The Sound of Snow Falling

Words cannot describe the beauty of snow. Especially when it is falling in your own backyard!

For those of you who see snow more regularly, you may not understand what the big deal is. Allow me to explain. We live in Arizona where there is not much snow. Some parts of our city get snow occasionally because of the slightly higher elevation, but in our area, we have never gotten snow in the five or six years we have been here. It was so exciting to have it right there! 

Pat looked like he wasn't sure what to do with it.

My reaction to it was a little bit delayed because I had a coaching call scheduled five minutes after we realized it was snowing. For the first half of the call, I gushed to my coach Stephanie while gazing dreamily out my window at the gentle white flakes fluttering down. It was so beautiful!

 Dad came home for lunch and we went on a cactus Crusade to find a saguaro cactus with snow on it. It was a bit more challenging than we thought it would be since it was fading fast. However, one of the criteria for the cactus was that it had to have arms and there are few saguaro cacti with arms in our neighborhood, due to the fact that a cactus generally doesn't grow arms until it is 75 years of age, and then each arm represents approximately 50 years of life. But our cactus couldn't not have arms! Arms are the epitomy of cactus-ness!

Once I got off my coaching call, I was texting all my friends like crazy! I got on Facebook to post about it and my entire newsfeed was all about snow. It made me feel so happy inside to see all of Tucson lighting up the internet with their joy over the white fluffy stuff. Words I used to describe it: *rainbows coming out my mouth* *hyperventillating* and *running around in circles like a dog* All of which, if not true in real life, were definitely happening to the person that inhabits my mind.

The snow this morning lasted about an hour and then it snowed again this afternoon/evening! Gigantic snowflakes! We all rushed outside and mom stuck out her tongue like a little kid! And we were squealing every time bits of it fell down the backs of our necks.

The snow is so beautiful! I couldn't help marveling at the beauty of God's design.

In addition, one wonderful thing about snow is that it makes no sound as it falls. I wrote once (I forget where) of its muffling qualities. Now I really wish I could remember where I wrote it and what I said exactly, but I believe it was something to the effect of muffling the world to sound and our hearts to pain. It's interesting because I've been thinking about sound a lot. It's become a bit of a seasonal theme for me: trying to describe the different sounds I hear everyday, or just being conscious of them. The white noise of my family puttering around the house on Saturday mornings, the crackle and hiss of wind through the grass and how similar it is to the fire that consumes it, the scrape of my skis digging into the snow. The sound of my heart when I cry out to God in my pain. And the sound of the silence. Or the sound of snow falling through the air. It is so gentle for being so icy cold.  It's amazing.

Ski Day with Dad

Sadly, I'd already written this post before it mysteriously disappeared!! =(

I shall now pick up my poor dejected self by my bootstraps and attempt to recount the events of yesterday.

The day was all planned out. Cam was going sledding with his youth group. Me and mom were going thriftiness after we dropped him off and then- me and dad would head up the mountain for some ultra special ski time!!

But it didn't work out that way. The mountain was closed at the base because it had snowed the night before! So Cam's trip was canceled.

But at 11:30, when we called to see if the road had opened, we got the same message that had been running for three hours! So we decided to take a chance. We went up anyway.

And guess what? The road was open!! (don't you love how the risk takers were rewarded? It makes me want to steal a popular line from debate, "should we penalize those America has rewarded for taking risks? America was built by risk takers.. Etc." I must sound like a super nerd about now..)

As we climbed up the twisty road, Dad remarked about the bad conditions. It was raining. And we were driving through heavy fog. Dad thought the whole trip would be a bust.

But miraculously! When we reached the top, it wasn't raining! And there was no fog! So we decided to ski after all! =)

Cam wanted to try snowboarding this time. He was actually pretty good! But once his lesson was over, he was done. So he built a small snowman outside the lodge while Dad and I did a few more runs.

It really was the perfect day, despite the bitter cold and the wind. I love the thrill of the snow slipping under my skis and the wind whistling past my ears. There's just this aura of excitement that billows up inside me. I love skiing!

Mac the Ninja Snowman

This is Mac, the ninja snowman. See his snowball. Fear his wrath! He is a blackbelt in snowman karate and to complete the ensemble, he has a carrot nun-chuck. His squinty eyes will strike fear into your heart. Just by looking at this picture, hope and pray you will never come across such as the likes of THIS.

Posing with Mac.

Close up.

Snowman in progress.

