Let it snow!

I've mentioned what a strange winter we've had with hardly any snow. That changed this past week. We had a snowstorm Tuesday and Wednesday. Schools were closed Wednesday. Then I heard a bigger storm was coming Friday...  Everytime I heard the weather report it sounded worse.  By Thursday it was decided that our office would be closed and we would all work from home on Friday, as the storm was supposed to hit mid-morning and the roads were anticipated to be very bad by 5.
I was so happy to hear this, as my commute is about 35 minutes, with open country roads. 
The storm was called a snow bomb cyclone, with atmospheric pressure dropping rapidly, causing lots of snow and high winds. They predicted 12-14 inches of snow between Friday morning and Sunday. The news people also wanted people to be prepared for power outages.

Friday morning I had my laundry done early and the tub filled with water. We live in the country and have a well, so if the power goes out, we have no water.  Having water in the tub at least lets you flush toilets!

All flights were cancelled at the Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, all schools were closed, the local mall even closed.

The snow didn't start till early afternoon, but then it really came down.

Our backyard started getting pretty white.

Bob decided it was a good day to set up and work on a puzzle downstairs as I was working and taking calls in our living room.
We both were home all day and went to bed wondering what the next day would bring.

Here's how things were looking Saturday morning. This is the same big pine tree from earlier in the post.

Here's the backyard on Saturday morning.

We had a few brief moments of sunshine in the afternoon.  This is Bob's wood shop.

Here's a neighbor family enjoying the snow.

We just stayed home, did some things around the house and some relaxing!  Poor Bob did have to go out to snow blow.
Lots of people lost power, including Heather and Andrew, and some friends did too, but ours stayed on. Our SIL Aaron was very busy as he works to maintain the snow plows and emergency vehicles of a nearby city.  It was his on call weekend, so he was at work all weekend.

Sunday morning found us buried in snow.  It really came down overnight and once again, no one was going anywhere.  All churches in the area were closed, including ours.  Our Pastor lives near our church and he and a sound guy were able to make it there to live stream the message.

This is the view through our dining room windows.

Our poor little Japanese Maple is very weighted down.

Our porch has two steps down, but now the snow is level with the porch.

One more shot of the back yard. The path to Bob's woodshop is pretty much filled in.

Although most of us are sick of it, here's one little girl that enjoyed the snow.  Cassie couldn't wait to get out there, although Andrew had to rescue her when she got stuck!

It's supposed to continue to snow through the next day but not nearly as heavy.  It's also gotten very cold, it's 3 degrees here right now and they've already cancelled most school for tomorrow.
Our town has had 16 inches of snow since Friday, the town where I work got 23 inches!   We're ready to see the end of this storm!