Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Wacky Winter Storm!!

Last week, you may have heard about the crazy weather that hit western Washington. Normally we'll get a day or two of a dusting to a couple inches of snow that usually melts within a day or two. Last week we got a few inches in about two days then overnight we were hit with at least 12" of snow. Some places got 18"!!! After all the snow hit it got cold. Then the freezing rain started and clung to all the trees. The next thing we know branches are falling off trees and entire trees are toppling over! Nearly everyone in our county lost their power on Thursday. Thankfully, we are right in the middle of town and right next to a school. We got our power on within 28 hours.

Those 28 hours were a little crazy though. We didn't have any source of heat in our place. I assumed we'd get through the night (power went out at 7:30pm) and figure out what to do next in the morning. Well around 1:30am, Katie woke up from a nightmare. It was cold in the house. We snuggled in the recliner with a blanket and tried to sleep. Around 3am, we were still up, I went to check on Natalie and cover her up and she woke up. Hubby was awake since Natalie was crying. The four of us tried to snuggle in our bed...but the girls thought it was time to play. The thermostat was at 58* and the girls hands were cold. I didn't think we were going to get back to sleep any time soon and I couldn't put the girls back in their room. Hubby stayed in the house with the girls and I went outside to dig our car out of the driveway. With all my adrenaline pumping it didn't take too long to do. After multiple attempts at backing up and pulling forward I got the car out of the driveway. We loaded up the girls and I was headed to my parent's place. They didn't have power either, but they have a generator and a wood stove. I realized just after I left that I might not be able to make it to their house in my van. It was now 4am and I called their house. My dad finally answered and by 5:30am he and my mom got through mess and met us in a parking lot. It was a treacherous drive, swerving to miss downed branches and trees. Their road that comes off the main road to their driveway hadn't been plowed. My van dragged the whole way. Their driveway was even worse. I got about halfway down and had to stop. We unloaded the sleepy girls, jumped in my dad's 4x4 SUV and got up to the house.

We stayed there that whole day, overnight, and until about 11am the next day. We got our power back and were so happy to get home. My parents were out of power for 4 days, my MIL and BIL were out for 5 days. Some people still are out of power. Crazy stuff. My girls were troopers. I'm glad they adjusted well to the change.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the girls playing in the snow (when we only had a couple inches) and some pics of our house with the "big" snow.

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