Snow Day!

    I told you before...I am in hell...and here we go again - cold, windy and...snow!  Last night, when we left the Icecats game, it was near 10 and we did not have to wear jackets...imagine my surprise, when, at 7 a.m., I went to let Bella outside to find a blanket of fresh snow....

       It was, indeed, beautiful...on this peaceful morning...and Bella was delighted!  Her first experience with snow!

          She walked gingerly through it at first...hmmm, it did not hurt or sting, so it must be fun!  Then, she sniffed it, pawed at it and took off frolicing wildly through it!  It was fun to watch, but then, the cold started biting at me...and I remembered how much I was looking forward to taking Cody through Fantasy Island today on some new paths Tom wanted to show us...and I remembered 'oh yeh, I'm in hell'...so I went back to bed.
        Around 8, Antonio was stirring and I told him 'Tonio, go look out the window.'   He squealed with delight and yelled for Autumn, who sat up and said 'Dad, my head hurts'...While Antonio scrambled to find warm clothes, I took Aut's temp...99.  Not so good.  Now, we would miss going to see Vito and Rosa, too, who are Italy bound on Wednesday.  I gave her some motrin...and went back to bed....only Antonio needed help, and I remembered another reason I'm glad it rarely snows...it took 20 minutes to outfit the boy so he could withstand the elements!
       And he was off!

             Yes, that is a Marvin the Martian hat...this boy was fired up!  He threw snowballs to an anxious Bella, who chased them down as if they were rabbits...a boy and his dog...then, he started to make a snowman - now, this is only the second snow Tonio has seen in his life time, so he was struggling...dammit, I had to get more clothes on and help him - I may have mentioned this, but I only own 1 pair of jeans, because I always feel that I should be able to wear shorts....that's why Kim and I moved to Tucson.  I got geared up and we set about making a snowman, complete with carrots for nose, chocolate chips for eyes (you can guess which animal ate those!) and Tonio found some sticks for his arms and mouth.

                                           Nicely done Antonio!  And Bella did try to help!
                      Around 9, I ran over to pick Cody up at his friend, Johnny's house, where he had spent the night and the entire neighborhood was in their little park playing in the snow.  The entire neighborhood...the snow didn't stand a chance, it was already wiped out.
                     When Cody got home, he hooked up with his buddy Alex and they built a snow ramp in our park (which was not overrun by the neighborhood and had plenty of snow left) and pulled each other over it on Alex's boogie board!  They got some pretty decent air.  Channel 4 news stopped by and filmed them jumping the ramp, interviewed the boys (and Amy and I) and then had the boys pelt the anchorman with snowballs - Cody hit him square in the back of the head - which looked pretty cool on the 5:30 news! I went to KVOA.com to see if I could find any video footage, but it looks like it may not get posted until tomorrow.
   Here's a shot of our park before Alex and Cody got there!

                   Amy and I were trying to remember that last time it snowed and we decided it was 4 years ago - I remember they kept the kids home.  Amy told me she had to talk Kim into it!  Kim was worried about Cody and Autumn missing school, but later, when she called me at work, was happy she did since the kids had so much fun. 

                                   Cody and Alex are being interviewed for Channel 4 news (guy in blue).  Oh, and Amy made a snow angel - I should have taken a picture of that!
              The rest of the day, was movie day, medicine runs and I made some fideo soup for Aut, which she ate two bowls of.  Plus, I got a hot tip about strawberries being on sale at Fry's, and got her to eat two bowls of strawberries, too!   Cody had fun playing with Alex all day and Amy and Tom took them to the Park Mall and kept him well fed!
              The thing Kim and I absolutely loved about snow out here, is, you get to enjoy it while it is still pristine, so peaceful and beautiful - and within a few hours, it is gone!  No shoveling, no plows to bury what you just shoveled, no gray, dirty snow lingering for days and no snow to drive in.  It is fun to see it through the bambini's eyes...they had so much fun and Autumn was such a good sport about not being able to play - her fever topped out at 101 and she was not feeling good enough to make it outdoors, anyway.
             And Kim used to like going up to Mt. Lemmon to let the kids play in the snow - sometimes we'd bring hefty bags to use as sleds and most of the time, the kids wore socks for gloves!  It was always nice, because you could enjoy the snow and then drive back down the mountain and warm up!
               When we went out back, just now, to say good night to Kimmy, Tonio asked 'Mama, did you send us that snow today?'...and Autumn added 'Please send us some sun tomorrow!'...

           "The darkest hour is just before the dawn..."
                                                            Proverb.      Except Sunday as it delivers us Monday...it's all dark...

               Love,
                       Dave