Snow Day

We had a major ice storm come through Thursday afternoon across the entire northern area of Texas.  We were all thinking it would be as big of a flop as the one predicted the week before, but this time, they were right.  Cody got out of school at 2pm on Thursday, just in time for it to really start the freezing rain downpour.  And the rain just continued for the rest of the day.  We had about 12 hours of freezing rain that ended up freezing into inches of thick, solid ice.  It covered everything!  It snowed just a bit, but just enough for a light dusting on top of the ice.  Friday morning, we woke amazed that everything was covered in white.  Maggie was not super excited about it, you could tell she didn't like it and was a little cold.  Dixie didn't even seem to notice.  She just kept running around like the crazy dog she is.  

We spent about an hour getting ready to go outside and play in the snow.  Harper got three layers of clothing and wasn't sure she liked being so bundled up.  But once we got outside, she needed every bit of clothing.  It was COLD.  It looked so gloomy outside.  We went out front to look at everything and Harper didn't exactly love the snow.  We let her slide down the hill in a box and she didn't like it.  So after about 5 minutes outside, we went back in.  It took us another 10 minutes to undress and then at least another 30 minutes to warm back up.  Cody spent some extra time outside looking around and riding around on his 4wheeler.  Nothing melted so it was another snow day for us.  

Saturday wasn't near as dark and gloomy.  It was a lot brighter and the ice was the perfect wet sliding consistency.  That also means it is very slick and dangerous to drive on, so we stayed in.  Cody rode to his parents and got his old sled out of the barn.  He bought it with his own allowance when he was a kid and it is by far the best sled I've ever seen.  We went around the back this time and went sledding down the main hill between the house and the pond.  It was perfect conditions and you could get going pretty fast.  Cody and I went down with Harper at first thinking she wouldn't like it, but she surprised us both by laughing and smiling and asking to do it again.  We let her sled down the hill by herself, walking along beside her in case she got going too fast or fell off.  She was a natural!  After about 5 times, she figured out how to keep the sled on the main path and learned to steer the sled to the bottom of the hill.  She had so much fun!  We were out there for about 30 minutes just going up and down the hill.  It was awesome.  I was the only one who fell on the ice.  I was running alongside Harper on the sled when she turned it into me and I bit it.  I thought I was ok, but I ended up pulling my neck the wrong way pretty bad.

After sledding, we pulled out the 4wheeler and went for a ride.  We only went about 10 mph so the wind wouldn't whip our faces too bad but Harper loved every minute.  We drove around the pasture and backyard, doing donuts and sliding around.  After a bit, Buddy and Serena came up to watch Harper ride and sled down the hill.  It was a fun day but after an hour, her hands were frozen. 

We did the same thing on Sunday, day 3 of being iced in.  It was super fun, she sled for a long time and we even found a few more hills on the side of the pond that were fun.  Then we went for a drive on the 4wheeler around our "neighborhood".  It feels very funny driving on a highway on a 4wheeler.  We saw tons of people driving their 4 wheelers around, even to the store.  Harper just wanted to keep riding so we were out there for another hour before she got too cold.  It was still cold all day and freezing at night.  So every morning, the roads were icy again.  Tuesday was the first day with sun and some of the highways melted a bit.  We made it to Sherman but it took us a looong time.  Since the side roads were still frozen solid, Cody was off school almost all week - he didn't have to go back till Thursday.  It was a fabulous "winter break" and I'm so thankful to have the extra time with Cody home.  Harper kept asking him if he was going to work and being so excited when he wasn't.  Cody too!