the snow since Chicago days.

Life was good. We would soon be returning to school, work, and all the normal stuff of our busy days. Or would we.......