The Winter of 2014: We survived...

Barely. Or that's how it felt anyway.  As far as winters go, 2014 was a doozy.  With the "winter storms" arriving menacingly and unabated from December till March these recent months have been a blur of salted steps, shoveled sidewalks, cold cars, drafty windows, extra blankets, and the heaviest socks in the drawer.  There were moments (mostly when the boys had emptied every last toy onto the living room floor while chasing each other in never-ending shrieking circles around the house) where Jen and I would shake our fists at the falling snow and question why, oh why, do we live so far from the equator.  In our weakest moments we may have considered packing it all in and moving somewhere just a bit warmer.  Even now, with April approaching and daffodils and crocuses pushing their way through finally thawed soil, I am not entirely convinced that we've seen our last flurry of the year...

As much as we'll always remember the winter of 2014 for it's snow totals and power outages, I do hope that some things don't get lost in the shuffle.  Blanket forts, block towers, story times, blanket cuddles, family dinners and Frozen soundtrack listening sessions may not make for thrilling blog posts, but those are the activities that carried us through four months of cabin fever, and for that I am grateful. 

 Of course, the best part of any winter is how much it's ending makes us appreciate and anticipate whats to come.  And this year more than any I can remember all of us have gleefully enjoyed the first time running around on open grass, and finally testing out those Christmas-gift bikes on a dry (salt free!) sidewalk.