Snow is Cold....

Just a quick update after an interesting weekend.  I think it's hard to describe the snow here with just a few pictures from our crappy digital camera.  It was different in Virginia - the sky would turn a solid greyish color and you didn't really see clouds.  A full day of snow would build up pretty well and occasionally the wind would drift it in places.  Not here is Utah - the storms roll in quickly and even a quick dusting is like being in a blizzard.  There is no visibility up here on the mountain and the snow is much lighter - so it blows everywhere.  This weekend we got about 6 inches but there are drifts that are a couple of feet and other areas where you can see some grass.  I make it sounds terrible but it is actually very pretty!  A few pictures below showing our fun in it.  Still waiting for the deep snow I keep hearing about....
So it snowed and felt colder in the house.  We turned up the heat (anyone that knows me understands this was not a decision taken lightly) and went to bed.  This morning we woke up to about 49 degrees in the house.  Around 11:30 and $400 bucks later (one good thing about renting - we aint paying for that!) we had the heat back.  Not a fun morning though!
In other news, poor Madison is in a cone again.  That's the 3rd time this year and we are at a loss what is going on with her.  She keeps scratching her eye and our new vet had no clue how either.  They suspect she has something in her eye and irritates it by rubbing.  But they check her each time and nothing is there but the scratch.  I just hope it isn't some permanent problem.
Lastly, I'm taking part in a team-building activity at work by growing a beard.  I've never really done that so not sure what I think yet.  It will be 2 weeks on Wednesday and I have another 4 to go after that.  I promised Becky it would be gone by Christmas!
My extended family is traveling to the Outer Banks for Thanksgiving.  We'll miss being there this year and hope to be able to attend next year.  Safe travels everyone over the holidays!
So much for the short update.  Here are some snow pics:

Pumpkins, Costumes and Snow

Busy times here in Utah recently.  My job is going well and our company recently signed some big accounts (Comcast, GE, McAfee, Vodafone, China Telecom, etc.) but....that means a lot of work for me.  Since I'm on the front lines with customer requirements this has equaled a lot of late nights.  Good problem to have though!

We had a recent bought of sickness at the house.  Nothing serious - just some nose blowing, headaches, sore throats, etc.  Lauren seems to complain the least but she got the brunt of it and spent some time with a nebulizer (sp?) which Sarah had a ball hooking her up to.  It's been a challenge trying to get this swine flu shot and finally got some 'tickets' for next week to get the girls inoculated.  Part of me thinks this is just a media circus but we want to be safe.

We did more harvest-type activities including Sarah's school trip to another pumpkin patch and our own trip to buy some pumpkins.  Utah pumpkins are cheap - we got 4 for about $10.  The girls decorated them 3 or 4 times before we finally carved them last weekend.  And we roasted some pumpkin seeds which were a household hit.

The girls got to come by my office for some early candy-collecting.  They had fun seeing where Dad works and everyone enjoyed seeing the kids dressed up.  Thankfully one of my co-workers who dressed up as a crazy zombie was in a meeting at the time.  Sarah had a Halloween party at school so basically stayed in costume 2 straight days.

Halloween went off pretty well and it's fun to see the girls get so excited about going around the neighborhood. 

We had a little bit of snow last week as well.  Nothing that caused any problems but it is certainly going to be an interesting winter.  The tops of the mountains are now covered but we expect 60 degrees all week so some of that will melt off. 

We are looking forward to some visitors for the holidays.  Becky's friend Shannon is coming out for Thanksgiving and my Mom will be here for Christmas.  I hope they like snow!

Here are a few pictures - check out our flickr site (Click Here!) for the full report!  Click the pictures for bigger versions.

Dorothy and the not-so-cowardly Lion

Ready to go!

Trick or Treating in the neighborhood

Bounty from office visit - Lauren chose the M&M costume

Sarah showing off the pumpkins

Searching the patch for pumpkins

The dogs are friends now

Lauren applying swine flu shot to Sarah

Lauren and Sarah playing in the snow

Mountains with snow