Seattle snow globe

The Seattle area is a funny place to live. Don't get me wrong- it's my city. I love so many things about this area- the lushness, the hiking trails, the amazing parks, the rain (usually), the hippie come-as-you-are-granola-ness of it all. I love finding an amazing hole-in-the-wall restaurant, watching the street performers at Pike Place, and exploring the spices, handmade crafts, and luscious produce at the farmers market.  Exploring the beaches along the Puget Sound, collecting shells and finding sand crabs with the kids. I heart the zoo (where Cam and I got hitched!). I even sometimes like being stuck on the 520 bridge because, well, at least I get to watch the boats float along Lake Washington.

Things I'm not such a huge fan of? The way the buses smell like urinal cakes. The rats the size of small dogs that scurry around Greenlake. Oh, and the way people in Seattle can drive fifty over the speed limit in a rain squall, but everyone panics at the first snowflake. It happens every year. Our one, big snow storm. Schools shut down. People share their near-death-black-ice experiences with each other. I-5 becomes a parking lot. The news covers nothing BUT the weather. It sucks. We have it pretty bad when it snows here because the temperature stays right around the freeze-thaw-freeze zone, so if it's icy, it's slippery. And wet. 

But it's also so much fun!!! Even though everything shuts down and nobody knows how to drive in this stuff, people come out of their homes to enjoy this amazing thing called snow. This year, the big snow storm hit the week of Thanksgiving. Apollo was in heaven. I was... cold. But happy. Sunshine liked it until she got cold and grumpy. I put so many layers on the kids, they looked like marshmallows. The chickens hid in their coop under the heat lamp. Cameron played football with all the neighborhood guys and threw snowballs at poor, unsuspecting people (namely me). When we weren't in the snow, we drank lots of hot chocolate and snuggled under our down blankets.  We even broke out the Christmas decorations and sang carols. But it was short-lived. The day after Thanksgiving, it all melted. It happened so fast. I kind of miss it, at least when I'm not driving and when I'm not cold. I'm hoping we'll get at least one more epic storm- maybe right around Christmas day. Please?

 Football

 Probably the most exciting day ever in the life of our laundry basket

Becca and Apollo's snowman