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Snowmageddon 2018
I shall begin this post in the usual manner; by reviewing the illness that’s been circulating the family. After Merritt was found “barely positive” for strep, Hakan came down with some symptoms. Mostly, it was snot and trouble sleeping, but a trip to the doctor found him negative in both strep test and attitude. A cold made its way through the rest of us, but the symptoms have been mild relative to the other ailments we’ve dealt with already this season. For example, Carver caught it and was up for a few minutes during the night, so we figured we should keep him home from school. Soon after he woke, however, it was clear that he was his normal self with only a slight sniffle. He loves school, so Kira took him around 10.
The other event that took over the week was our huge snow storm. The forecast predicted snow beginning Thursday night, and dropping between 8 and 12 inches or so by Friday afternoon. I taught my late course Thursday night, and although the snow had just started, the students were pretty anxious about it, so we ended a little early to beat the storm on our commutes home.
Just before Avey’s bedtime that night, we got word that school was canceled for the next day, a Friday. She was thrilled to stay up a little longer. When Carver awoke, he was pretty heartbroken, as the school had scheduled the 100th Day of School celebration for that day, and he had been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks. We assured him that they would likely reschedule, but it did not change the fact that he would have to take the snow day. He loves school so.
Friday, I wrestled with the need to do work things and wanting to join in the fun. After clearing the driveway of snow, I found that all of the local libraries (where I normally work away from campus) were closed due to the storm. I have revisions on an accepted paper due in the next week or so, but it’s especially difficult to do writing at home, given the noise and interruptions. I eventually decided to get all of my grading done so that I could have my Monday free for writing (we’ll see how that goes). Avey invited her best friend over for the day, and then they went to the friend’s house for most of the afternoon.
Kira was thrilled to learn that the meetings were cancelled for Stake Conference, freeing up her evening and Sunday. We enjoyed watching some events from the Olympics, and had a nice night knowing that we had an extra long weekend.
Saturday was lots of fun as the snow had accumulated even more. Kira had been hoping for a chance to take us all sledding, and so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. We had learned from some family friends of a park that actually has a hill worth something (seems the rest of the area enjoys the monotony of relatively level surfaces). We borrowed some sleds (the whole area is sold out completely), and then took to the hill. It was rather crowded, which made for a few more collisions than we would have preferred, but we all had a blast. “All” meaning of course everyone but Merritt. He had just woken from a nap and had a small lunch (his appetite is still not what it used to be). There was a bit of wind, and so he seemed to think the whole sledding thing was lame. I rode with him for a couple of trips down the hill, but he didn’t seem all that impressed. Hakan wanted to go with him, so I made the mistake of letting them go, and of course they hit a bump and Merritt popped right out of the sled. That tore it. He was done with sledding for the rest of the trip, but at least watched with indifference while the rest of us had fun.
Carver was quite impressive. He is the only one of our children with any prior experience sledding, and it showed. He took straight to the steepest hill where the older kids had made little jumps and bumps, and rode them like he was training for the Olympics. He’s normally our child who’s most averse to sudden motion (e.g., he does not care for swings much), so I was very surprised to see him tackle those hills like they were nothing.
After a while, we called it a day and ran an errand before we came home to dinner and more Olympics.
It snowed even more last night, so the kids are just about to head out to the back yard and make a snow fort! With any luck, they’ll cancel school again tomorrow!