Ice Storms and Snow Days...is it spring yet?

 I think all our winter weather was packed into the past three weeks here in Michigan.  We started with a late February ice storm that had us off work and school and left hundreds of thousands without power.  Thankfully we had power and we were so lucky to have the huge branches that fell in our yard not cause damage to our house.  Although, Evan's baseball net didn't survive...

Later in the afternoon, the roads improved and we were able to get Evan to baseball practice and to sneak away for a beer at Bearded Lamb as an early birthday drink for Scott.  He continued to work hard on his week off for mid-winter break on the fireplace.  Evan's team had a scrimmage the next evening against the other 10U team and we celebrated Scott's birthday with dinner at Sean O'Callaghan's and had him open his gifts back at home.  Happy 41st birthday, Scott!

The weather seemed to be improving.  The sun came out, the ice melted, and we even went out for a hike around Newburgh Lake on the trail with Luna.  Evan got to see some ducks (he seems to have an obsession with ducks right now...).  

We even enjoyed a beautiful sunset mid-week with some milder temps.  I got out for a walk to enjoy the weather.  And I'm glad I did...

Because by Friday we had another major storm blowing in.  Snow, high winds, etc.  And this time we weren't lucky enough to keep our power.  We had a brown out around 9pm Friday evening through Saturday late afternoon.  The kids made a fort in Evan's room with blankets and pillows to sleep Friday night together and it was scary listening to more branches fall throughout the neighborhood and in our own backyard.  One even hit our roof, but thankfully, no damage.

We utilized the time without full power pulling clothes for our spring break trip to Florida and dreaming about warmer weather.  

And just in case we didn't get enough of the winter fun, weather nature threw us another snow day this past Friday...so now this has impacted 3 weekends in a row.  We were forecasted for 3-6" with a lot of coming down during the morning commute so all of our school districts cancelled Thursday night ahead of time.  In hindsight, we didn't need a snow day because the roads weren't bad and we only got the lower end of the predicted amount, but I'm not complaining!  The kids made a giant snowman with the neighbors and hopefully that's our last measurable snowfall for this season...

11 days until we leave for Florida...come on, spring break and warmer weather!  We are more than ready for it!