Nico's Cute and Snow is Deep

While you might be expecting me to share tales of woe like what happened on Lake Shore Drive (truly harrowing)...



...the day progressed quite simply. The snow stopped. The sun came out. Nico and I went outside. We played and ate cake with friends in the inside tot lot to celebrate a little friend's birthday. (Have I ever mentioned the playroom in our building? That I love? It exists and I love it.) We had a super grumpy pre-dinner and a sweet, happy post-dinner. Kids went to bed. Ruby and Eva's dad, Cosme, came up to kid sit. Matt and I went on a quick evening walk. And voila. Snow day 2011 is come to a close.

And here are the pictures to prove it!













Count the snowdrifts!

























I love this series of pictures. The happy man and his snow.

























The serious man and his snow.













What a winner.













Layer of ice over playground grass.

























Poor car. Never saw it comin'.













Poor house. You used to be dark gray.













Cute hat. You were made by his mama. Who is now bragging.

























Yay Alabama! Matt saw this similarity...Nico just asked me to take a picture of his mittens.

























Snow + Kool Aid = A tasty winter treat! Thanks, Tracy.































Icy rail!













And now for the pictures of our evening stroll. To those of you who haven't come to our little neighborhood this might not be as exciting, but to those who have been hopefully you'll enjoy seeing some old (now snowy) haunts.













Diggers everywhere clearing up! (I have boys and have to point out all non-standard vehicles.)













Matt testing out his snow pants in the snow drift next to our car.













Hope the owners of this car don't have to drive anywhere soon. Eeeyikes.













And, whoah! What is this doing here?! Carnage in the snowstorm! We Hyde Park-ers like our snowstorms with a touch of evil. (We still wonder what that red substance was. I dared Matt to go smell it, but he wouldn't! Crazy.)













To the far right is the main street, which has been plowed. Matt is standing at the edge of the through street that is unplowed.













A view looking down said unplowed street.













Because of the crazy wind, the snow is only a few inches in some areas and up to 8 foot drifts (according to the university) in others. You can see the snow level increase down the sidewalk.













These are the snowed-in stairs to some spooky-ookie houses that always seem deserted.













I commented on their spooky-ookiness to Matt (who agreed) and then saw this. It's inhabited!!!













Also, here are the update pictures on the views from the last post. Snowier roof!













Snowier cars!













And so ends our snow day. Oh wait, just kidding! School is canceled for Matt and Jacob tomorrow! Woot woo! Things just keep getting better!

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.