Boxing Day Snow Day

Believe it or not, after the light dusting of snow that fell on Christmas evening, the real snow storm actually arrived the day after Christmas.  Although this had been in the forecast for days, I had my doubts and was so pleasantly surprised to see that I was wrong.  The snow started falling in the morning of the 26th and continued to fall throughout the afternoon.  It was so wonderful and so exciting!  The only bummer is that we were scheduled to leave for Priest Lake the very next morning--so it meant that I had to juggle extensive packing of clothes, snow gear, and food throughout the day while trying to play outside in the snow with my kids which is one of my favorite activities!  After getting everyone dressed, I took the three younger kids outside in the morning to play in the backyard for a while before venturing over to Poppy and Daisy's house to see if they wanted to sled down our hill with us.  After several successful runs, Poppy convinced her dad to take the kids "hookie bobbing" which is an activity they learned from their days living in Montana.  Within a matter of minutes, the girls were tied up to the back of Kyle's truck and were pulled all around the neighborhood.  As you can imagine, they all had the time of their lives!  After coming in for lunch, Lia and Ella went sledding up the hill at Ferrucci with Mollie, Gabs, Poppy, and Daisy.  And after Emmett woke up from his nap, the kids and I all went back outside again for a "twilight sled" before Kyle took the kids hookie bobbing again.  The three younger kids then finished off the evening with a soak in Kyle's hot tub surrounded by snow which was a first for all of them!

Logan, Ella, and Emmett venturing out into the untouched snow in the backyard in the morning.

Ella making her first snow angel of the day.

Logan rolling up a snowball.

Emmett playing in the snow for the first time in almost a year!

Ella breaking out the sleds.

Logan trying out his snowball launcher while dragging his sled around.

Emmett digging up snow on the porch.

The three kids posing on the deck while the snow came down!

Although the snow measured 4.5 inches when I took this picture early in the day, there was definitely six inches by the time the snow stopped falling in the afternoon.

The beautiful backyard in all its snowy glory.

The BBQ covered in snow.

The kids posing with Poppy and Daisy's Christmas decorations that were covered in fake snow and real snow.  We thought that this was so funny!

Mommy and Emmy flying down our street.  In the 8.5 years we have lived in this house, this is only the third time that we have had enough snow and the right kind of snow to go sledding on our hill.

Happy sledders!

My kids and me (minus Lia who had not made an appearance outside yet).

The kids and me, plus Poppy.

Kyle hooking up Ella, Poppy, and Daisy to his truck.

Getting ready to go hookie bobbing!

Ready to go!

A close-up of my darling, snow bunny.

The girls waiting for Kyle to pull them up the hill.

Here are the girls, plus Lia and Emmett in the front of the line, who joined them for the twilight hooking bobbing run in the late afternoon.  With the exception of the snow flying in Emmett's face, he LOVED it!

A shot of the kids in the hot tub next door!

The picture I took of our house decorated with Christmas lights glowing in the snow on my way back from the neighbor's house that evening.  As fun as it was to go to Priest Lake to play in the snow the next day, we were all sad to leave our beautiful snow behind at home. 

***A later note***

Due to the cold temps that lasted the entire five days we were gone up at the cabin, the snow did not melt at all the entire time which is unheard of for around here!  In fact, it even snowed a little bit while we were gone which meant we returned home to the same winter wonderland on December 31st that we left on the 27th.