Original Airdate

I visited my grandparents in El Paso, TX, over Spring Break. It’s always so beautiful out there, but unfortunately, we couldn’t go outside much for the first few days because of some massive dust storms –I could have sworn that it smelled like dust inside of the house, it was crazy. It was great to visit them though. My grandma taught me how to play Spinners – a Domino game – which was a lot of fun.

I got this bracelet at the El Paso airport (with my Easter money; thanks Gma D!). **It was made in Guatemala!

The only downside to the trip was not getting much of my school work done. But that’s typical of most vacations, and I’m glad that I got time to just hang out and rest.

I came home last night and this morning – okay, this afternoon; I slept in – I woke up and went outside on my back porch. It smells like summer outside! It’s amazing how fast months go by, isn’t it? I feel like I wrote my post on the Snowpocalypse only a few days ago. And now it smells like summer.

It’s beautiful outside. Since I was in El Paso I didn’t get a chance to see the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C., there are, however, some very beautiful cherry trees in my backyard. Here are some pictures.

I know you’ve probably gotten tired off my pictures of snow – we don’t usually have such extreme winters over here, so I just want to document each time it happens. I can assure you, however, that this was the biggest storm this winter – so far!

On Friday, February 5th, 2010, there was a storm watch and the news told us to prepare for a gigantic storm. School was shortened to a half day, and it started to snow at around 11 AM during my geometry class. When school let out, we walked outside to see the light snow hit the pavement and immediately melt. I’d noticed all day that there had been very little accumulation. On my way to the buses I told my friend that there wasn’t even going to be a storm. She replied, “Have a little faith, man.” It turns out that she was right. Over the next twenty four hours, over two feet of snow would be piling up in my backyard, my driveway, and on my roof.

Here are some pictures I took on Friday night once the snow had finally started to accumulate.(I used flash for these pictures; I thought it looked really cool – it really makes the snowflakes pop!)

Here’s the backyard.

Just look at those snowflakes!

Here are some shots from our front porch.

Here are some of my favorite snowflake flurry pictures!

My dad and I decided to take a walk in the driving snow at 10 PM. I know, it sounds crazy, but it was just so beautiful outside. I took my camera, thinking I would be able to handle it and take some pictures. It turned out, however, that the snow was in charge. My camera was soaked in a matter of minutes, and I was so cold that my shaking hands prevented me from getting any good shots. Just picture me and my dad standing in snow up to our knees, standing; waiting for me to get a good picture of a tree. Needless to say, that was the only time I attempted to take a picture.

We had planned on walking about three blocks through my neighborhood until we reached the park, but we soon learned that that was out of the question. The snowflakes were hitting our faces and giving us headaches. We had to turn around and get home.

Here’s the one picture I got out of that walk.

Going on a walk during the extreme weather wasn't the only crazy thing I did that night. Before the walk, my parents and I had to deal with trees that were threatening to fall on our house! We were worried that the trees that lined our backyard fence were going to fall over. They’ve been leaning over for the past few years, but this storm was so snowy and windy that it really butchered them. My dad and I walked outside to see if we could cut down the trees – it was still snowing at this point, need I remind you.

The little divots in the snow are our footprints from our walk out to check on the trees – it snowed a lot overnight!

We decided that we couldn’t do anything about the trees during the storm and that we should just hope for the best. As soon as the snow melts we’ll cut down the trees. {Here are some clearer shots of the trees.}

Don’t they look like tropical trees in a hurricane?

Here they are, leaning over into – let me rephrase that, onto – our yard.

The storm started to get really serious that night. The snow was wet and it started to pile up and stick to the screens over our windows.

The next morning, it was still snowing, but we made the wise decision to start shoveling.

I took a few pictures and then helped my dad finish clearing the driveway.

Those cars are buried!

We lost power that day. It stayed out for twenty four hours. Temperatures were below freezing on Saturday night, so my parents and I huddled up in the front room in front of the fireplace.

It was very clichéd of us, but as soon as the lights went off, the board games came out. We played Trouble – until Charlie got too interested in the dice – and then we played Rummikub.

Fortunately, we have a gas stove, so we had warm food to eat. My mom came up with a clever idea for food we that needed refrigeration. We had snow on our back porch, why not use it? We stuck all of our perishables in the snow banks that were created when my mom dug a path for my dog, Charlie, to get down to the yard.