February gripped us with its ice and snow for its short four-week life. We laughed, lived, learned, loved, and dreamed of warm weather and its accompanying greenery.
We began with Groundhog's Day and our annual indoor picnic. It didn't matter what the little rat's prediction was going to be; we knew we had a long road ahead with the cold. We celebrated anyway.
Rachel made this adorable cupcake.
The winter must have been getting to her as well, or else she's had this secret dark side all along:
We did a trade in February. When Ben and Jenny came into the state, they invited us to come stay with them and go skiing. I am not allowed to ski anymore thanks to my hip, and I'm not super at peace with the whole thing. (I'm working on it, I promise.) I didn't want to go and be reminded about something that life took away from me. And Brian wasn't sure if he was up to it this year, so we traded Michael for Harvey. Lea took Michael skiing one of the days, and we took Harvey so her family could go skiing.
Harvey loves us so much.
As I mentioned before, we did go see them at the cabin on Valentine's Day. It was fun hanging out with them.
While we had our typical snowy weather, Texas got hit with an atypical ice storm that essentially shut the whole state down. Not just roads, but power was out so many places. The propane tanks in Ben & Jenny's neighborhood couldn't be refilled because the trucks couldn't get into the neighborhood to refill it. Thousands of people didn't have heat. It was really bad and went on for several days (Feb 13-17). Adam and Sarah in Pfluggerville posted pictures of them all huddled around their table in winter clothes and trying to make food with their camping gear. My aunt in Dallas wrote about being without power most of that time. Ben and Jenny decided to stay here longer instead of heading back home to the disaster (they couldn't get home anyway). They sent their neighbors to check on their house and allowed them to borrow their electric heaters. It made us appreciate our cold weather because we at least have the tools to deal with cold weather.
But only a little.
We were a bit spoiled in Saratoga Springs because we rarely got snow, and when we did, it never stayed long. Here in Highland was a different story altogether.
The kids made the best of it and built igloos.
Gracie struggled getting to the yard to take care of her business.
We were feeling pretty justified in our snowblower purchase.
It did make for some pretty sunsets though.
A lot of the depth of snow came from drifting, but still. See this snowbank next to Gabe? That's after it had melted some!
No wonder we were dreaming about warm weather!
We were planning a big trip to Florida for March, so even though there was snow everywhere, we had to take stock of our summer clothes and see what we needed to buy. One of the big items was a swimming suit for Rachel. It's hard to just order one because she's so thin, so I wanted to get them early so I could take them in if needed. I ordered a bunch online, and she picked two to keep.
Can you guess which two she picked?
Trying to keep cabin fever at bay, we turned to Play doh for help.
Gabe and I went to the Children's Museum.
This poor guy really needed some extra love!
The Church put together the first ever Face-to-Face Broadcast for primary kids, and it was amazing! It was interactive and fun while being spiritual. Someone taught them how to draw a child praying.
Rachel made an extra one to give to Nana and Papa.
We recruited friends to help with chores.
And Brian went to his Dad's Symphonic Band Concert. He had to sort of sneak in and sit clear in the balcony because nobody was really allowed in to watch. All their concerts this last year were broadcast to a virtual audience.
This was Kirt's last year at BYU, and we knew we'd be out of town for his very last BYU concert, so Brian pulled some strings to be able to attend this one.
