The Big Dig

Today everyone was outside shoveling the sidewalks, digging their cars out, and clearing the access roads. All the shoveling resulted in huge piles of snow which the kids loved playing in. The hard work of shoveling was made into a fun experience by sharing it with all our neighbors. Everyone was in a jolly mood. It's sad to see the snow removed from the roads but it's a necessity, I suppose.

Most of the streets in our neighborhood haven't been plowed yet. That's the downside of living at the top of a steep hill, I guess. A snow plow tried to make it up the hill earlier today to our house but got stuck.

Nancy did the bulk of the shoveling for us (thanks Nancy!). She shoveled the sidewalk, her car, and our stretch of the road. All the work she did caused me to bite my lip when I wanted to complain about digging my Jeep out. Our neighbor Randy did a herculean job of shoveling a long stretch of the access road. If he didn't do that, then no one could go to work tomorrow. Boo Randy!

Last night Rusty wanted to go color the snow at 3am. When I let him out, I was shocked how bright it was outside. It looked more like dusk than the middle of the night. Either the snow reflects a ton of light at night or I've developed some sort of night-vision superpower.


This was taken at 3am in our backyard. I was amazed how un-dark it was outside. There are no outdoor lights on, no flash on the camera, and no special camera settings.


Katie tries to go skiing like her Mom.


Katie and Sophie take their dolls for a stroll.


Cooper is the king of the snow mountain.




The kids loved the snow piles created from all the shoveling.


Katie goes for a spin.






Katie slides down the snow pile.


Katie waves hello to Frosty.


After all the shoveling.

Snow Stats

The snow has stopped after a steady 24 hour bombardment and here's the final tally:

Snowfall in Alexandria today: 19 inches

Normal Snowfall in December: 1.25 inches

Largest December Snowfall ever in DC: Today

Overall rank in DC history: 7th (the 4th biggest snowfall occurred 3 days after I moved to DC).

We took Katie and Rusty for a walk around the neighborhood this evening. We're still a little stunned at how much snow there is. Tomorrow we'll be playing in the snow and shoveling it. The temperature is expected to remain below freezing next week which means there will be a White Christmas in DC this year.


Katie in our front yard.


Digging the Jeep out will be one of our tasks for tomorrow.

Nancy's X-Country Trek

While the rest of the household napped, Nancy went on a cross-country skiing trek around Del Ray. She skillfully skied down the steep hills and to the post office a mile away. She then wound through the neighborhoods and went up and down a few of the hills. She met some guys on downhill skis that were going down Mt Ida Rd, one of the steepest and longest in our area. Nancy gave it a try too. In all, she probably skied about 3 miles.

In 2003 Nancy and I skied from her house in Arlington all the way to the Mall in D.C. No word yet on whether we'll try to duplicate that trek tomorrow. As of 5 p.m., the official snowfall is 14 inches and growing.

Here are some of her photos:


Our front yard


The main street in Del Ray (Mt Vernon Ave)


One of the main roads in our area (Russell Rd). Home to rolling hills that make one feel old and slow while running.


A residential street in Del Ray


I think Nancy's car is in there somewhere.


Our snowy street


The ski bunny


Our backyard. You can see how much snow we've had by the size of the snow cone on the table. You can also see Rusty's tracks to the right to "color" the snow.

Snow Day!

We woke up this morning to a lot of snow! Katie was so excited when she woke up that she said, "Let's eat breakfast outside!" Luckily, Nancy talked her out of it.

We all put on our snow gear (except Rusty who was already dressed) and headed outside. At 10 a.m. the snow measured 7 inches deep on our walkway and it's still coming down hard. We're supposed to get another foot today. It's perfect snow too. Nice and fluffy without any ice.

Rusty jumped around in the snow and buried his head a few times. We walked down to a good sledding hill in our neighborhood. Katie sledded with with some of the neighborhood kids and Rusty played with the neighborhood dogs. The parents served as a ski lift to carry the kids back up the hill.

After a few runs down the hill, Katie said she was cold and wanted to go home to drink hot chocolate. We enthusiastically accomodated her request. After a break to dry off and rest, some of us (me and Katie and Rusty) are still resting while others (Nancy) went cross-country skiing around the neighborhood.

UPDATE: As of 5pm the official total is 14 inches and growing...

All the photos are here.

Here's a short video:













The easiest way to get Katie up the hill.






