Travel during holidays

Who knew that travel was terrible during Christmas?
Everyone, but me. I feel certain that I will not be making many trips to Colorado during the holiday season.
It all started with our Arctic Blast 2008! that lead to a packed airport. Packed with stranded families that include young children at their wits end. Not to mention, I spent about 8 hours tracking my flight to make sure it would even depart. Thanks goes out to Harold and Bryce for taking me to the airport in the best red sled in the world.
It was great to see all my family during Christmas, but with so many important moments to share throughout the days, scheduling was tricky. Not to mention fun family dynamics. The excited children opening presents and play time actually made my trip AWESOME. I built about 10 towers of blocks with Ella, dragged Addy around in her new sleeping bag and put together her Dora puzzle about 15 times. Poor Ben was sick, but at least he was feeling better by the time I departed for home. We even got to play with his truck puzzle and read a truck story before nap. I can't help but love my adorable nieces and nephew.
I'd also like to thank the Yancey family and the Britton family for being my host during the travels. It was interesting to go between houses and observe the differences in daily life.
Ah, my return flight. I was ready to get back home, and braced myself for more airport stress. Surprisingly, the stress only occured once I boarded the plane. Nothing like getting stuck in a plane for an hour before take-off with a very tired two year old. I had picked out a window seat, only to be asked if I would take the aisle so that a young boy could be a bit more confined by sitting by the window. Made sense to me, and I was happy to have a proactive parent to my left. I understand how difficult such youngins can be, and how much control (or lack thereof) parents have. This little boy (never caught his name) started throwing a fit once the flight attendants enforced that he needed to sit in his own seat with the seat belt. The screaming fit lasted about an hour, since we were stuck on the ground for whatever mysterious reason. He fell asleep, and woke up every 45 minutes to yell a bit more. His mother was trying so hard, and I felt very badly for her. Needless to say, it was a terrible 2.5 hour flight, but at least we landed safely.

It was SO nice to be home, enjoying my un-planned time. I even treated myself to a set of micro-fleece bedsheets that were 1/2 off at Fred Meyers. Very cozy sleeping...yet I could not sleep in since I had become accustomed to waking at 7 or 8am everyday of my trip. The upside of that, Monday morning was easy. That was the delayed present my nieces and nephew gave me. Love them!

Arctic blast 2008!

I dont know if raising my windshield wipers was a good thing, as they are covered in a coat of ice. As I walked around this neighborhood, I realized it was a good idea. Everyone else has wipers frozen to their windshield and then a good coat of ice on top.

Tree branches all covered in ice

Side view of my car

Believe it or not, this bush has frozen berries on it!

Good time to stay warm by the fire!!

This is what freezing rain does to the snow. Vineaux is standing on 8 inches of snow!

The final reading was 8 inches, so this reading was an hour early. The snow was coming down so fast, and it is like Colorado snow..all fluffy!

Doggie likes the snow. Rain is yucky.

Look from my bedroom porch, mid-day Saturday. These pictures are actually posted in reverse order, so the ones at the top are from Sunday.

So the concept of freezing rain was hard for me to grasp at first. Basically, we have 20 degree temperatures for a couple hundred feet from the ground. Then warm, moist air is on top of it (from the ocean) and when the rain falls, it quickly freezes. Doesnt actually turn into snow. We had about 1 week of snow (at least some everyday) and then we got dumped on in the weekend. The city is not equiped for this, with our 4 snow plows, but they have been good at putting sand down. Everyone bought all the chains in the state of Oregon, so if you dont have any, or 4wd, or an awesome subaru, you stay at home. Since I have the awesome subaru, I'm driving all around :)