The Gates Girls: Polar Vortex Winter Storm

Unprecedented. I'm tired of living through unprecedented events and would go for some more normalcy - but that doesn't seem to be what the universe has in store...

There was all sorts of hubbub before this storm came in that I was certain was going to end up being no big deal... after all, the weather experts had not predicted either of the big snowfalls we've had in the last few years. This time they were saying 100% chance of snow with about 4-6 inches on the ground. Yea, right. We were totally expecting since they were going out on a limb and predicting all of this, it would end up being zero. Well, they were right. We were wrong. ha.

We took all the necessary precautions and the kids were super excited to see if it was going to snow. They woke up Friday morning to a giant blanket of snow - we measured - NINE INCHES!!!

Todd got a fancy new drone thinking he would use it a bunch during camping trips - who knew we'd have a crazy snow storm??? Very pretty to see everything turn into a winter wonderland.

The kids COULD NOT WAIT to go play in the snow and I was right there with them. I'm not sure I've ever seen this much snow in all my life - including travels... It was insane. Birdie was in HEAVEN. She LOVED it. It was soft, powdering and didn't stick together at all. Very different than the sticky wet snow we are used to. You couldn't even make a snowball because it would all just fall apart instantly. We hiked around in the back area and the kids explored all the snow covered things. Snapped some obligatory group pictures to mark the occasion.

So it is very obvious that we are not equipped for this weather, but I was determined to keep the kids warm and comfortable for as long as possible. I wanted them to have fun and play! So, they each had vinyl gloves taped to them over their cotton gloves - worked great!! We had camping hand warmers in their boots along with several pairs of socks and we were set. Only thing I didn't count on? The snow was so deep that it just fell directly into their boots ... wow.

Lots of fun times called for a calm warm up by the fire.

From there, the super fun snow event turned stressful. The roads were very dangerous, medical teams were unable to respond to any emergencies, people's pipes were starting to freeze, and there were rumors the power may go out... I started gathering flashlights and candles just in case, we were diligently dripping our faucets, trying to circulate warm air under the sinks (via hair dryer!), and luckily had winterized the camper a few days prior. We were still concerned about frozen tree limbs falling at the park where it is and the "winterizing" doesn't generally account for 6 degree temperatures for an extended period of time - but, there was nothing we could do - what would be, would be.

Then the power went out. It would be romantic if it wasn't also scary.

When the power went out, we even lost access to our cell phone service - which was the worst part. We could make phone calls, but the service was minimal and super spotty. Todd had to go stand in the middle of the street to get any signal. Luckily, Stephen had figured out a hack to get our fireplace to be operational with battery power so that was our single source of heat during the outages. That first night we tucked the kids into bed and their rooms were still fairly warm from having the heat on most of the day. It was a chilly night, getting down into the low 60's in our house, but wasn't that bad all bundled up. The power came back on in the late morning and we were grateful.

It didn't last long though and was out again a couple hours later. This would continue for the next several days - unpredictable stints with power - feeling like you could lose it at any moment - long, quiet, cold stints with no power - hoping it would turn back on. I think it would have been much easier to tolerate if we knew the rotation - 2 hrs on, 4 hrs off, etc. But no. Random was the name of the game.

We were lucky though. We could still cook on the gas stove and the fireplace was a saving grace. I got into a routine pretty quickly of shutting everything in the house when we lost power - all the doors to the rooms, etc to retain as much heat as possible in the main living space. When the power came back up, I'd open everything, blow the hair dryer under the sinks that are on exterior walls, open the door from the house to the garage to try and warm the garage area a bit so our water heater and water softener pipes wouldn't freeze. I pulled out the kids winter sleeping bags that are rated for 35 degrees and that seemed to be a huge help. We warmed up all the beds with heating pads and electric blankets when the electricity was on and covered everything with layers, so the beds were at least semi "warm" when they went to bed. We pulled out our camping supplies and had lanterns, gas cans for fuel and Stephen even had a generator that kept the basics going. Overall, we were resourceful and made it work.

The Kasprzaks were not so lucky, they lost power when we did the very first time and it never came back up. They don't have a fireplace and were literally huddled in bed together trying to keep warm and happy. After some extensive begging, we finally convinced them to come over (hard b/c you think the power will come back on any minute and driving in these conditions is a tough choice to make). It was wonderful to have some company and also know that we could provide a more comfortable/safe place. Brooklynn and Finley hadn't had a chance to play in the snow yet because they had no way to get warmed up afterward - so we bundled the kids up and pushed them outside.

Got the kids back in and warmed up just in time for the power to go out again. The kids had fun playing flashlight tag and seemed to think of it more as a crazy adventure now that their friends were there.

We had a good time, all things considered.

I can tell you that by day three - we were all over it. The kids didn't want to play outside in the snow, I looked at the forecast in disgust at what was still coming our way. School was canceled for the entire week. People were struggling and suffering - pipes were bursting - homes and apartments were flooding... it was a disaster. Lots of people were losing access to water or were on boil notices. Everyone just wanted it to be over as fast as possible. Then it would start snowing again. Curse words.

On what we hoped would be the last day with snow, Todd was a total hero and got the kids out go tubing/sledding with one of our river tubes. I was grumpy and annoyed at the entire situation and stayed inside throwing a pity party for myself...

He hooked Birdie up to the tube hoping she'd pull them, but she just stood there looking at him confused. Then, he got Lucy out and used her as bait - BINGO. We have a sled dog.

After temperatures rose a bit above freezing, Stephen and Todd ventured out to see if we could restock on some essentials - apparently everyone had the same thought...

So, struck out on the food thing, but they also went to check on the camper and everything (from what they could test) seemed to be ok - which is excellent news!!