just like the good old days

My kids finally got to experience the kind of snow that I grew up with.  The kind you could sled down without removing all the snow on the first trip down, the kind that covered your shoes when you walked through it.  This January we had two great snow falls  two weeks apart from each other.  Both produced days off of school.   The first snow came fast and unexpectedly during the day and the schools and town rushed to get kids and get home.  There were cars on the sides of every road that either slid off or just parked there when the hill was just too steep.  It reminded me of a Valentine's day that we got a surprise snow and Joel and I walked home from school for some reason (didn't want to wait on the bus?) when it let out.  I remember how fun it was to trudge through the neighborhood  as the snow came down.  I also loved reliving the excitement of my youth as the phone call would come each day announcing one more day off school.  I love it all.

We had fun sledding and building large snow men.  Since the first snow came during the day, we waited until about 4pm to go out and play.  But we planned ahead-we put our swim suits on under our snow gear and when we were done playing, we peeled off our clothes and jumped in the hot tub.  We have lived at our place for 3 years now and I finally got to do this.  I have always wanted to be in a hot tub while it was snowing.  It was great.  We had a snow ball fight, Jared made a snow angel, and we relaxed and enjoyed the beauty of the snow (well, maybe just I did).

carter compared

Three years ago, while we were out playing in the snow, I took a picture of Carter because he looked old to me at that moment and I wanted to capture it-this older version of Carter that gave me a glimpse of what he might look like some day.  Well, we were back in the snow a few weeks back (post to come) and I thought about it and snapped another one.  I don't think I captured an older version of Carter this time; he looks his age of 15.  But I love to compare the two.

jared's eagle

Jared did his eagle scout project in January.  He, along with many family and friends, helped the Boys and Girls Club.  They had recently put in a new playground and had a huge pile of dirt that need to be spread around the elevated playground to make it safe.  I didn't get a before picture of the dirt pile, but it was huge and frozen.  We were there for about four to five hours and always had 4-8 people shoveling it.  Others moved and spread the dirt around the playground.  There was also a basketball court that had trash, tires, and layers of mud on it that the club wanted cleaned off.  It was a great day and Jared did a pretty good job of getting out of his comfort zone and taking charge of telling people what they needed to do.  

Jared is my natural born worker.  He is not afraid to get dirty and work hard.   We knew that his eagle project needed to be like this; hard labor.  It couldn't be collecting items for a charity because that is not what Jared is about.  He is about working hard, with this hands, physically getting a job done. And that's what he did; he never stopped working all day.  I see my dad's work ethic in Jared and it makes me proud.