Merry Christmas PART II

We got HEAPS of the white stuff, just after Christmas. Hadley was so excited and insisted on going out to help shovel. We were very quickly reminded how different the wet heavy eastern snow is compared to the light fluffy stuff we had in western Canada. It was so heavy we could barely lift our shovels, even only going half way across the driveway. It took us a while, but we finally cleared it all. Hadley wanted to sled and our fence goes straight across the only sledding hill we have in our yard, so Dayven just opened the gate and let her go. Dayven and I both tried it out too and after a few times down, the hill was so packed, Hadley went faster than ever. Dayven had to build a snow berm at the bottom so she wouldn't keep going down the big hill at the back. My mom had to go back inside because she was too freaked out to watch. Our little adrenaline junkie was in heaven!

One day, Dayven, my dad, Wyatt and I went to pick up some things at Lowe's and went out to lunch. By the time we got out of the restaurant, it was a mess. The streets were covered and there were crazy non-snow drivers inching along and even a few cars in the ditch. We took a back road home and there was a lady in a Cadillac stuck on a hill, spinning her wheels. My dad and Dayven got out to help push, but the efforts will futile and she finally had to turn around and go back down the hill. My dad was reminded of why he'll never live in a snowy place again!

We took the opportunity to get a few projects done around the house. All these white walls, with patches of different paint colors on them are driving me crazy. We finally committed to some colors and started getting rid of these white walls. I love to paint and am always amazed how much better a room looks once it's painted. I'm motivated now so we're on a roll. We'll be tackling the kitchen next. Dayven installed some shelves in the garage to help organize our shoe mess and we put my dad to work on a few little fix-it projects. This place is shaping up!

We decided we all needed to get out of the house so we headed downtown Pittsburgh to the Children's Museum. It's always a guaranteed good time and we got there early so we beat the crowds. They had a rainbow tube exhibit going on which was right up this jumpy house-lovin' family's alley. They even let grown ups do it!

Like rats in a maze...

Tate was content just watching the action.

They were semi-obsessed with this wheel building exhibit, especially Hadley.

A giant Lite Brite - they loved it!

I'm not sure what we did for the rest of the visit, but it went by fast. We took my parents to our favorite Chinese restaurant one night for dinner. We needed a break from cooking and the kids love to go out. Dayven and I took advantage of our last night of babysitters and went out to dinner with another couple at a cute tapas restaurant in town. My parents had a safe, uneventful drive home, dividing it up into two days. We miss them already but are so glad we live closer now so we'll see them again soon!