Cold & Gray

When we returned, there was a TON of snow everywhere and the weather was in the negatives. It stayed that way for, what seemed to be, forever. The snow is just barely melting now. It has been hard! To add to the cold, the air quality has been horrible. We couldn't see Mt. Timp for days. I tried running outside (I'm really hating the treadmill) and was coughing like crazy! News stations were saying to stay inside as much as possible because of crazy pollution. So I started running at BYU's indoor track (thank goodness for that).

Our car when we returned.

This was everyday for a month.
 How gloomy and gray!

Last week, Blaine had to come back from his job, grab a shovel and snow pick (we didn't own one - we were rebelling against the snow), and dig me out of our parking spot. I couldn't get out for the life of me. I was late to work by an hour. That's how much snow and ice was under and around the car.

Waiting for Blaine to rescue me. 

We had 2 snow plows going up and down our street (a main road)
 non-stop for days on end. 

I'm not going to lie, coming back was hard for me. Growing up in Florida, I never had to deal with shoveling snow and all the other things that come with cold weather. I was pretty much devastated knowing that somewhere not too far from me in the U.S., people were living in 70-80 degree weather. I thought about it all the time. No joke. One Friday, Blaine told me that we might as well try to have fun in this weather. So we went sledding. And we had a blast. 

Rue wasn't a fan of the sled. Blaine actually went down the hill with her once. She loved being outside though. We tied Rue to our sled and she pulled us for a little bit (one at a time). I know it sounds like dog torture, but she really enjoyed it. I think she has a sled-dog soul. So we did have a good time, until I dropped my new phone in the snow. And the audio wasn't working anymore. I had JUST gotten this phone. So even though I had a good time playing in the snow, I went back to hating the snow even more. I shut my phone off and threw it in a bag of uncooked rice for 3 days. I was phone-less for 3 days, praying that it would work. And it did! It was a seriously close call. 

A couple weekends I go, I took Rue to play with Tess and Magnus (the Buhler's friends' have a huge dog) in the snow. Rue spotted Tess while we were parking and went nuts in the car. Most of the pictures are mainly of Magnus since Rue and Tess are so small compared to him! She had so much fun and was exhausted the rest of the day. 

Chloe in her winter gear. 

So even though this winter has been gray, freezing, depressing, hard, the-worst-winter-ever, (and did I mention freezing?) we're trying to make the most of it!