Blizzard? I'll just call it a storm.

**That is a 12" ruler stuck in the snow. I could've pushed it down more but didn't want to get wet feet as I just went out in shoes, not boots.**


**This is the wind whipping up a mini tornado on the roof. At times, we had wind gusts of over 40 MPH!**

We got hit with a pretty powerful spring storm on Thursday. In 24 hours we went from 50+ degrees and sunny to high temperatures in the teens and some wicked wind. Much of the Front Range (and in Wyoming & the Dakotas) was under a blizzard warning as visibility slipped to less than a mile. Pile-ups were a common occurrence on both interstates and surface streets alike while the Department of Transportation set up shelters and closed roads. We had snow days (a rarity here, we had school when the HIGH temperature was -35!) Thursdays & Friday and didn't step from the house except to take out the trash and dig out Ben's car from a drift. After all was said and done, we had over a foot of snow! The girls braved the wind, briefly, to go out and play--throwing snow balls and making angels. Otherwise, we stay inside, snuggled under blankets, played board games, watched movies and just enjoyed being a family.


Spatula Baseball--didn't you know it's all the rage?!

Today, the remnants of this storm are few...dirty piles moved by snow plows, fresh snow sheltered from the sun under trees or in the shade, and the river formerly known as our parking lot. Our high today, a typical 64 degrees.
What can I say except that, that's Colorado for you!

Rain, tornado watches and hailstorms

Gotta love Colorado weather. In the matter of eight hours, you can see all weather extremes. Yesterday was one such day. Started off cloudy and a bit on the cool side, then the wind picked up to about 35-40 MPH. After that, it started to pour, complete with thunder and lightening. Next thing we know, NickJr is interrupted for a weather bulletin. We were under a tornado watch for several hours. The sky was a really icky color between gray and green though nothing else really happened. It got pretty cold last night though, enough for the girls to put on their winter pajamas and for me to put on my flannel bottoms. Woke up this morning to partly cloudy skies. You can barely tell that there was any severe weather around here yesterday.

Check out this slide show to see some of the extreme weather Colorado saw. Slide 12 shows the tennis ball sized hail that fell from the sky around Elizabeth in Elbert County. Amazing! I have only seen golf ball sized in my time and I remember going out into the front yard of a house that I was at for a birthday party, putting some into a ET glass and coming back inside to add sugar and food coloring to it. Ahh, the memories!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Since we all probably have a little bit o' Irish in us...


Courtesy of MsTags.com

We are going downtown to show our love for the Irish by watching the parade and eating some brats!

**Update on the parade** We had a lovely time. It was in the 70's during the parade, which lasted all of about 15 minutes. Caitlin sat on the curb watching the floats, cars and horses go by and catching candy that was thrown down. She managed to get about 6 pieces so it was a mini-Halloween to her. I saw an old high school home ec teacher who handed me a paper crane, symbol of peace. I guess I haven't changed much, because, after almost 11 years, she still recognized me! After the parade, we walked a few blocks down to the Coffee Trader for Italian Cream Sodas (Coconut for me, strawberry for Caitlin) and then walked back to the car. Caitlin spent a majority of the day outside since it was absolutely gorgeous. I cleaned out my car and then opened the house up to let the fresh air in. It was a wonderful day!