Snow and Ice

It doesn't matter if it's a "mild" winter in Michigan. We always manage to get some kind of weather here. We had a little more snow in November than we usually have, but no snow in December. Temperatures weren't bad either. Most of January was without much snow and temps were mild overall, but we had some cold weather during the annual ice festival, which made walking around and taking pictures of the ice sculptures not as pleasant, though Karissa was happy to with her new phone that she got for her 12th birthday. For some reason, though, her photos wouldn't transfer to my computer, so here's the one photo I took. You can see a sculpture behind us, though I don't even remember which one it is! It's always a big and fun event, just very crowded and usually cold. We try to make an appearance every other year or so. This year it was just Karissa and I.

We finally got a snowstorm last Friday and got a few inches out of it. It was perfect timing because I was planning on taking Austin skiing. Since he's a 4th grader he gets to go free with a paying adult. I volunteered to take him! He decided to try skiing again, whereas in Colorado he tried snowboarding. I was glad about that. Since he's only gone skiing once, I was able to give him some pointers, which he quickly learned. In turn, he challenged me to go off some jumps, though I didn't jump, just enjoyed going up and down with a little extra air.

He lost his goggles in the parking lot on the way up to the ticket line, somehow. I was a little worried about him because it was very cold and windy. Goggles do make a difference with keeping your face warm. The real feel was -2 when we left!

We saw the sun set. It was beautiful! I think the reason his face didn't freeze was because he talked to me nonstop!

That's the moon from our upstairs window. 

We didn't have school Monday for MLK day. It was a regular day Tuesday, though I thought it curious that it was 25 degrees and raining that evening. Well, all that rain ended up freezing on the ground overnight and we had a snow day on Wednesday! They even closed the airport that morning, it was so bad! It got up to 41 that day, so it rained some more. In the afternoon, the boys and I decided to see what the sled hill looked like. It was not pretty, but they still went down on the slush and wet grass. They got very wet and muddy! I got to try out my snowshoes in the parts where there was still snow. The rest of it is almost gone, but it's probably going to snow again next week, so I think we can try again!

That big gray puddle is where we usually end up after sledding down the hill. We avoided that area this time!