Snow Day 2015

When we moved here over a year ago, we heard from every single person that we talked to, “It’s really not this cold here; this is very unusual. We usually only get a ‘dusting’ of snow maybe once a year.”   Well, This is our second winter here in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and we have had snow both years. School has been cancelled three times this month alone and delayed several times this year due to ice on the roads.  We were lied to! 

Now I know it isn’t as cold here as it is in Minot, North Dakota where my brother is located, but it is darn cold for this little family that has lived along the Gulf Coast.

As most of you know, it snowed in Alabama this past week.  And I mean really snowed. None of that little barely cover the ground stuff that we were used to happening every five or six years. It SNOWED! We had almost 4 inches in our back yard.

We did post a few pictures on Facebook, but didn’t want to overload everyone with all of our pictures, so we decided to do a post on our blog so that our family could see all of our pictures. (click on any photo to view it larger on Flickr)

Here is a time lapse of the snow that filled our back yard on February 25, 2015.  This is just about one hour’s worth of snow.


Here is the front of our house the next morning.  It was beautiful!


Back yard was full!  It looked so much prettier like this than with the dirt in the back part that still hasn’t filled in with grass.


Here is the church.


When Will took this measurement, we still had another hour’s worth of snowfall.


Our neighbor made about an 8 foot tall snowman, the kids really wanted to do that too, but us Florida folks aren’t as professional at snowman building.  Here is the snowman and snow puppy that Isabelle and Luke did.

Here is the smaller snowman that Anna and Olivia (our next door neighbor) made.
We tried snow cream for the first time. Luke said he it was yucky at first, but after he gave it a second try, he loved it!

Isabelle’s band has a competition this coming Tuesday and they have missed so much practice over the last two weeks due to school delays and closings.  Her band directors issued a challenge for the kids to post pictures of them practicing in the snow.
Violet, wasn’t sure about the snow at first. To begin with, she just barked at it, but then she decided that it was really fun. When the kids were trying to build their snowmen, she kept jumping up and trying to eat bite their snowmen.
We rode over to a friend's (Ryan & Lucy) house to go sledding and play in the big field.  The trees were so pretty that we had to take some pictures in front of them.

We are very thankful for Lucy & Ryan and the time that they spend with us!


They had a small go cart that we took turns driving in. The snow was falling so hard that we couldn’t see anything when we were driving and sledding but it was still fun.

Lucy and Anna were up first on the sleds.
Then it was Will and Isabelle’s turn.


Will made videos of everyone’s sled ride.
First up was Will and Isabelle.  This even gave Will a chance to use his selfie stick. 

Then it was Isabelle & Anna

and finally me and Luke.

We did get a family picture.  I think Anna may be getting too tall. I might have to change the way we do our family pictures.


We do joke about the cold with everyone up here, because they keep telling us it isn’t normally this cold and yet, it just keeps getting colder.  I will concede that the snow was beautiful and fun!  I just don’t need it to be so cold ALL the time! We had a great couple of snow days and we are good for a year or two.

The Grown-Ups Go To Disney World

 

In November, Will and Timmy attended a conference on church revitalization in Orlando, Florida. After the conference was over, Maggie Bea and I flew down to meet them for a quick visit to Disney.

 

We love going with our kids, but we also have a blast, people watching, riding rides, and eating our way through Disney World with just the two of us. 

 

We went to Hollywood Studios first. 

It’s always fun to do something new at Disney World since they are always adding new things and changing shows and parades.  We found the new Frozen play area for the kiddos. We didn’t play in the snow/ice but we did take a picture in front of a new backdrop with Anna and Elsa.

 

The next day we went to Animal Kingdom to do a couple of favorite things.

After that, we hopped on over to EPCOT.

 

The next day we went to the Magic Kingdom.  We also decided to attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party since we have never been before.  I even made matching shirts for us.  The Christmas party has special snacks, stage shows, fireworks and parades.

 

We had great viewing for the Christmas show that they do on the castle stage.

The Christmas party also gives you opportunities to meet some different characters.  Our first time meeting Scrooge McDuck.

   Had to wait a very long time to meet these guys. But we wanted to see all Seven Dwarfs together so we just had to.

At Christmas they also decked out the Jungle Cruise to make it the Jingle Cruise.

   This picture looks so grainy because it is ‘snowing’ on Main Street.

 

We did miss our kids, but I don’t think they missed us very much. They were very happy to stay here with Grandma and play.

Muscle Shoals Pictures July 2014

Last week when Will and Amy were here with their camera we took them to see some of the sights of Muscle Shoals and decided to take some pictures while we were at it. Here are the pictures that we took.