a christmas miracle

i am in a state of total depression. christmas is over and i just can't accept it. this happens to me every year. it has been harder this year because with the christmas season came something so very marvelous. the worst snowstorm oregon has seen in 40 years! my prayers had been answered. we even had snow on christmas day!

you have to understand something about snow and oregonians. we get snow so seldom that when it does snow everything shuts down. no one knows what to do with themselves. when i think about oregonions in the snow, i picture a bunch of chickens running around with their heads chopped off :o)

school was canceled for the whole week before christmas! our church was canceled 2 weeks in a row!

well the few days before christmas we were an hour away from home at travis's parents house. the road back home was so bad we were stuck! i was so worried we wouldn't make it back to our house in time for christmas! would santa know where we were?

everything was frozen solid. trees had so much ice on them they were dropping like flies! thousands of people were without power. we were thinking we were so lucky the power didn't go out at travis's parents place.

when suddenly we too were left in the dark!!!!!

noooooo! i started to panic. they have their own well, so when the power goes out they don't have water either! there were so many people without power that it took days to get the power back on. could we live this long with kids and no power!!???

it was getting cold very fast! here are the kids snuggling up with aunt marg under some warm blankets. we hadn't had dinner yet. but what can you make without a stove or water?

tuna fish sandwiches baby! if you wear a headlamp it makes it a little easier in the dark. thanks bill for lending it to me! travis later used it to change lucy's stinky diaper.

a few minutes later i started noticing travis gathering up some of our things. i knew exactly what was going on. he had decided we were going to forge the roads. "we've got to get back home," he said. i was very nervous about driving, but worried about the kids freezing all night. we packed some blankets, food, and water just in case and headed back.

the only cars that were really on the road were semi's.

here is a picture of the road. a couple of inches of slush that had frozen solid into ice! it was so bumpy we could barley talk to each other.

after 3 long hours we finally made it home. our subdivision had been just slammed with snow! look at these cars. this is how oregonians roll. it snows and they don't go anywhere.

i was so happy to be in a warm house. christmas was beautiful and magical. here trey is looking at our snow covered backyard.

christmas night we forged the roads back to the grandparents house.
my dad had gotten a little crazy and bought some snowmobiles! we had way too much fun in the field next to my parents house on these babies.

oh no don't worry that is not lucy's scared face. i would never make my kid so something that made them nervous :o)

my dad pulled us on tubes tied to the back of the snowmobile!

then we got this crazy idea. yes that is travis laying on a foam sled, holding a ski rope tied to the back of the snowmobile, with trey holding on his back for dear life!

here is a picture of me, taken by travis while riding on the back of the snowmobile. i can't believe i let him do that with my camera.

here is one of my sister emily just to make her mad. you have to zoom in on this one.

the snow lasted a couple of weeks. to many the snow was an inconvenience and they were sick of it after a couple of days.

it was a christmas miracle as far as i'm concerned.