Snow day pictures

About a foot and a half of snow here in Reno. Sofia got out to play in it bright and early.


Driveway snow angels


With the head and all important hair drawn in


"This is hijantic snow!"

Morning adventure

Decided to have a little family adventure this morning - there was a dusting of snow in Reno, so we decided to drive down to Carson City, visit the grandparents and deliver Valentine's cookies, then find some place to sled. Sofia, of course, had to wear a pretty dress until the last possible moment. This is a dress that Grandma Gail made for her. She totally loves the dress, but was not so happy about the matching hair ribbon this morning...



We visited with Mich's grandparent, and Uncle Bob, who was in town. Here's julien pulling a face while at their place:



We then continued onto visit "regular Nanny" (as opposed to Great-Nanny) and "Grandpa Toast" (long story). Mich's mom was using her new oven to bake a pie, which was smelling awesome. Might have to do that myself this afternoon. Julien and Grandpa got to dissect the owl puke that they got for Christmas. Interesting. Not super exciting, but - a science moment, anyway...



Getting the kids ready for sleddong, then. Sofia was loath to take off her pretty dress and put on snow stuff. We eventually talked her into it, but not without some tears:



We decided to head all the way out to Markleeville - some good snow there, but we weren't able to find a very good hill. The sledding experience kind of degenerated into a big family snowball fight, which was pretty fun anyway. Sofia had a good time once she got out there:



We had lunch at the grocery store/deli in Woodfords, and came home. Nice morning.

Snow play

We woke up to 8-12 inches of new snow at home this morning. It was a little wet, too, not dry and fluffy like it's been all week. Perfect snowman snow, so after some shoveling, Julien and I went out and made a snowman. We only had baby carrots, so that's what we used for eyes, nose and mouth:



I had shoveled all the snow from our driveway into a big pile over the last week, and was able to make a little sled run for the kids. Here's Julien climbing up to it:



And heading down:



Fun stuff, but tiring. I need a nap now...

Snow line

snow
Originally uploaded by turi_b.

The front of our house. You can tell what part of our yard gets winter sun from the snow line - our driveway gets pretty much zero sun. That's week and a half old snow there.

Incidentally, this is the first blog entry posted from our new laptop, sitting at our kitchen table, using our wireless connection. Also first image edited using the GIMP, which I have a lot to learn about...

A little skiing

Got out kind of early to do some backcountry skiing this morning. Actually, snowboarding - funny how it seems natural to use those terms interchangably. The few people that I saw out on the hill (A couple snowboarders, maybe 6 skiers & telemarkers) all asked how the snow was, wished me a nice day - seems like people don't care what you're sliding on anymore, as long as you're out doing it. Probably backcountry folk are a little more accepting than the average resort-goer, too...

Anyway, a beautiful day, dazzling blue sky, and only a little flutter of wind, even at the summit where I rested. (For non-Nevadans reading this: No Wind = RARE.) Tahoe was beautiful, low clouds covering about half the lake. Wish I'd had the camera along - Mich has it with her to take pics of the new babies in Chico. Probably get a few of those up later today.

Here's the general area I was in - parking off the road at the lower right, hiking up toward the ridge on the upper left.

New Snow @ Your Library

Nice little snowstorm in Reno last night - of course a little snowstorm here means total chaos on the roads, accidents everywhere, and twice as long a commute home. Fun trying out the AWD in the RAV4 last night; worked great in the snow and ice. And things sure were pretty at the library this morning. Here are a couple shots looking up toward Mt. Rose from our front windows. Wish I'd been skiing today...

Snow Kids

Had some fairly serious snow last night - only an inch or two at our house, but it made the roads really ugly for a holiday Saturday night. Dianne couldn't make it back to Carson, and spent the night with us - we all got up and played in the snow a bit. Mostly melted off the streets now, just our dumb north-facing driveway is going to stay snowy for awhile.

First snow

Little dusting of snow on the ground here in Reno; not as much as expected, but exciting nonetheless. Can't quite suit up the kids and go play in it, but that'll be before we know it...