We have snow in Virginia Beach

We have been listening to the news forecasters give their predictions for many years, promising snow and have been disappointed many times. At the beginning of the week, we heard we were going to have the "Biggest Storm in Years". After rolling our eyes, we continued to watch the news coverage as the snow and ice moved across the country on the doppler. Our thoughts began to change and we thought that perhaps this time might be different, and we may actually get snow!!! Wavy 10 news station said that we were going to get 12-16". :)

So, on Friday the news said that we were definitely getting snow so I thought that I better prepare for what was to come. After dropping Alex off at school, I headed to the commissary. Not only was everyone preparing for the storm, it was also payday for the military. I usually avoid going to the commissary around that time of the month because it is insane-but I had to get milk, bread, eggs and other essentials. I had to brave it! I pulled in the parking lot at 8:30 and there was already a line waiting for carts. By the time I made it around to the milk, the line was at the back of the store for check out. I finally made it up to the register and when the lady handed me the receipt and my change, she said, "Hurry-Run for your life! This place is crazy!!"

After leaving the commissary, I decided that I needed to go on a hunt for a sled within Hampton Roads. It's something that we haven't needed in previous duty stations or even here for that matter! So, I began my journey across the city and into many stores where I was turned away. I went to Walmart, Toys R Us, Dicks Sporting Goods, Sports Authority, Target, Ace Hardware, and Taylors. My friend Katherine told me that her mother bought a sled at BJ's before Christmas, so I decided that maybe-just maybe they may have some left. I walked in and right before my eyes-was a sled that looked like a rocket! After the sled purchase, Alex and I went home to wait for Allen's arrival home and the big white flakes.

We went to bed early, so we didn't see any snow showers last night. However, I woke up at 6 a.m. to take a peek out the window. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but there wasn't a sign of grass and our lawn was covered in a white beautiful blanket of fresh snow. I went in and woke up Alex and carried her to the window so she could see it. She mumbled from her sleepy state, "When can I go out and play in it? When can we go sledding?" I told her that we had to wait for the sun to rise, and then we could go outside. I carried her back to bed, and I started my day by grabbing a cup of coffee, starting a fire in the fireplace and grabbing my book. A couple hours later, my family finally stirred and decided to head out for some fun. We got all bundled up and out the door we went. We ran around the yard with Alex and Daisy (who wasn't to sure about the snow at first), threw snowballs and made a snowman. After the 1st round of fun, it was time to come inside for some hot chocolate and warm up a bit. By this time, we probably had about 4" which isn't much, but when you aren't used to seeing snow-it's alot! Around 1:30-2:00 Alex went over to Denise's house for a play date and some more "fun in the snow". I laid down and took a nap for a couple hours while Allen tinkered around in the garage. It was a nice relaxing afternoon, and our house was awful quiet so I called to see if Alex was ready to come home. Allen walked Alex over there but because it was getting dark, we decided to venture out in his truck. It was really icy and I'm glad that we only had to go to the next block over to pick her up!

Tonight, we are trying to devise our plan for sledding tomorrow. There isn't very many hills in Virginia Beach, so we aren't quite sure where we are going. I do know, that Alex will be on her sled tomorrow regardless if Allen and I have to pull her around or we have to make due with a small slope somewhere in the city. Some of my fondest memories as a child is sledding down the big hill with the sled chute in Nebraska City, Ne. The chute was huge and had stairs, we'd climb to the top, get situated and would shoot down wooden plank to the bottom of the hill. I remember my dad lugging up all of our sleds and tobaggans (in the south Tobaggans are hats-in the midwest they are huge sleds that hold 4 people) over and over for us. He didn't quit until we said we were ready to quit! So, tomorrow we are off to make some memories for Alex. :)

Sidenote: We ended up with about 7" and the news said there were over 1200 car accidents reported. Wow! In the Hampton Roads area, many people don't know how to drive when it's sunny let alone when it's snowing and icy which leads to alot of accidents. We stayed off the roads due to this. ;)

Our House

Our Street

Alex loving the snow!

Our angel making a snow angel

Daisy racing through the snow!

Allen helped Alex make a snowman

Alex and I putting the final touches on the snowman!

We told Alex to go and stand by the snowman so we could take a picture of her. As I was getting ready to snap the picture, Daisy ran over and decided to get in the photo and ummm.....priceless!

Alex was on a mission finding arms for her snowman!