It's a WINTER Wonderland Out There!

Holy Moly!  It has been so beautiful watching these mounds of snow fall.   I still can't believe it snowed and snowed and snowed.  We have made some great family memories playing outside today.  The kids could hardly wait to get out there this morning when it was still coming down hard, and looking at the pictures now and realizing how fast it disappears down here, I am so glad we got out there to enjoy the snow while it was still falling!

A snowball so large, it knocked Justin over!!  Ha,ha

Our goal when we went outside was to build a snowman, but Jonathan suggested an igloo or fort and the big kids gave up on the snowman idea.  Only Ryan built a snowman and his main concern was the grapes for the eyes and mouth more than actually forming the balls for the snowman!

We are not exactly sure of how much snow we got.  Katelynn measured it around 8+ inches with her measuring stick.   Regardless of how much we got, poor Ryan had trouble walking in it without falling!

My foot is under that snow somewhere! 

The first huge snowballs together for the beginning of a fort!

Yesterday it didn't stick to the trees.  It was so gorgeous falling down and covering all the trees!

The roads were covered in snow.  Jonathan tried going off to get a decent ride in without the kids and came back rather quickly.  He could barely see from the snow coming down and kept getting stuck.  So, off the kids went to try out sledding again with a lot more snow!

Ryan was content just having mommy get an exercise by pulling him all around.

 Both Ryan and the big kids got a ton of snow piled up in the sleds from being pulled between ruts.  We had to keep emptying the sleds!  At one point, Jonathan pulled two sled with the four wheeler and Ryan and I rode in one.  Ryan opted to get on the four wheeler halfway through because we were getting so covered in snow!

Our family snow picture!!

 

 

 

 

Only in North Carolina does it snow like crazy all morning long and then by afternoon the sun is out and you actually got hot wearing a jacket if you were working hard enough.  Jonathan and Justin took advantage of the warm temperatures and shoveled the driveway! 

Ryan and I got out a pool tube and started sledding with that.  It was super fun, but Katelynn and Justin took it over rather quickly.  It got a hole in it after probably two turns of them riding it in and we had to give up!

But it lasted long enough to knock Katelynn over going super fast down the hill!

By afternoon, our fort was coming along nicely!

And by late afternoon, the kids thought they were such pros at sledding that they needed to up the adventure and become snowboarders!

 

It was a great day full of snow fun!  We lost power for about an hour or two, but we spent the time outdoors anyway so it worked out fine!  For the most part (except for about two hours in the afternoon when the whining was increasing), we haven't even gotten cabin fever!