A REAL Snow Day

Before going to bed on Thursday night, I really thought I would probably make the trip into work Friday morning because the weather forecast called for the possiblity of a light dusting of snow during the night.  I, of course, took that to mean we probably would get nothing.  Well, I was wrong, and so was the weather forecast for that matter! 

Here's a picture of my back yard late in the day on Thursday (around the time Ryan was grilling).

And here's a picture of what the same back yard looked like the next morning.

And here are some views from the front of my house...

Since I new there was a patchy layer of ice beneath all the snow that was now covering the roads, I decided staying home from work for the fourth day in a row was my plan for the day.

To cope with the weather, we decided to build a fire in the fireplace again - this week we've definitely used our fireplace more than we have in the six years we've lived in our house combined!  I just have to put another pic of it in here since a fire in the fireplace is such a rare occurrence in my house.

Since we had real snow and not just ice, Ryan and I both opted to work from home for the morning and take the afternoon off to play with Ryley.  Of course, getting out in the snow was first priority!

Ryley had a blast having a snow ball fight with Ryan and me...

After a quick warm-up in the house and changing into dry clothes, we went back out for round two.

Ryley was really excited about her "ice wand" (a big icicle from underneath the truck).

That is, until it broke.

But some snow basketball in the backyard helped her forget about the wand...

And she and Ryan both got a good workout playing "tag" in the snow.

Oscar even got in on the action, chasing everybody in the yard.

We definitely made the most of our afternoon off!