Snow Much Fun!

We happened upon a great wintertime book.  It is called  The Story of Snow 

it has those amazing photographs of snowflakes on a microscope slide.  They are just beautiful. 

The book explains how snow crystals are formed and why they look like they do.

  

Did you know that snow crystals always have 6 arms or sides?  This is because water molecules attach themselves in groups of 6.  How interesting!

What the book doesn't include but should is instructions for cutting your own six sided snowflake, which is what we did after we read this book.  

I suggest using a slightly lighter weight paper than your typical printer paper.  It is really hard to cut through all of those layers and I ended up needing to cut every one's flakes which led to many tears.  Old fashioned typewriter paper, newsprint, origami or tissue paper would work very nicely.  We also used different sized paper hole punches for some of the details.

A Trip To Remember

There is snow and Portland and you know what that means, hijinks!

But let's go back to the beginning. We woke up with a start at 7:38 am MST. "No," I screamed inwardly, "It can't be time to get up yet!" I got up, padded through my parent's house to find another clock to confirm. Drat. Not only was it time to get up, we were late. So I forced Moose out of bed and we loaded up and were on the road at 8:40 MST.

At 11:40 am PST were arriving in Spokane for lunch, gas and a chat with our cousins. I pulled out my purse and found that the small bottle of coconut oil I keep as a moisturizer had melted into liquid thanks to Moose's attempt to keep me warm by roasting me with the car heater. I set it on top of the car to cool down while we ate.
At 12:40 we were on the road again headed for Portland or bust. I stopped a little short behind a bus and my coconut oil went flying off the car. We laughed hysterically and Moose retrieved it. We thought "Boy, will we remember this tip as the time I left the coconut oil on top of the car!" Cute.
At Tri-cities I was very sleepy so I stopped for more gas and to let Moose drive and wash the windows. Oh, yeah did I mention that our windshield wiper fluid was frozen until Hood River?

Since our cell phones don't work in Montana we had forgotten to charge them before we left. I had no power and Moose had one tiny bar. If only we had remembered to charge them up, we might have received some of the warning calls.
So at 4:30 we are getting a little excited, there looked like rain up ahead but there was just a little more than an hour left of the drive and there was a house fire in The Dalles visible from the road, surely it would be big news on the TV tonight. Around Hood River we hit snow. It was bad for Oregon and I was afraid they would close the road for the 2 inches of snow. The road wasn't closed and at 5:30 I thought to call La Keira to see about snow in Portland. Yes, there was a little snow on the ground about and inch. I guess she hadn't listened to the news.

We came into Portland still excited about our quick trip and being home for a reasonable dinner. Then we realized, it is 6 pm rush hour, in Portland, in a snowstorm. An hour later we had made it to the Lloyd Center Exit and had dinner at Red Robin. Everything was packed like a parking lot and 26 was closed, there isn't really an alternate route. We watched the snow fall in huge clumps and discussed the irony of driving 1,400 miles to Montana and back with no snow only to be snowed in at the Red Robin 10 miles from our house.

At 8:15, our bellies full we piled back into the car for another hour and fifteen minutes of inching our way home the remaining 10 miles. Really, waiting it out at Red Robin was genius even though we didn't get home until 9:30 pm PST, I don't think it would have been any faster had we stayed our course on the freeway, and we would have been hungry, cranky and have exploded bladders.


Blessings: We were prepared for a long trip, most people were just out in town and blindsided by the storm and didn't get home for hours and we had TONS of weight being loaded up with all the spoils of Christmas.


Boba Fett put it best. "When it snows in Portland people lose their minds." It wasn't the snow that was the problem it is the complete lack of ability to drive in snow AND the fact that there are only a few major roads in and out of Portland. There isn't anyway around it you have to go through it.

Snowman Slaughterhouse

Commander C has been reading A LOT of Calvin and Hobbes and plotting.
I found this in his suitcase:

(C.Z.G. Montana list for SNOW!)
(Build Snow Castle, Make a snowman with dad, Head butt it on the deck, Make a snowman with umbrella if it rains, make snow cannon with ammo, Make 2 armies of tiny snowman, Make a fort with 25 snowballs, Kill a snowman *evil face*, Snowfight with brother *cunning face*, Ambush Dad)

If only it would snow instead of rain!

Snow

Here in Montana the snow keeps falling and falling. Moose and I have decided we LOVE snow like this. We are also glad that we are leaving it all behind and it is not our problem.

We have been having so much fun in Montana. I would like to have been blogging more but we are having trouble uploading pictures. There will indeed be photos of the kids up to their armpits in snow.

Happy New Year!

The 5 stages of snow in Portland

****Special Post by Guest Blogger Moosedrool.****
How the city of Portland deals with snow is a lot like the 5 stages of grief. First everyone is in denial, where they stay home and convince themselves that the snow will go away soon. Then the anger starts as people realize they hate driving in snow. Then barganing starts when folks start to go places again, slowly and only if it's a short distance to drive. Next comes depression because even if the snow were to all go away, we still have another 4 to 5 months of cold, cloudy, rainy weather. And finally acceptance as we all buckle down and go on about our lives all bundled up.

Everyone except ODOT. They apparently are stuck in the denial phase. Every year it seems we have severe enough weather that closes down the roads, and every year ODOT shows that the most they can do is hold press conferences and close the roads. Other cities have snow plows and even hire equipment to help clear things up.

Needless to say, with the closure of I-84, we had to find an alternative route to go home for Christmas. That route took us through Seattle. It would have taken us further on to Spokane, but it got dark and late and we decided to hole up in a hotel and wait for more daylight (and hopefully for more snowplows). For the kids who didn't have to drive all that way in the snow and ruts, they are having a great time jumping on the beds and watching cable tv. For the rest of us, we only have another day of snow covered mountain passes to look forward to. I miss denial.

Baby Its Cold Outside

There is about 6 inches of snow in my driveway, or there was before Moose took the leaf blower out.

Chains are now required in the Portland Metro Area. Tomorrow we attempt to drive to Montana.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Yes, snow. That is the theme for our journey. As we were driving out of Portland, My mom informed me that is snowed in Kalispell and in Spokane. While in Spokane my mom told us that is had been snowing in Kalispell all day long. My Father-in-law called to tell us about the snow and to check the Montana DOT pass cameras before we leave. My dad called to inform us that there was supposed to be a huge snow storm in Plains until about noon (our travelling window.)

We are poorly dressed. I did not allow the kids to bring pants and long sleeved shirts. Summer will come, our wardrobe demands it!

I am so glad that we are going to Hawaii in 3 days.

Also, FYI the Down East Basics store in the Spokane Valley Mall is not a store but an easy to walk right past kiosk, at least for the next 2 weeks at which time there will allegedly be a store. I am thrilled my new French Blue Wonder Tee.