Throwback Thursday

Three years ago:

 

Halloween

I can't believe October has already come and gone. Fall went by way too fast. We didn't even have a chance to make our yearly hike through Roughlock Falls in Spearfish Canyon to look at the changing leaves. The blizzard we got at the beginning of the month caused most of the leaves to turn brown and many of the trees were destroyed because of all the heavy snow. At least I got to see a lot of pretty leaves when I was in Denver.

 

The only pumpkins Aiden and I could find this year were enormous!

 

 Aiden was excited about coloring and painting his pumpkin

 

 Hard at work

 

 I swear Aaron's jack-o-lanterns have the same face every year

 

Despite what this picture might imply, this Halloween wasn't the best for us this year. Aiden and I both caught a cold the day before Halloween and we all ended up staying home and watching It's a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, drinking tea and eating the candy we were supposed to hand out to trick-or-treaters. Poor Aiden had been really excited about Halloween and was even practicing saying "trick-or-treat" but we decided it was best to not get out in the cold. 

 

 So, a few days after Halloween, I set up some trick-or-treating in the house for Aiden

 

 He liked finding candy and his various stuffed animals hiding throughout the house

 

Denver

Aiden and I got to ride back to Colorado with Jess and Cass. It was really nice to go back home for awhile.

 



 G.G.'s hands

 

A sure loves his G.G.

 

 Grandma's hands

 

 I wonder if this is why Mom's back was bothering her so much the next day..

 



Company!

We had company visit us recently- two of my favorite people, Jess and Cass, came to South Dakota to help me celebrate my 28th birthday. We had a really great time with them and it really made me wish that we could see them more often. But perhaps the time spent together wouldn't be as special and meaningful if we lived closer and saw them on a regular basis.. regardless, I sure love those two women and how awesome they are with Aiden. He really has a thing for his Aunties.

 Graffiti Alley has become a place that Jess and Cass love to visit when they are in South Dakota

 

 Of course

 

 Love this pic of my little man

 

 

 

Can't believe how much he's grown

 

 

Blizzard in October

We've lived here for five and a half years now and we've seen our fair share of brutal winter weather. On Thursday, I got a few Emergency Alerts on my phone for blizzard warnings. The alerts on my phone said, "Blizzard Warning, this area until 9:00 am Saturday. Prepare. Avoid Travel. Check media." I was a little concerned because Aaron was in Montana for work and I was hoping he'd make it back before the storm hit. Thursday evening Aiden and I had a meeting on base and by that time it was raining and windy. Aaron made it back home later that evening.

Early Friday morning, Aaron got a call saying to say home for the day. I looked out the window and there was a little snow on the ground. The wind was blowing.

Aiden was pretty excited to see the snow and that his Daddy was home on a "Snow Day"

 



All day Friday, we experienced power outages. They would last a few minutes at the most and then everything would come back on. Friday evening we lost power completely. The wind was still howling and we had already had quite a bit of snow.

We lit candles, found flashlights, piled the bed with quilts, covered the bedroom widow. As my Dad would say, we "hunkered" down for the night.

 

I didn't sleep very well at all. I tossed and turned and had crazy dreams when I did sleep, Aiden woke up at 7:20 am Saturday morning and we still had no power.

 

The picture above illustrates what the weather was doing. More snow. More wind. We somehow managed to fall back asleep and woke back up sometime after 11:00 am.

We reluctantly got out of our warm bed, piled on some additional layers and headed upstairs. Look at all the snow that had accumulated on our deck. It's hard to see, but the snow on the far left was close to the top of our sliding glass door.

 

We took a bunch of our frozen and refrigerated food and put it in the snow. Luckily we could still utilize our gas stove top. I made big bowls of oatmeal for breakfast/lunch. We drank hot tea and then ate Ramen later on.  

Even though he was bundled up, Aiden still enjoyed playing cars.

 

We passed the hours playing cards. You can probably tell in this picture that Aaron wasn't too excited. I think he was pretty concerned about missing the Bronco game if the power wasn't restored by Sunday afternoon.

Still in good spirits

 

 Aaron decided to head out to get some shoveling done.

 

Later Saturday afternoon, I made a big pot of chili. I was happy to make a warm meal for dinner and to have something to share with our next door neighbor whose husband got stuck on base.

 

I snuck out and snapped a few pictures. Our mail boxes were covered. Take a look at the far right of the above picture. There's a car almost completely buried in that snow drift.

 Look at that huge drift back behind the brown truck

 

Over 24 hours without power.

 

We had heard reports that the power might not be restored until Sunday evening. We were doing okay, cold, but okay. That night when we crawled into our cold bed, I think we were feeling a little discouraged. Aiden kept waking up crying. I couldn't sleep at all. I happened to check my phone and had a text from my friend Teresa. "OMG it just came back on! Holy hell. Thank Jesus." I checked Facebook and saw some reports of people on base whose power had been restored as well. I closed my eyes to try to go to sleep. Said a few prayers. A short time later I was blinded by our bedroom light. I heard the heater turn on. I heard the computer turn on. Our power had been RESTORED after over 28 hours! It took Aiden several minutes to wake up, but once he did, he couldn't be happier. He sang his happy song, "Woo hoo, woo hoo, wee hee, wee hee!" After we all warmed up a bit and got Aiden calmed down, we put him to bed and watched a little TV.

 

Sunday morning we woke up well rested, feeling blessed. Aiden stated that he slept good. We bundled up to check out the damage outside, knowing that we had a warm home to come back to.

 

 Poor Aiden in his snow pants, coat, hat and mittens. Reminds me of the kid from The Christmas Story.

 

 Yup, that's our chain link fence and back steps covered in snow

 

 Those snow fences sure didn't do any good

 

 Our gutter came off the side of the house thanks to the 60 mph plus winds

 

 Looking around at the surrounding houses

 

SUV almost covered in a drift

 

 I think this picture really illustrates the massive amount of snow. It's completely covering the privacy fence that separates our yard from our neighbor's. The snow is inches from our neighbor's roof.

 

 Of course

 

 Excited little guy

 

 Seems like our yard always gets the worst of drifting snow

 

My flowers did not survive.

 

But WE survived. It was tough but we figured out a way to manage. We had running water, we were able to prepare warm meals, we could charge our phones in the car, we had each other. There are still people out there whose power has not been restored. I heard people in Custer might not have power for three weeks. There was a substantial loss of livestock. One report stated, "Some cattle might be flat buried in a snow bank someplace."

 

In total we got 31 inches of snow. Over 38,000 homes lost power in this record-breaking blizzard. But we learned some valuable lessons through this ordeal. We learned the importance of preparedness, family, friends and faith.