Artic Storm Outing......

Monday, December 22, 2008 (still...)

This is the mall parking lot. They had tractors out there digging out the parking lot.

Eric and I took the parents to the mall. No Starbuck's! I guess they had an issue with their delivery.

The family at Red Robin! Yeah..we are out of the house!

Our Artic Storm Outing - NO CHAINS! :0

Monday Dec 22, 2008

We decided to see if we could venture outside and get out of the house. My mom still had a few things to buy for Christmas and I really wanted them to get out a bit...I know both of them had a severe case of Cabin Fever! Eric and I tried to put chains on his SUV but could not figure it out. Jake is going to take a look next time he is over. I want to make sure they fit and do work, otherwise I need to take them back. So anyway, Eric tosses (ok maybe throws them) in the back of the Jeep after multiple tried and says "Let's go...we don't need them...I have 4 wheel drive!" After some convincing I said OK. I was just worried we would get stuck. He did let me put the shovel in the back just in case. :) He did remind me that he and his Jeep have seen many storms far worse than this in his entire 30+ years in Boston. Hmmmm...OK. So off we went. A rough start but wow....Eric was right! ;) We had no problems! He even showed my parents a few spin out moves...LOL...nothing to crazy!

This is HWY 99/Pacific Hwy

The parents house.
Eric's tire marks!

HWY 99 again

Hwy 99 by Jae's school.

Artic Storm Part Hmmm....I lost track!

Monday Dec 22, 2008

I got the call the night before that our office would be closed. I was happy that I finally got a "snow day" out of this whole mess! So I woke up on Monday morning, opened the door and HOLY CRAP! More snow! So we had a ton of more snow now over the ice. It was weird because you would be walking and some spots you would all of a sudden sink even lower when the ice gave way. This is a view from our front door.

We can believe the cars that are snowed in. We have been really thankful for our garage this past week!

Another car.

...and another.

Poor Benny! It is pretty deep for him but he is still loving it. He thinks he is an Alaskan Siberian Husky dog!

The Sound of the Ice Part I & II

I am nowhere even close to Caryn Grunwald on this video stuff. I will not quit my day job people...no worries.

Part I Part II

The ice is here!

Sunday Dec 21, 2008 ~ This was our house this morning. We got about 8-10 inches of snow yesterday and then it turned to ice. We woke up to about a 1/2" of ice over the snow. Bennigan got up this morning to go outside and he wanted to come back in because the noise of the snow/ice crushing under his feet scared him. Eric made him a path...doing all the crunching noise stuff. Bennigan was much happier with that.

Benny's path.

Eric with a big chunk of ice.

WOW!

Our bedroom window this morning - all iced up!

Artic Storm Part III

This is what they are calling it in Portland...."The Artic Storm". I guess they need to start to get creative after awhile. I think last year was the Winter Blast?? Not sure.

So this is today, Dec 20, 2008. It started sometime early this morning. I know I woke up at 7:30 to snow and it has been snowing ever since! It is almost 4pm now. We have around 4-5 inches I would guess. Now that I have all my xmas shopping done I am a much happier person! (Just ask Eric). I was stressed yesterday because this weather really put a cramp in my planning. So we had a window last night of forcasted non-snowing or icy weather so Eric and I went out for a bit then he did the hand off of me to Barb and Jake. Anyone that knows Eric knows that he can not stay in a mall for more than 60 minutes or he starts to feel weak, light headed, etc. ;) So Barb, Jake and myself took it from there and we got home around 10pm I think. I must say, Jake gets the award for best shopping husband of the year. He was in good spirits and was very helpful. Thanks Jake!

Anyway....the snow is supposed to turn into freezing rain and we are hoping by sometime Monday to be done with all this and get back to our traditional NW mild weather.

Artic Storm Part II

So part two of the storm was not as bad but as things melted a little they froze up at night. You can sort of see how icy the roads are from the picture below.