After our fun, family friendly snow, came the ice... the snow stopped coming in soft white flakes and instead came down in sheets of freezing rain that clung to everything. It coated and stuck to all it touched, clinging and growing, it transformed the world into a strange icy wonderland. At first it was just strange, then it was beautiful and then it became scary... the weight of the ice pulled branches from trees and sealed the car doors shut. It coated the electrical wires and when the tree branches fell they pulled down the power lines and then the lights went out. The house grew cold; we chipped the ice from the car and drove till we found power and a hot meal. We made it to Auburn and luckily David LOVES Red Robin, so he enjoyed lunch. We played at the kids play area in the Supermall until they too, lost power. Once we were home again we BBQ'd hot dogs in the snow, and then we decided that it was too cold, too dark to keep the kids in the house, so we left, praying we wouldn't slide off the road. We drove to Longview, watching the snow covered trees as we went. We stopped briefly in Centraila where there was power and filled the gas tank, then as we took the Longview exit the ice and snow was just gone. It looked like any other winter weekend, green and brown and wet. It was SO bright, the lights were gleaming and it just shouted 'safe haven' and when we were welcomed into Chris and Jan's house it was wonderfully WARM. Its a good weekend for a visit :) I hope you all stayed safe and warm this weekend! God Bless.
