News Flash

Robyn the Hutch here coming to you live from Chicagoland where snow is blanketing the landscape at record pace! In our role as investigative citizens Matt and I took our two small children out to behold the mayhem (baby stayed inside...wimp!). And oh is it mayhem!

We've been witnessing the brazen snow bath from our windows and it has been intense. It began yesterday at 2:00 pm. Just in time to pick Jacob and his friend Ruby up from school! I dropped the little boys off with Ruby's mom, Lindsay, and brought the stroller, rain cover and all of my courage to go get them. Fellow pedestrians gave each other furtive glances all asking the same question, "How bad is this going to be?". While Jacob and Ruby sat in their climate controlled stroller I braved the elements through mini drifts that had already formed in the 30 minutes of snow. The wind was gusting and the snow was flying. And hurting my exposed face! I felt like Gulliver being pelted by Lilliputian spears. What did I ever do to you snow? Huh?!

Here is the view from our window yesterday around 4:00. Oh, and the winds they were howling!













Here's a view of how white and bright the snow was. This was taken at midnight.













Here is a view of the snow collecting on our screens. And yes, we have window markers (thank you Grandma Jan). And yes, they are the best!













In the morning the snow had stopped and we wondered if the worst was over. And we were also feeling a little underwhelmed. I mean, wasn't this supposed to be the biggie? Upon closer inspection, however, we realized that the wind patterns had left some areas almost bare of snow and others with three foot drifts. We then saw on the news that motorists were stranded on Lake Shore Drive for up to 6 HOURS! So, um, definitely big.





































Check out the snow drift on the roof of our northerly neighbor!

























Right by the door you can see how majorly high those drifts were. At the bottom of the picture you can see how the roads, at that time, were clear. Crazy wind.













Click on this one to see the snowed-in-ness of those cars.













And then it started snowing again and my rating of this snowstorm officially was upgraded from a Snowtorious B.I.G. grade to a Snowpocalypse Now grade.













And look what awaited us on our first venture onto the alien planet.
































The kids wiped the bottom parts of these windows despite my repeated requests to not wipe it. Dern kids.














Have fun playing in the tot lot (the park next to our building)!










































Ruby and Eva decided to join us on our expedition. If it didn't lead into the brick side of the building this mega drift would have been a nice little sledding hill.














The side street directly east of our building.














The street itself had snow at least knee high. Digging, digging.














Here's our parking lot. Looks like we can cancel all road travel for a while!














And here's our poor little van braving the elements.














And so, with the sound of snowplows reaching my ears from eight floors below, I say good-bye. It's been 2 hours since we took these pictures and the snow has been falling heavily ever since. Hopefully we can venture out again to explore our arctic home and post more pictures.