April (Snow) Showers

We certainly had some showers over the weekend. It started just as Scott was (good hubby!) fertilizing the lawn, in a steady, building rain. The forecast said it was supposed to turn to snow at 1am, but when I peeked out the window at 5am, it was still just rain. By, 8am, however, we were blanketed with several inches of the white stuff.

It's amazing how different even a few miles makes. As the kids and I trucked up over Green Mountain, the snow was thicker and heavier than on our side of the mountain. The gym's parking lot was sloppy, and cars parked in crazy jigsaw puzzle rows. Thankfully, when it was time to leave, only one side of the car needed to be scraped, though we did have to wait about five minutes for the internal temperature to regulate so I could see out the front window.

We headed back up and over Green Mountain, then about 5 miles south to socialize and play and eat (healthily!) at McDonalds playland. There, the parking lots and roads were just wet. No snow.

By 11am , our friends up the mountain in Evergreen said they already had two feet of snow, but "down" at our home's elevation, the snow didn't ever accumulate to much more than two or three inches inches at at time. That said, I'm not sure I've ever shoveled such heavy snow. As I pushed and hoisted, it continued to fall in soppy clumps, and my jeans were soaked by the time I came in. It was impossible, of course, to keep the kids from scooping up handfuls. Olivia was at first thrilled, and later not a happy camper in her fleece mittens. We followed up the shoveling escapade with a hot bath.

Pretty much from Thursday night until Saturday morning, the rain-snow mix did not cease. At least at our house, it took only two shoveling episodes to keep the driveway clear. I-70 which takes folks up to the ski hills was closed Saturday morning, though, due to accidents, avalanche danger and rockslides. We heard that the snow on the trees up there was causing branches to snap.

Who knew such a storm would bring five inches of precipitation in the middle of April? That made up for our dry, dry winter in the span of three days. Now, of course, we're expecting 70 and 80 degree weather in the next few days, so it's been sloppy at the park. But we're grateful for the moisture. Just ready for the May flowers.