Lousy Smarch Weather

This month does deserve a special name to honor its cruddiness. It started off with the announcement that AstraZeneca is shutting down its Infection division, which is good news for no one except the superbugs. The weather was crazy cold, but we did break the all-time winter snow record of 108 inches. The final three inches happened to fall while Heather was on a plane coming back from Atlanta, necessitating an unplanned stopover in Hartford. Dave survived 4 days alone with the girls. Afterwards Tessie had a new appreciation for him, and finally is treating him more like Daddy and less like an inadequate Mommy substitute.

 

 Quote from Tessie: "That my mama. Not yours"

Now that is cold
 

 Erin the trooper braved going outside with Tessie

 

 Instant ice pop

 

Where'd Tessie go?

 

Land of the icicles

 

 Spring training in Lexington

 

 The snow mounds have turned into...

 

...ice mountains

 

 When will it disappear???

 

 Hmm, might not want to show this to the child psychologist. In Caroline's defense, we had just gotten a new pack of markers and she said that the red was so bright that it reminded her of blood. At least this shows some thoughtful engineering.

 

Tempting as it was to build the Machine of the Blood Invaders, we chose another topic for Science Fair with Caroline. She wanted to do her project about a photograph of a dress. It didn't make any sense to me because the colors are clearly white and gold.

 

 Tessie is a whirlwind around the house now, especially when the gll-ulls (girls) dress her up and show her how to ride a scooter

 

 Some rare moments, Caroline will sit and read to Tessie

 

 but who can blame her when the alternative is a beanbag chair next to the heater with Max on her lap

Erin lost her first tooth!
 

 Thanks to Mom's friend Julie, we have a wall map to show where we've been. Watch out desert Southwest: you're next.

 

At least the snow was good for one thing: tunnels

 

Watch that step!

 

Smarch is a good month for salami parties

 

 

Finally Florida

 The morning of our flight out to Florida was the coldest of the season and probably of our entire lives in Boston. To top it off, another full-on blizzard was in the forecast. We made it out just in time before the storm and found Florida to be sunny and wonderful. The only hiccup on the trip was thanks to Spirit Airlines, who failed to deliver one of our bags on the flight down. And it wasn't because the bag didn't make it on the flight, but instead the ground crew lost it in Naples. Spirit sucks big time, and in the future we are going to pay the extra cost for a legitimate airline.

Minus 7 and a forecast of snow, then heavy snow, then blowing snow, then sunny with a high of 11. Florida here we come.
 

Logan airport is probably the only place in Boston without a snow problem. They can just push it into the harbor!

 

It is hard to believe that a 3-hour flight can bring us here. I love this country!

 

The Floridians thought the pool was cold, but not for the girls

 

 Grampa Mike and Riley

 

Nana and Tessie

 

Riley came to the girls bed one night, much to the surprise of Nana and Grampa

While the rest of the Grays were in North Carolina, Jack came by

 

Fresh citrus can't be beat

 

 We drove down to the Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve

 

 The girls earned their first Junior Ranger badges at Big Cypress

 

 We saw manatees and gators in the Big Cypress park, but with its overabundance of sunshiney goodness, Florida has amazing fauna everywhere, like this bald eagle outside Grampa's home.

 



 Back at home to the cold and snow. When the icicle touches the ground, is it a stalactite or stalagmite?

 



The yard under the south facing roof was off limits because of these hanging daggers
 

 Grandma Joan and Grampa Ed came up to help watch the kids. We took an afternoon to visit the Lowell National Historic Park

 

 The noise of the power looms was unreal

 

 Another junior ranger badge earned

 

We taught Tessie some useful phrases

 

The names Dooley and Riley challenge Tessie's rhoticity

 

Erin is still our biggest beach lover, by far

 

This is what 12 looms sounded like. Imagine if all 80 were running and you were working the usual 5 AM to 8 PM shift.