Here's our adventure with some photos along the way...
The storm started last Friday night (February 5th). Ms. K had decided to close for the day in anticipation of the storm so I stayed home with Maddie. David had worked a double shift on Thursday night so that he could leave Friday afternoon before the storm kicked in. We made it through Friday night with no problems and woke up to a white wonderland! When David went out to shovel the snow, it was already up past David's knees...and the storm wasn't even over yet! After David had cleared our walkway, we brought Maddie out to take a few pictures - the snow was taller than she was!
Here are some more photos outside our house from the MIDDLE of the storm!
The tree outside our house...
Our roof...
The view of our next door neighbor's house...
The back of David's car...
My car, with snow all the way up to the door handles!
Then, at about 1:30pm, our power went out. We didn't have any trouble keeping Maddie entertained and we lit candles that night. We bundled Maddie up really well and she slept through the night without any trouble, despite the cold. Have I mentioned what an awesome baby we have?! When we woke up though, our house was 52! Yowsers!! It's one thing to have the temperature drop to 52, but another to have that as your starting temperature. Especially when our overnight lows for Saturday night were forecasted for the single digits! David started digging out my car...we were thinking that I had a full tank of gas and if need be, we were all going to sleep in there with the heater running on Saturday night. It was strange to feel so trapped and helpless. Our streets hadn't been plowed and all the two wheel drive vehicles that had tried to make it down the street had gotten stuck...at one point we had a line up of six cars I think, all stuck one behind the other! Then, our angels of the day swooped in and saved us! Joe, our good friend and neighbor, called to check in and see how we were doing. He let us know that a family friend of his had a four wheel drive van that was able to maneuver the streets and could come pick us up, and bring us to his sister's house (who had power and heat). Oh my goodness, we jumped at that! So while we waited for the van to get here, Maddie and I played in the back seat of my car with the heater running.
Here's my car (the rental) dug out of the snow and Maddie and I playing inside it...
Once the van was nearby, there was still a lineup of cars stuck on our street, so we had to walk ourselves up to the main road to get meet the van. I felt like we were in the Dennis Quaid movie "Day After Tomorrow"...we were trekking through three feet of snow with all our belongings and Maddie bundled up tight. It was just crazy!!
We spent that afternoon and night at Joe's sister's house (Angela) with her family and Joe's mom (Ms. Patti) and had such a good time! We were so thankful for heat and to be able to let Maddie play in someplace warm! Angela has three children and was so well equipped too - she had a pack and play, high chair, toys, you name it! Maddie was in heaven! We felt so at home there and couldn't have been more appreciative! And David was especially happy that we were able to watch the Superbowl and see his Saints take home the trophy!
Then...just three days later...part two of our winter blizzard hit! On top of the almost three feet we had already, we got another foot or so of snow! So crazy!! And this storm was more of a true blizzard with wind gusts up to 45 miles an hour. David went out throughout the day to try and shovel and keep ahead of the snowfall and as soon as he shoveled a foot of snow away, the wind blew eight inches back in its place. The wind just cut right through you too, making it even more uncomfortable and difficult to be in. But, thankfully, with this second storm our power stayed on and we enjoyed our nice toasty warm house! You can see in these pictures how bad the visibility was with the high winds...
So all in all, I think we got about four feet of snow at our house! I am so thankful that we are on the other side of it now, and for the amazing friends we have who helped us through it all. This storm broke a 111 year old "snowiest winter" record for DC that was set back in the winter of 1898/1899 and I am seriously hoping we don't have another storm like this for another 111 years!
Love you all and stay warm!
Nile, David & Maddie