Mac receives his ski mask. We had to...modify his head a little bit so the ski mask would fit properly.

Jarret's alien snowman, which he eventually turned into a dead snowman. In order to protect the public and uphold our agreement with Blogger that we shall not post inappropriate material on this blog, we cannot post pictures of the dead snowman, nor do we possess said pictures.

After we finished our snowmen, we invited the neighbor kids out for a snowball fight!! My first real snowman (that was taller than 2 feet) and my first snowball fight in the same day! Yeehaw!

Tomorrow, we are going to the rocket museum (?) after church. And on Monday, Matt and I are goin' to the movies. We haven't decided what we're going to see yet but it should be fun!

Snow Gear 101

First, you put on socks.

Then you put plastic grocery bag over the socks.

Then you put another pair of socks over the plastic bag.
And finally, you put on your boots!

Isn't that amazing? I have never thought to use plastic bags to insulate your feet! Genius!

"I can't put my arms down!" Me all bundled up

Giant snowman!! There's a ton of snow here and it is so beautiful!! It's a little slushy now that the sun has come out. But it's all good. Later, we are planning to have a snowball fight with all the neighborhood kids. Should be fun!

Freeze

It's that time of year again. The cold is setting in and we have to put blankets and towels over our plants. Or else they turn brown like this. ^ *cue Jaws music*

Yes, our lovely basil plants went to the dust last night. They froze to death. Amazing how one day, the plant can be green and healthy, and the next day, you wake up to find if brown and ugly. Frozen in the night! But you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the plants alive, I suppose.

Good Bye Basil plants. Please, let us have a moment of silence in honor of these brave volunteer plants, who grew so healthily.Until next year, rest in peace. And compost, compost, compost.

Snow Day with Dad!

After 2 whole hours of waiting...

 

and waiting....

and waiting,

we finally got our rentals!! Yay! Seriously though, we arrived at about 9:30 and didn't start skiing until 1. That's what we get for going up on a Saturday! They actually ran out of rentals and were beginning to send people home. As you can see here, the line went out into the parking lot. And there were so many cars, that people parked down the hill! We actually parked about a mile (give or take) away from the place! (It was a long walk)

pre-skiing picture!

Looking good Sydney! She had some truly amazing hat hair. Also, Cam squeezed into the background of this one-even though he was being super camera shy. (ay-yi-yi.! That kid does not like his picture taken!)

Once we actually got on the slopes though, we had a great time. Well, sorta. Cam had a bad run the first go-round but he liked it much better after a good lesson. After the lesson, he was skiing down that hill like a pro!

Sydney also had a great day! She had a bunch of good runs and she picked it up so quickly. She even rode the lift by herself a couple of times! (as did Cam. We were all very good at riding the lift.) Syd fell a lot but it didn't hurt her morale one bit! She just kept getting up and trying again! And hey, everyone falls. Heck, even Dad fell this trip!☺

 

While the kids were in lessons, Dad and I took the blessed hour and a half to ourselves and rode the lift all the way up to the top of the mountain. It was a fifteen minute lift ride (15 minutes!) and it was really cold up there but boy, was the view beautiful! Absolutely made the day! This is our city from the very top! We found the general area that our house was!

On the way back down, Dad taught me how to turn with my skis straight. (I call them french fry turns as opposed to pizza turns.) I biffed it a couple times but it was all good. It was so cold up there that my eyes were watering and I started crying! But, that's to be expected when you're 9,157 feet up in the air--with sunglasses! It was really cold but the view was worth it. It's really hard to capture with a camera but we did our best.

 

All and all, it was a pretty awesome day! Even with all the waiting. Next time, we'll rent skis in town and go up. Then we can skip all the lines. And, we'll go during the week instead of on the weekend.

Snow!

Twas the night before last,
When, all through the town,
Mighty torrents of raindrops,
Came all slashing down.

Just me and my family,
So warm in our beds,
As the house shook and shuddered,
Right over our heads! (Seriously)

But when we awoke,
What surprises! Oh Oh!
The great northern mountains,
Were dusted with Snow!!

More snow than ever,
Before had we seen!
Snow on our mountains,
White and pristine.

It's absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately, the roads are closed up there but hopefully, they will open up again soon. Our youth group leader wants to take us up there for some fun after church tomorrow. Yay snow! Snowmen, and snow angels and snowball fights! Oh my! It feels like Christmas all over again! I'm so excited. I hope the roads will open up.