Snow Days

We've had an unexpected mini-vacation this week with Jackson only having school one day.  Monday and Tuesday were scheduled days off, but then Thursday and Friday were canceled due to the "snow" that has (hardly) covered the ground.

On Tuesday evening, I came home from Zumba (which I'm a little obsessed with right now) to find Erik and the kids like this!  They look like freaky villains from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit!  They crack me up.

On Wednesday I promised Wyatt that we would use our free coupons for the Children's Museum that we got at Halloween.  However, both he and Anna fell asleep on the way, so I turned around let them to take a little nap. Jackson usually takes the bus home, but I showed up at his school 15 minutes early and picked him up.  It was so fun to see his excited face when he saw us in the office :)  Anyway, we had a great time at the museum!

On Thursday, school was canceled because it snowed during the night.  Pretty much whenever it snows, school is canceled.  This is hilarious coming from Idaho and Utah.  However, there are some pretty real differences 1) the snow here is a lot slicker.  Like it is not the fluffy pretty stuff of the mountain west 2) the roads are here are much more narrow, much more curvy with a lot more steep hills 3) many in the school district live out in the country where it doesn't get plowed- therefore buses cannot get to those areas.  Anyway, I'm not complaining.  It was a fun treat to realize I didn't need to hurry Jackson around in the morning, and we could just laze around . . .

 . . . which is what we did for most of the morning.  We had a Just Dance marathon in the basement.  Around 9:00 am, I asked Wyatt to let out Maverick to go to the bathroom.  30 minutes later, I went upstairs to bring Maverick back inside, except he wasn't coming when I called.  Wyatt then told me he let him out the front yard. Nice. We jumped into the truck (thank goodness we had that to drive around the slick roads!) and started looking and looking.  Nothing.  I put our predicament on facebook, and it was heart warming to receive all of the concerned comments and offers for help.  Melanie Marrow and her teenage son immediately hopped into their jeep to start looking.  Another teenage boy from our ward that lives one cul-de-sac over started walking through the fields behind the neighborhood.  Well, it was going on 2-3 hours and we still hadn't found him.  I called the animal shelter and left a report.  We then decided to go driving again.  As we were driving further and further out, Wyatt suggested we pray again (we had already said one when we first realized he was lost).  Afterwards, I got a pretty distinct feeling that even though we hadn't seen Maverick yet, we should go home.  We went home and a few minutes later, I saw a teenage boy walking Maverick in our cul-de-sac! The kids and I excitedly ran out to get him.  I asked the boy if he knew that Maverick belonged at our house, and he said no (Anna plays with Maverick's collar a lot and somehow his ID tag had come off).  Maverick had wandered into his garage, so he was just walking him around.  Well if we hadn't been home, we wouldn't have seen him at that needed moment!   It was definitely an answer to our prayers that morning and a great teaching moment for Jackson and Wyatt.  It was really sweet to then pray with them a prayer of gratitude.

Maverick used to get out all of the time in Utah and Idaho, but since then he hasn't as much.  Especially because of the icy roads, I was very nervous of him getting hit!

Earlier in the day I had told Jackson that he could use his little sled on the hills by his school.  Around 4 o'clock we attempted, but nope.  It was way too cold for me.  With the wind chill, the temperature is easily in the single digits and that is something I really don't enjoy!  I let Jackson slide down two hills then made him get back in the truck . . . 

. . .  we immediately went home and warmed up with a fire and hot chocolate!  Nothing better than the feeling of warmth after being so dang cold!

A winter activity I can get behind: play dough!

This morning with school canceled yet again (!) Jackson was my "special helper" for preschool.  I think it was a major ego boost for Jackson to be around so many preschoolers that are still learning their letters.  At one point I heard Jackson tell them, "Guys you do not want to be in first grade like me!  We have math that is so hard.  Trust me!"  Haha so funny.

The boys have been playing with their friend Austin and Anna has been napping for the past two hours which has allowed me to finish planning my lesson for Sunday and blog and catch up on a TV show I started yesterday.  I should savor this kind of afternoon because it certainly doesn't happen very often!!