Record-setting

Last night Peoria set a new record for snowiest recorded season, surpassing the old record back in 1978. Our average is 26.3 inches, but as of tonight this year's total is 52.5 inches. However, with all the melting there is only a few inches on the ground. The picture was taken Friday morning. Thursday night's revelers plastered the bronze statue of Lydia Moss Bradley (Bradley University's founder) with snow to make her into a snowman.

Rubbery Legs

There is very little snow left, so yesterday Kris and I dug the bikes out of the shed and rode them all the way to the airport and back. The picture shows the new terminal, which is almost completed. Our legs were a little stiff afterward. Last night Karen and I went to dinner to celebrate our 17.5 year anniversary (which is tomorrow) and when we got home Kris was reading to Katie. Today they played car in the living room while it rained outside (Wisconsin is getting a snowstorm). This afternoon, people from our church went roller-skating. Katie has been on toy skates before, but found the real roller skates to be a bit much, so we switched to skates without bearings. Karen and Kris did fine; I chickened out and went wheel-less. Everybody had fun.

Warm Weather

We have been having a warm spell lately and a lot of that snow from that storm has melted. Got to 63 F today. In a flower bed I saw what looked like the tip of a hyacinth and daffodils. Our rhodedendron leaves are all uncurled. Tonight I saw a single moth fluttering by the lights. No flowers, no mates...if the early bird gets the worm then the early moth gets...nothing.

Super Bowl Sunday

Last Sunday afternoon I took advantage of the deep snow to go for a snowshoe in the nearby woods. Lots of deer tracks, and I even found a couple fossils in the creekbed, but most everything was under snow. The snow was deep enough cover landmarks and that got a little confusing, but backtracking was easy with huge snowshoe prints! After I got back to the house we watched Super Bowl 45 and cheered the Packers to victory. It got pretty stressful - I had a huge headache at the two-minute warning - but it went away when the Packers won. Most of this past week was pretty cold, but we are now entering a thaw. Glad I squeezed in that short snowshoe run. This has been the snowiest December, January, and February in Peoria history, and the second snowiest winter in Peoria history. Kris and Katie are mostly recovered from their respective illnesses, I'm now battling a cold, and Karen is pretty healthy.

Snow Days

The much anticipated "Snowmageddon" storm system rolled over us from Monday to today. Monday was a couple inches, then a break. Tuesday the snow began in earnest. (We even had lightning and thunder with the snow - only about the 3rd time I have ever experienced that). Karen, Kris, and I would go out once in a while to shovel. The snow was done by the time we got up this morning, and our street and our driveway were clear by 1 pm. All told, we had 15" of snow these past few days. Our deepest snow was over 3 feet in a spot that fortunately we did not have to shovel. The average season snow to date is 16" - this year we have 46". Schools for Katie and Kris were canceled Tuesday through Thursday; for me Bradley closed at noon on Tuesday, and (much to my surprise) will still be closed Thursday. Kris missed school Monday, too, due to some sort of strep throat strain and is still under the weather. Katie has had a fever, too. My sister has relayed some storm stories from Chicago - sounds like things were worse up there. Kris built a huge blanket fort in the living room yesterday and slept in it last night and tonight. This afternoon we played outside a little bit. We certainly had the snow to use the snowshoes! We outfitted the snowmen we set up on Saturday in Packer garb. With this cold, the wet snow they were made from are hard as rocks.