Derek & Tara Larsen: Arizona Snow Day!

On Sunday evening(Jan 21), about 5 pm Derek noticed that there were some teeny tiny snow flurries coming down outside! You had to look really carefully to verify that it was actually snow. At about 7:30 Derek's first counselor in the Elder's quorum called and excitedly said, "Come over we're having a snowball fight." We looked outside to see that there were now very large flakes dancing out of the sky and actually starting to stick where they landed, and dust the desert landscape with snow. We went for a drive so Holley could watch the snow. Almost every house we passed there were either people playing out in the snow, or at least sitting at their front window watching. We went to bed thinking that it would probably stop snowing soon and maybe even melt by morning. In the morning Derek got up and got ready for work like usual, then one of the other seminary teachers called and said, "Have you looked outside?" Derek went to the window to see a nice thick blanket of white! It was so beautiful. They started checking the internet and the radio to try to find out if school would be cancelled or not. They were as thrilled as any student when they found out it was. Even though Derek has grown up with snow, Holley hasn't, and Daddy was excited to play with her! Holley woke up and looked out her window, and came running out of her room so excitedly, "Mom! Dad! Come look in my room, there's so much snow outside!" Holley was thrilled! Above is a picture we took of her in her pj's when we opened the back door for her to get a better look.

This was also Brinley's first chance to see snow so we had to bundle her up so she could go outside too. Good thing Holley was a winter baby in Utah, so we had some cute cuddly stuff for her to wear. (Don't you just love the hat, notice it has little pig tails on the back! Justin and Katrina McPheter's gave Holley that hat when she was a baby.)

Here is Holley and Mr. Snow! Notice the huge Smile Holley is wearing. The pants weren't 100% waterproof, they were more of a warmup pant than a snow pant, and we did have a good waterproof rainjacket but it was a 2t so the sleeves are a little short. We didn't have waterproof gloves either so we put a grocery bag on each hand between two pair of magic gloves, and used the extra length on the grocery bags to make up for where the sleeves fell short! We did have good boots for her that we bought at the DI last year so she could play in the snow in Utah, when we went up for Christmas. She seemed as content as could be despite the impromptu snow clothes.

Daddy with the Girls!

Mommy with the girls!

Tara & Brinley! Brinley isn't squinting cause of the brightness of the snow, she's asleep! Tara was watching Derek and Holley work on the snowman, while she was holding Brinley, then she noticed Brinley became very limp and relaxed, and had actually fallen asleep! Leave it to a good baby like Brinley to fall asleep out in the snow!

Derek and Brinley, still asleep.

Daddy with the girls, and Mr. Snow!

We wondered what they would do about all the snow on the streets! Here is a picture of an Arizona Snow Plow! Derek had taken Holley out to see if they could find and snow sleds at any of the stores here. The lady at one store said, "This is Arizona, it doesn't snow in Arizona!" To which Holley replied, "Daddy, tell her it's snowing in Arizona!" We heard Gila Outdoor did sell sleds, but when Derek got there, they had a sign on their door that said, "Are you kidding? we're out playing in the snow!" Holley has kept insisting that it isn't winter cause she hasn't seen any snow, and anytime she's seen a movie or TV show about winter, they say in winter it snows, we expained to her that it doesn't usually snow in Arizona. While they were working on the Snowman she even said "It doesn't usually snow in Arizona, but this is Arizona!"

Below are some pictures to try to show just how much snow we got. According to people we talked to that are native to this area, the last time they had this much snow was in the 60's.