OH! The SNOW!

I remember having this conversation with Scott at the end of January. One of us said something like, "Y'know, I'm going to be pretty ticked if we don't even have one really good snow during our first winter on the mainland in 5 years!"

Ha! I'd say we've gotten our fair share during February!
It started, and now it just seems to be one snowstorm to the next. By the way, have they always named these winter storms, or was I just never paying attention before? Juno, Pandora, Octavia, Thor... they just keep on coming! 

I think we are going on 6 snow days now (meaning Keaton has NO school) and at least 5 late start days (meaning Keaton starts school 2 hours late). My boys are loving every minute of it! 

Sledding

Mark seems to have no internal temperature gauge, because he would be outside every second it is snowing!

Mark greeting our very friendly and dedicated mailman!

Just lounging around watching the snowplows clearing our back alley

We feel like complete rookies - we don't even own a snow shovel, nor did we really understand why we might need one? Doesn't it all just melt away the next day? Not in  Northern VA! Here's Mark trying his best to shovel our driveway with a Rubbermaid lid.

more sledding!

Nothing like eating the snow as it's falling!

Here's a pic from our kitchen window - solid white everywhere! You can't even tell there's a river out there!

definitely not in HI anymore!

After the snow finally stopped, we took a walk to explore our neighborhood.

Sailor was snug as a bug in the Moby, in my coat.

Keaton liked to taste the snow periodically. No yellow or brown snow Keaton!

snow angels

Face plant

I think it's possible he loves the snow as much as he loved the sand in Hawaii?

 After 2 back to back snowstorms, and about 5 days of never leaving the house, it warmed up to about 50*. I really wanted to get out, so we drove into D.C. to see what the Jefferson Memorial would look like with all the white stuff.

Looking back at these pictures,  it probably wasn't the safest thing to be walking around these slushy steps (especially holding a baby!), but thankfully, no one was hurt.

Keaton and Mark with TJ

Someone had built a snowman on the memorial. The boys had fun looking at it, and this random guy gave Keaton a cowboy hat to put on his head. Clearly the guy (see behind Keaton) got a huge kick out of us taking a picture of the snowman with his hat on.

The boys with the Tidal Basin and the Washington "Mommy-ment" in the background. Hard to believe that this will be covered in Cherry blossoms in a a few weeks!

As I write this, the snow is still on the ground, ice is covering our sidewalk, and we are awaiting another 3-5 inches tomorrow. So, I'm sure there will be more pics to come. This is really the first month that I've really longed for Hawaii weather. But, I'm a mainlander at heart, and all this snow and ice comes with a level of excitement and appreciation of our new life here in VA. And spring is so much sweeter when you've waited out a cold winter. Can't wait!