Whoa, Winter!

It's no secret that I like snow.  So I guess it has been a good year to live in Peoria. Or central Illinois, or the midwest in general...   we broke a record this year as the Snowiest winter in Peoria EVER! Total accumulation so far is 53.4 inches and we're expecting more tonight.  Although I think it's forecasted more as 'slush falling from the sky' since our temps have been warmer.

We got our first decent accumulation on December 14th.

And I feel like we've made the most of it!  This snowman lives on in the boys' hearts and they kept track of him until his bump in the yard was finally not visible two months later!

We also made good use of snow making snow cream.

And doing some sledding. 

I really do love the blanket of white, it's so peaceful and quiet.

And every time it's almost been gone...

We got another nice round to make things all pretty again.

Once it started to get piled up, we didn't see the ground for a month at least.  Our neighborhood has looked like this most of the time. 

And our mailbox like this. 

And I don't remember what it looks like without this snow along the driveway.

The pile of shoveled snow has been almost as tall as the boys.

 ...we (i.e. Derek) have been digging ourselves out a lot this winter.

And it requires trudging through nearly waist deep snow to get to the backyard.

We also had a 'thunder-snow' storm where there was thunder and snow.  And we had rain on top of all of it one day.  Then an eery fog set it.  

The rain aided the melting process.

But more snow came soon.

This day, Miles looked out and said, "Daddy can't go anywhere, the snow grabbed his tires!".

While out playing one day, I dug down to see if I could find the bottom...

I couldn't because I hit ice.  And the different layers of the different snowfalls was fun to sort through.

The last two days have been warmer so we've seen a thaw start. Like, whoa, we've seen a thaw start... puddles, puddles, puddles!  As I said, we're expecting more snow tonight, but it won't stick around.  And as I also said, I like the snow, but warm sunshine and a taste of being out without coats again has made me ready for spring.  But I wouldn't mind just a little more snow either.  :)