This was Tuesday afternoon, hours before the big blizzard struck! It was snowing a bit and the kids were playing in the snow so I asked them to shovel the driveway. They were happy to do it and a few minutes later I went back out to find they have shoveled all the snow into a pile right behind the car. I have a feeling this was Maddi's idea (not a lot of common sense in that girl). They wanted to make a pile for the car to "jump" over when we backed out of the garage. They were soon shoveling the snow off the driveway the correct way. Brett left work at 3:00 and they had told everyone in the city to leave by noon. I was worried about him getting home, but 3 hours later, he arrived safe and sound. Since we were all warm and cozy in our house we were all very excited to see what this blizzard had in store for us.
Brett started watching the news at 4:30 a.m. trying to decide if he should cancel work or not (he did cancel, thank goodness). Cade was up at 5:50 and the girls and I were up soon after. We were all excited to see if had really snowed 20 inches like they had predicted and it did! It was still snowing and at 7:40 a.m. when the kids saw our neighbors outside, Maddi and Cade got their snow gear on and ran out the door. They had already cancelled school for Wednesday before they left school Tuesday.
It was wild the way it drifted. Lucky for us, there wasn't any snow on our back patio or under the trampoline, so Cocoa could easily get outside to do her stuff.
All the snow was blown against the fence. It was incredibly windy and at one point before we went to bed, we couldn't even see our neighbors house across the street. It was quite a storm!
Cade came in to bring us this....
...a chunk of siding from our house. Lovely! Before we went to bed we heard thunder and saw lightning and heard a strange noise. I casually mentioned to Brett it was probably part of our house and sure enough, it was. They said the gusts were up to 70 mph. This ranked as the 3rd biggest snow in Chicago's history as far as snow total but first in wind conditions. I think the official snow total was 20.2 inches.
You can see how deep parts of the yard were in snow. Pretty cool!
A freshly fallen snow is so pretty, I think.
This was our neighbors backyard. They got their snow in the back and we got most of ours in the front. Amazing!
This is the front of our house. You can't begin to see the street. And our mailbox, well, it's not doing so well. It took a beating from the wind and then the snow plows really beat it up. They don't allow brick mailboxes here because it's too dangerous for the snow plows.
It wasn't snowing during this picture but it was still pretty windy and the snow was blowing around.
The side of our house. The other side had no snow at all.
This was our view out of our living room window.
And now the window from the outside. Again, amazing! Weather is so wild and cool!
This was the snow that had piled up outside of our garage. It was a booger to shovel that driveway. Brett and I both worked on it (Brett mostly) for over 2 hours off and on. Even neighbors with snowblowers took a long time. It was just a lot of snow!
The kids were loving the piles we made from the driveway snow.
Cade's diving off the snow pile. I guess he's missing going to swimming.
And Maddi doing her heel stretch. I guess she's missing going to dance.
Cade tried making a snow angel but the snow was too deep.
I'm the king of the hill...
Cade loves those snow tunnels.
The kids were invited to a neighbors house but the streets hadn't been plowed yet so we walked them over and pulled Emalyn and Maddi on the sled, in the middle of the street. Our street had less snow than the sidewalks and driveways. Our friends street had about 3 feet of snow in the street and the streets weren't even plowed until after 2:00 p.m.
It had stopped snowing and it wasn't so windy, it was actually a nice day to play in the sun and snow.
Look how deep the sidewalks were in snow. Crazy stuff! Emalyn got to ride in the sled by herself on the way home.
When we got back to our house, Emalyn was having a great time hanging out and walking around. It was the longest she's been outside in a long time.
Later, I went back over to our friends where Maddi and Cade were playing to see them sled out of the dad's truck. Kevin, the dad, is like a big kid. He was hoping there would be enough snow to sled off the roof of their house but there wasn't, so they made a sled hill out of his truck.
Maddi thought it was great.
She barely missed the tree.
The girls buried each other in the snow, pretending they were on the beach and burried in sand. We went home and warmed up by the fire and then met up with them later for some real sledding.
This was Emalyn's first time to go sledding besides in the street earlier in the day.
She still liked it at this point, but she was about to get...
....blasted with snow in the face! Poor baby! I was kicking up the snow with my feet. I should have kept them in the sled but I wanted my feet free to control the sled if we were crashing. Bad idea.
Look at her face. Poor thing.
Not a happy sledding baby. But the rest of us were having fun!
Maddi wanted to go down backwards.
Watch out for that...
...snow drift!
I guess she enjoyed the crash!
And now Abby joins the crash party.
Apparently what Cade is doing is called the skeleton. I learn something new everyday.
Happy sledding boy.
We tried pulling Emalyn in the sled but she was just not happy. Her face was so wet and cold from the snow that flew on her while sledding.
Look at her little red cheeks. Daddy took her to McDonald's to eat and wait for the rest of us. We went sledding at the golf course and parked in the McDonald's parking lot and walked up the hill to sled. It worked out great.
Maya, Caley, Maddi and Abby were getting ready for a race down the hill.
I think this picture is so pretty.
Cade with his buddies and little sister at McDonald's after sledding.
And the girls at McDonald's.
Caley, Maddi and Emalyn. At this point everyone was worn out from a fun and busy snow day. The good news for the kids was that they got another snow day the next day! I was really surprised school was cancelled again. I thought it might have been because of the wind chills but they said it was road conditions. The roads were totally fine, but it was crazy cold. It never got above 12 degrees all day but Cade and Jack were outside for over 2 hours making an igloo. The cold didn't bother them. We will always remember the "blizzard of 2011" as lots of fun!
