on thursday, i saw the weather forecast for friday-sunday, and it said 1-3". i told marc that he needed to get his car in on friday for the snow tires.
on friday morning, the forecast changed to 3-5". i drove marc and his tires to dodge.
on friday night, we went to bed to an updated forecast of 5-10" of snow by sunday.
i planned to take henry to the dentist saturday morning while marc and harper were at swimming, then hit the grocery on the way home so we could lazily watch the snow fall on saturday whilst eating soup and baked good.
saturday morning, we awoke to about 6" of wet, heavy snow. and several big branches broken from the tree in our front yard under the weight of the snow.
the plows hadn't yet gone through, the roads were full of slushy, brick-heavy snow, and it was still coming down. so we didn't go anywhere.
the forecast was changed to 7-10" at least.
within the next two hours we watched our tree lose about two-thirds of its branches to the snow. our neighbor behind us, whose willow got decimated in a wind storm a few weeks ago, lost another branch right onto the power lines and we saw sparks fly. luckily, the electricity stayed on. and our former/future neighbor next door? his tree lost a big branch into the yard, and another big branch broke off and was dangling perpendicularly to the street, blocking most of the road.
we got moderately bundled - it actually wasn't all that cold, just very, very snowy - and trudged into the backyard to take a christmas card photo, then the kids put on their layers and set out the play, marc grabbed the shovel, and i grabbed ... well ... i grabbed my camera and decided to document rather than help.
marc played chicken with mother nature: he shoveled while she continued to send the snow.
once he claimed victory, he celebrated by making a fort with harper.
then henry went to throw snowballs at the trees and try to knock snow off the branches, at which point we discovered he might need a belt for his new snow pants.
and remember the neighbors' willow? that landed on the power lines? well, after we came inside, cleaned up, got some cocoa, and sent the kids off to play, marc noticed smoke. so he called the fire department. and we waited.
they came out, noticed the smoldering had stopped, and said compared to other things they'd seen that day, they weren't going to worry about it just yet.
and they left.
alrighty then.
and that's how winter arrived in minnesota. literally overnight. after six weeks of amazingly warm, perfect fall weather.
much to the joy of my eldest, who heads four hours north tomorrow with his class for a week-long environmental camp. and has been praying for snow so he could snowshoe while there.
he got his wish.