The Long Trip Home

We knew Oregon was hit hard with winter weather when we were in L.A. and we were surprised that our flight was still scheduled on time Sunday, since we knew the majority of flights into and out of PDX were cancelled. But indeed we took off as scheduled and landed on time, albeit in icy conditions. We arrived to find our car ensheathed in a thick cocoon of ice.

We eventually got the windows chipped free and the car warmed up (the kids rode without shirts on because we had the car heater cranked up so high to melt the ice!). The roads didn't seem too bad. We traveled slowly, but without chains (which Mac was smart enough to put in the car before we left). But soon it started dumping snow and visibility became a problem, especially with the encroaching darkness. We stopped to put on chains but realized this was no weather for traveling, so we called friends in Portland and invited our whole family over for a sleepover!

Monday morning we woke up to find lots of new snow, and plenty of ice, too.

We were able to drive fairly well (but slow) with chains and started the journey to Salem mid-morning. But we got news from a neighbor that our power had been out since Saturday, so we only made it as far as a Salem hotel. Initial reports on Tuesday were that our poer was still out, so we booked again for the next night and took the kids to an indoor play park to burn off some energy. Right around 11:00 we got word that our power was on, so we scrambled to check out and head HOME! My sister and her family were able to make it down from Portland that day, too.

We celebrated being home by playing in the snow!

The kids even got to do some sledding. We warmed up on the driveway first before tackling the big hill (our driveway was covered with plenty of ice, so this isn't really as funny as it looks)

It's good to be home!