SNOW!!!

For the first time since we moved to Hillsboro, we have big, fat, real SNOW!! It's Sunday morning and we were taking our time waking up, considering taking Alton to the pool as he giggled and clambered all over us. I got up to take Minerva out and glanced out the bedroom blinds in passing and had to do a double-take because it was snowing! Large white flakes were coming down in a hurry, and the light blanket of whiteness visible on neighbors' roofs and cars was getting thicker before your eyes. The weather reports had been forecasting snow-worthy temperatures and possible snow over the weekend, but Friday was rainy and Saturday drizzly without a single flurry. I checked outside during a middle-of-the-night baby trip but saw only a thin layer of frost, so wasn't expecting much when we got up this morning.

Alton was very interested in it! When we opened the blinds this morning he was laughing and looking outside, kind of going, "huh?" Then we set him on the ground with his hands clinging to the windowsill and he looked up over his head out the window and stared at the snow, which was coming down harder then, and tried to reach his hand up to the glass to grab at the snowflakes.

Snow is not a big deal in many parts of the country, and Hillsboro/Portland area usually gets about once per winter where the snow actually sticks instead of just melting as soon as it hits the ground. This happened several times when we first arrived in Hillsboro--we would get rain, then sleet, then hail, then snow, then rain, then a little more snow all in one storm. But the temp was fluctuating high enough to melt the snow bits. Here we have our first real snow-angel-making, curl-up-on-the-couch-with-a-cup-of-cocoa, let's-not-go-anywhere-today SNOW. As native Californians, can you tell we're excited? It goes without saying that Portland completely shuts down when it snows--the city allegedly has no snowplows at all, so there is no way to clear the streets other than some salting. We'll post more pics when I go outside to make a snow angel/snowman/snowball/snowsomething.

The front of our house. The wind was coming from the left, hence the snow-less part of driveway next to the truck.


Our back yard. The concrete pad still stays "warm" enough to melt the snow.


You don't think this means no more BBQing do you? Bring it on!


This is what we saw this morning from our bedroom window when we woke up. WOW! Click on the picture and you can see the snow coming down!


Alton watching the snow very intently.



AJ and the Nerve having a great time watching Daddy in the snow instead of them.