Tappana Times: February Before and After

Most of February this year was taken up by a trip Brigham and I took with my mom to Italy and the Mediterranean. Posts on that trip are to come, but here's what happened before we left and after we came back.

We spent our week as usual. The little ones and I go over to help my Grandma Busby on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

A huge snow storm was headed our way the same time as our trip was approaching. I went to the store to get a few essentials for my kids for while I was gone. It was like the apocalypse was approaching! The store was a madhouse! People were stocking up on everything - the bread, the produce, you name it, it was nearly gone. The lines were crazy long and after searching for the shortest line, I was behind twelve people! It took over forty minutes to make it to the checker.

I entertained myself by taking cute pictures of Ivy.

I know that Maple Valley hardly ever gets snow and that roads can get bad, but I did not expect people to freak out like they were. Even if you couldn't leave for a couple days, why were people stocking up for a month's worth of food?

Little did I know, the craziest snowstorm was headed our way. Luckily, I missed most of the storm on my trip, but we did have to bump our flight to a day earlier to make sure we got out - they were canceling flights left and right - and we saw quite a bit of snow before we left.

The storm lasted way longer and dumped way more snow than expected. The kids were out of school the entire two weeks we were gone on our trip!! The city was covered in snow and ice and everything was canceled. Everyone was aptly calling it Snowmaggedon and we still refer to when it was Snowmaggedon or Snowpocalypse.

Good excuse for more babies in bear suits!

Before we left on our trip, I took a bunch of pictures of the kids to have while we were away from them.

I love how Ivy looks like she's trying to eat Lydia's hair.

Oh, it was hard to be away from these four for so long. It helped us appreciate each other a bit more.

Two weeks for a nine-month-old is a long time! I feel like they change so much in so little time and I was sad to miss all her changes while I was gone. So I took a lot of pictures of Ivy before I left. Ah, I love that baby and my heart ached for her.

And that's February: snowstorms and epic vacations. Next up, our trip to Italy!