Nature

I'm grateful that Anna, Blake, and I all love spending time out of doors, even in the snowy winter months. I've taken full advantage of the snow in a way I didn't do before Anna was born, spending time nearly every day outside; I really think it's kept me happier in the dark, often dreary, winter months. Having so much snow this week made our trips outside even better than before. And, suddenly, we've had oodles of birds to watch. It happened overnight - I know they weren't there on Wednesday, and on Friday, our trees were full of robins. I didn't know they'd be back so soon. I'm thinking they didn't realize we were going to get the snow storm of the century.

Yesterday, to our surprise, another 4 (or so) inches fell on top of the foot we already had. We finally have more than enough snow for snow shoeing. We used our snow shoes in the yard yesterday, mostly to set up Blake's new gear before our first outing today, but they were almost necessary just to walk around the house. Then we traipsed around the pristine golf course this morning with Anna on Blake's back, making a brief stop for some sledding. If that weren't enough time in the snow, Anna and Blake ventured out again to see if they could (finally) make a snow man. All this snow, and we still haven't been able to pack it together to build Frosty. But, they tried.

One of the first robins to return to our tree.

Taking a rest on a sunny Friday afternoon.

The new shoes.

We could not figure out what these tracks were. They definitely weren't other snow shoes.

There were humungous and beautiful old snow covered pine trees everywhere on the course.

Our attempt at a family photo...we need longer arms with this lens.

A rare photo of the one usually behind the camera.

The carrot was the highlight of miniature snowman-making.

Mini Frosty.