snOw My God!

Snowpocalypse 2011: 

The official snowfall for Feb 1-2 is 20.2 inches. (3rd largest snowfall in Chicago history) And boy was it every bit of that, more in some spots where the snow drifts were up maybe even 4-5 feet.  It was incredible...

Luckily, I was able to leave work on Tuesday before the storm blew in.  I made it home just as it started getting heavy.  I managed to shovel the driveway on my own when I got home and again a couple hours later.  By the time the husband finally got home, he had been on the commute for 3+ hours.  But we came to find out later that others who had left before him, but were driving home vs taking public transportation, that didn't make it home until after 3am making their commute 12+ hours.  I'm glad he didn't get stuck on the train somewhere.

We managed to shovel the driveway once more before going to bed but it may have not made any difference.  The wind was brutally strong, whipping snow around, blowing what we've shoveled right back where it came from...by the time we got to the end of the driveway there was already another 1-2" at the other end. 

Wednesday morning:  We woke up to the storm still dumping snow, and decided to sleep in a little longer.  No way we were going anywhere at that time, even though technically both of our offices were claiming to be open.  Only the moronic and desperate would be crazy enough to drive anywhere in the condition the roads were in on Wednesday morning. 

Picture chronicles:

7am and still snowing...

Back door can't even open past this point

Snow nearly up to the mailbox...

We started the seemingly endless task of shoveling the driveway around 8am, only to tire out and quit an hour later only about a quarter of the way down the driveway.  Making the executive decision to break for breakfast was positively genius at the time.  It worked out well too because as we sat down to enjoy our eggs and toast, the skies cleared and the sun came out to say hello. 

12:30pm and we reached the end of the driveway!

1/2 of the sidewalk was cleared by a neighbor with a snowblower, thanks John!

The other half we had to do ourselves

Done shoveling finally.

Got done about 12:30pm, counting a total of 3 hours to shovel about 1 and a half feet of snow.  I'd like to think that our efforts the previous night helped, but as you can see in the first picture...there's not much of a dent at all. 

hubby taking a break in the snow mountain.

Husband tried to make a snow angel in the middle of the yard, only to ruin it as he tried to climb out of the hole.  After the backbreaking task of shoveling, and quite literally our backs are still extremely sore...(Santa's gonna get us a nice new snowblower next year I think)...Playtime!

we shoveled an area in the backyard for Hunter, who can't leap over the snow banks anymore

deck covered in snow...insanity

neat swirl between our house and the neighbors

Hunter exploring

Kona chasing daddy...loving the snow...

Tackled!

sniffing the snow...

I found out my cousins, who have quite the sledding hill behind their houses, built up a ramp they could do jumps off it with their snowboards.  I seriously debated going over there to sled/snowboard.  It looked like they had a lot of fun so I do partly regret not going over there...  but we had fun in our backyard as well. 

The streets are still being cleared today, and cars finally getting towed/dug out, but there are still quite a few people stuck at home because their associations/apartments have not cleared their lots.  Lucky for me, I have 4 wheel drive.