Snow WEEK 2021 in Pictures, Part 1

This week certainly held more than its fair share of stress & challenges for us, but what a gift it was through it all. Derek's clinic was even closed for the duration of the week & we were so thankful to have him with us for nine straight days! Derek & I were both amazed by how much our three kiddos enjoyed the snow. They stayed out for hours each time we suited them up and were so joyful! I thought for sure Brady would get cold & want to come in early, but he never once complained of being cold! They handled it like pros! 

 

This was such a momentous week for our kids! This is the first time they will ever remember waking up to snow at our house. And it's the first time any of us have seen snow since 2018 when we visited Sequoia National Park. Fast forward to 2021, and Brady is wearing Hadley's 2018 snowsuit/jacket & Hadley is wearing Shelby's. Crazy how time flies! And clearly, Brady's feelings on snow have changed a bit in three years! ;)

The five of us all head back to work and school tomorrow after an adventure-filled week! Aside from a boil water notice & slim-pickings at the grocery store, things almost feel like normal again! Derek was outside working on our deck today wearing shorts & short sleeves in 74 degree weather..crazy the difference a week makes! I'll be back soon with more pictures of our snowy fun!

Snow WEEK 2021 in Memes

 Whew, what an adventure this past week has been!!! I think this meme pretty much sums it up:

On Monday, February 15th, 2021 (Presidents Day), we woke up to no power, a temperature of 9 degrees, a wind chill of NEGATIVE SIX degrees, and about fives inches of snow on the ground! Needless to say, this type of weather doesn't happen very often in South Texas. ;)  And then on Thursday around breakfast time, the snow started to fall again & didn't stop until dinnertime. In all, we got about 4 more inches of snow that day. Because Texas isn't equipped for a snowstorm (much less two back-to-back snowstorms!) and such low temperatures, this completely shut us down! Practically everything was closed all week from the schools to Chick-fil-a to Lowe's. (We found out about Lowe's the hard way when our backflow preventer broke due to the extreme temperatures & we needed to cap the pipe..thankfully Derek was able to make it to Home Depot with minutes to spare before they closed early for the inclement weather!)

This next meme below floored me. We were in the midst of a four day Presidents Day Weekend when the first snowstorm hit, and we were on Spring Break last year when the world initially shut down for COVID. 

Not only did all of the local schools & businesses shut down this week, so did our power & water. It was a nightmare all across the state! Thankfully, we were only without power for about 14 hours on Monday and then another couple hours on Tuesday. And we had PLENTY of firewood on hand for our fireplace & our camping stove to use if necessary. But a LOT of San Antonio and the state of Texas was without power/heat and without a fireplace for DAYS. We had a crash course in ERCOT & how Texas has their own power grid (who knew?!), and I discovered I had never actually thought about what the phrase "going off the grid" meant. I know, I know! :) The word "grid" never really held any meaning for me before this week! The lack of power didn't hit our house too hard, but we were also without water for about 48 hours and that was ROUGH. Last night (Thursday night), the San Antonio Water System actually put out their predicted timeline of water restoration to various parts of the city, and we weren't expected to get our water back until Sunday or Monday. Hearing that news was hard, and my morale tanked. We surprisingly woke up to running water in our house this morning, and I literally ran through the house cheering with the kids still in their beds. ;) We have lived through our fair share of memorable snowstorms--looking at you Blizzard of '93 and Snowmagedden and SnOMG in DC--but going days without power or water was never part of the equation before now. Thankfully, we are out of the woods now, but sooo many people across our city and state are still without power and/or water and are dealing with frozen/busted pipes. We're also still under a boil water warning. {But Derek refuses to boil our water, which is another story for another day, ha!} It has been a week we will certainly never forget! Derek & I kept saying that we didn't remember snow days being so stressful as kids. ;) But as we were sitting around the fireplace last night drinking hot cocoa after playing in the snow (and I was admittedly feeling bitter & grumpy due to our lack of water/dishes & laundry piling up/inability to shower/toting pool water into the house to flush toilets), Shelby said in the most sincere voice: "I hope my kids get a week like this one day."

And all of Derek's preparedness paid off again like it did last spring. I like to give him a hard time about all of the emergency food supply kits, jugs of water, and countless jars of peanut butter he keeps stored in our pantry...but boy are we thankful for it!! And in the days leading up to our crazy low temps, he was filling our cars with gas & outside in the cold wrapping our faucets in strands of Christmas lights to keep things from freezing. He was made for situations like these! Hopefully in the coming days our gas stations, grocery store shelves, and restaurant menus will get back to normalcy...

Almost exactly a year apart, this week felt eerily like the first days and weeks of COVID shutdowns--anxious about all of the unknowns and mentally fatigued from constantly checking social media feeds, text chains, and the news for updates. But we made it, and the kids loved every minute of it! .Next up--picture overload of all of our fun in the snow! Until then, praying for everyone's power & water to continue to be restored and for damage to be minimal.