Snowmageddon?

Quite possibly I'm the last blogger from Minnesota to post about the monster snowstorm. Maybe there are others that have yet to dig out from the giant snow drifts. In any case it is definitely worth mentioning. Holy crap it was a lot of snow!

I feel slightly bad that I missed most of it. Friday night, before it started, I headed to St Cloud for the USAG Level 5 and 6 State Meet. I volunteered to drive a few judges up and we were all told that we had to stay up there on Friday night. Report time was 7:30am and it was clear earlier in the week that if you didn't go up early, you'd be stuck. From the sounds of it, only a few kids out of a few hundred competing didn't make the trip. Amazing. Weather wasn't too bad up there but the reports from home sounded like the end of the world! Then we saw the video of the Metrodome collapsing and we all wondered what we would return home to. Well here's the first thing we encountered...

My carpool buddies picked the wrong place to stash their cars! Who knew? There are actually two cars there, one parked in front of the one you can see. Obviously, we found them alternate transportation home.

Then I got home and saw my fabulous cousin and neighbors had taken care of the snowblowing and shoveling. Thank you thank you thank you! All that was left was to make a path for Riley to go outside.
What it looked like when I got home late Sunday night...

 A small path shoveled...

Riley doesn't venture too far now!

 Final tally about 19". Whew.

I feel very fortunate to live on a street that gets plowed early. We can generally shovel the driveway and the snowplow drift at the same time. With this snow, they plow more than once. This morning was another three foot drift of hard packed snow at the end of the driveway. I would have taken a picture but I was trying to get out for an early meeting. Turns out, the traffic is still insane! Last night's 7 mile commute home took over an hour (I chose routes poorly). This morning's 9 mile drive took 40 minutes. At least it's getting better. (didn't make the meeting though, oh well!)

Tomorrow is the annual shopping excursion to the Mall of America for me and my mom. This year cousin Lexi will join us. I hope she's up for it! :-) We always have a good time and I treasure having the time to spend with my mom. Oh and we get to shop too! Next round of snow doesn't start until tomorrow night. Only another 2-3 inches predicted. Not sure where we'll put any more snow!

Looking forward to springtime already...