Cheers!

Snowy Saturday

We're supposed to get 10 inches of snow tomorrow! Everyone is excited, especially Katie. Tune in tomorrow for some snowy photos. You can follow the snowfall here (Update: appearantly the snow cam isn't updated anymore). Meanwhile, here are some photos from the last week.

UPDATE: The latest forecast says 14-20 inches of snow on Saturday!


Rusty gets cozy in the chair. He used to lay in it a lot when he was younger (and leaner). We think he hopped in it this time just to prove that he still could.


Katie and Nancy make a house out of gingerbread.


Katie "cleans up" afterwards.

Santa!

Today Katie got to talk to Santa! He was at the same place he's been every time she's seen him -- Pentagon City. We really like the Santa there because he loves interacting with Katie and he looks a lot like Santa. When she saw him she ran right up to him and gave him a big hug. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said "toys!" But I'm not sure how much more our living room can handle.


Santa 2009


Santa 2008


Santa 2007

Brunch in Baltimore

Last Sunday we ventured to Baltimore to see Nancy's friend from college, Jenny, and her family. They kindly invited us to a nice brunch. Katie loved playing with Jenny's youngest girl, Mary Kate, who is a little older than Katie. They ran around in the snow outside and played with dolls inside. Jenny was nice enough to give us a big box of clothes that are too small for Mary Kate.

Jenny and her husband both worked in local television so it was fun to find out who's gay on the local news.

On the way home, we stopped by Baltimore's Inner Harbor but it was too cold to enjoy the view. We had a quick snack and headed back home for some naps.


Mary Kate swings the dolls while Katie seemingly conjures up some sort of mischievous plot.

Let it Snow!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Alexandria. Last night we walked down to Del Ray to see the lighting of the town Christmas tree. Katie saw Santa and got a plastic firehat from a firefighter. We then walked down to our favorite Mexican restaurant in town, Los Tios. Katie loved the guitar player and he sang her a song and let her strum the guitar. This may be the beginning of an infatuation with musicians.

Today we were hoping for snow but it was raining when we woke up. The Alexandria Christmas Parade was today but, with sadness, we decided to skip it because of the rain. But then it suddenly turned to snow and I made the mistake of asking Katie if she wanted to go to the parade. She answered by running around excitedly and yelling "Parade! Parade! Parade!" At that point we knew we had no choice. If we hurried we could get there for the last hour of the parade, which was the best part anyway because it had Santa.

The next few minutes was a flurry of trying to find mittens and hats and wool socks that have been packed away for many months. When we got down to Old Town, everyone was leaving. The parade had ended an hour early because so many participants cancelled. Wimps. We hustled out of the car and managed to catch up to Santa on the big firetruck. Katie was very happy to see him again. Then we saw two really good bagpipe bands.

Afterwards we stopped at Lighthorse Harry's Tavern to get warm and enjoy a hearty meal. Their grilled cheese sandwiches were recommended recently in the Washington Post. When we got home, we played outside a bit in the snow and then came in for hot chocolate.

I think we're all going to take a short nap and then go back outside when there is some more snow on the ground.


Katie and Nancy at the Del Ray Christmas tree lighting.


The tail end of the parade. The bagpiper told Katie it was ok to cover her ears. He said he'd do it too but he would drop his bagpipe.


Katie at the parade.


Let it snow!


Catching snowflakes.


Katie throwing a snow ball.


Someone enjoyed her hot chocolate.

Turkey Day

Last week we spent a great weekend in Connecticut with Nancy's mom. We had a nice Turkey dinner, some crazy people went shopping on Black Friday, Rusty played with the neighbor's new puppy, and Katie "decorated" the house by moving stuff around (sort of like how I "clean").

The traffic on the way back was good until we hit the halfway mark in Harrisburg, PA. Then we sat still for about 90 minutes. Luckily with Nancy's nifty navigation on her new toy (iPhone), we found some backroads and eventually made it home. The first half of the trip took 3.5 hours, the last half took 6.5 hours. But everyone was on their best behavior so we all survived. Katie was sad to leave her Gram's house. She asked, "Why do we have to leave?"


Katie is ready to cheer on the Yellow Jackets.


Rusty naps after his big Thanksgiving meal.


Katie and Rusty enjoy the pile of leaves in our backyard.


Kisses from Rusty.