East Coast Extremes

This has been a particularly bizarre winter here on the east coast with random drastic swings of temperature - one day it's 30 and then literally the next day it's 65. Last week this bizarre weather may have hit its peak - on Monday it was frigidly cold and we had a "blizzard" dumping 6 inches of snow, then by Saturday it was nearly 70 degrees! The only positive to this craziness is that our children get to experience all the extremes...in the same week!

One of the great things about working in a school is that you benefit from one of the best things about childhood - snow days! And yes, snow days are just as exciting as an adult as it was as a kid. Since we had a snow day on Monday, Marty and I got to have an unplanned bonus day of hanging out all day with the kids - a wonderful but rare thing for working parents! Lucas and I cuddled and stayed in the warm house while Marty and Ellie headed out during the snowstorm to play in the falling snow. They had a blast running around and falling the snow and making a snowman (Jolly 2 - we made the first Jolly during our last snow fall). Marty also improvised a sled since we don't have one, and pushed Ellie on our snow shovel! She thought it was hilarious and had a really great time.

On Saturday, the weather was so warm and gorgeous, we decided to take the kids to a nearby City park for our first family of four hiking trip! Ellie had a great time exploring the trails, inspecting trees and rocks, jumping over streams and standing on tree stumps. Lucas loved watching nature and seemed to have a really great time. Ellie did an absolutely amazing job - she walked the entire hike and we walked for almost 2 1/2 hours (though admittedly we stopped for a snack and to "take a little rest" quite a lot!) The area also has a creek with a lot of ducks, so we got to hang out and feed the ducks for a while too, which we all really enjoyed. Saturday was a great sneak peek of Spring, and boy are we ready!