Winter Blast hits the Northwest

A winter blast has covered from Salem north to Seattle in snow and ice. It's not as bad as some years I remember, but it's fun to be stuck together in the house. Yesterday, we got about 6" of snow at our house and overnight about an inch of freezing rain (ice).

Thursday (12/18/2008) I was in Bellevue, WA when the first storm hit there. It effectively shut the city down. Seattle wasn't much better off. Just driving 4 blocks to work required 4-wheel drive. The roads were icy and not well kept by the city. It snowed all day and accumulation was over 8" where I worked. Friday the temperature was in the teens from Portland to Seattle. The roads were mostly dry and conditions good south of Olympia to Portland. A truck jack-knifed south of Olympia and held traffic for quite some time. Total commute south - 4.5 hours.

The boys have spent a couple days sledding nearby. Ethan braved the frozen snow cold and let me take some pictures of him playing on our playground. We got another dusting of snow after the boys came in and we're all waiting for what's next. The weather forecast is predicting more freezing rain this evening and some snow tomorrow.

Priscila's been cleaning the upstairs, while I've been cleaning the kitchen. It never gets really clean.... I've been carrying Andrew in the baby backpack most of the day. Combined with shoveling snow with the boys - I'm completely beat.

Now we're going to enjoy Aunt Mel's Popcorn balls and some Monopoly. Happy early Christmas!