I think I am going to take the time to write our fun "snowed in" story!!! Josh is in Livermore tonight so he doesn't have to drive as far for his meeting in Hayward in the morning so I am staying up late of course!
Like I said earlier... it all started with the Pearts coming up to visit at the beginning of March. Chris was taking a class for work at the old McClellan Base and they stayed at Lion's Gate Hotel (Michelle's work!) Crystal and the boys came and played during the day on Monday and Tuesday and we all got together after the older boys were done with work/class. We all had a great time!!!!
Crystal and Lucas were brave enough to try the spinny thingy at the park.
Lucas taught James how to climb on the play equipment at the park.
James and Lucas did a little wrestling...
The boys even took a few rides together to the park to play! Well, we had such a great time that we decided we should make a trip up to the cabin this spring sometime so everyone could have some fun playing in the snow. Everyone was free the weekend of March 19th so we decided to drive up Saturday morning and come home Sunday afternoon (we thought!). The few days before we kept an eye on the weather... it had been raining a lot but the temperature hadn't been too cold. However, the weather report was different depending on which website you checked. It was either going to rain all weekend or possibly get 6-12 inches of snow if we were lucky! Just enough for the boys (big and little) to go sledding in the driveway!
The little boys have learned well from the big boys and were sitting at the bar waiting for food!!! 
Starting to plot on how they are going to get food!!!!The weekend started out perfectly! We got up there around noon time on Saturday to a few inches of snow and clear roads. We all went outside on Saturday afternoon for some fun in the snow and some sledding in the driveway. (Crystal has all those cute pictures!) Sunday morning we woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland of snow and the gorgeous snow falling from the sky! We commented on how long it had been since some of us had seen it actually snowing! What a wonderful sight! Well, it snowed and it snowed and it snowed.... By lunchtime close to 2 feet of snow had fallen and the plows were no where to be seen (the street had last been plowed at 9am). Also around lunchtime, a tree fell a few hundred yards to the right of the house. The tree took some power lines with it, blocked the road, and caused the electricity to go out! I guess we won't be leaving that way!
That meant that our food was moved to the ice chest and our temporary refrigerator on the deck. This was actually quite convenient!
Well, after losing power and not seeing the snow plow for a few hours, we decided that we would trek over to the neighbor's house after lunch to find out what he knew about us being able to get out (couldn't call because we lost use of the phones with the loss of electricity). We didn't end up having to make the trek because Paul (the neighbor) stopped by at the end of our lunch to inform us that we would not be going anywhere unless we had a raised 4-wheel drive truck with massive snow tires (unfortunately neither of our mid-sized SUV "mom cars" fit this bill so we were staying put!) At 3pm, Josh and I trekked over to the neighbor's house to call work and let them know that we were snowed in until further notice! After chatting with the neighbor's, we decided that we could leave if the snowplows came through by 5pm, otherwise it would be too dark. Well, lo and behold, the snow plow came through at 4:55 that afternoon so we decided to make a run for it! The men shoveled the driveway and got the chains on the car while the women, with the children's help of course, packed up our stuff, packed the cars, and shut down the house. We were safely on the road by 6pm. We were moving slowly as there was already another 6 inches of snow on the road and it was still snowing (didn't stop AT ALL on Sunday)! Unfortunately, we didn't make it far because some "brilliant man" in a 2 wheel drive Toyota Corolla without chains thought he could make it out of there and got stuck, thus blocking the entire road! Thanks dude! That meant that we had to back down the road (still snowing!) and back to the house to load everything back into the house and open the house back up! It's now 6:30, the sun is beginning to set (remember, no power), and the men are headed up the hill to dig the "brilliant man" out! So, we stoked the fire and settled in for the night...
That meant that our food was moved to the ice chest and our temporary refrigerator on the deck. This was actually quite convenient! 
Well, after losing power and not seeing the snow plow for a few hours, we decided that we would trek over to the neighbor's house after lunch to find out what he knew about us being able to get out (couldn't call because we lost use of the phones with the loss of electricity). We didn't end up having to make the trek because Paul (the neighbor) stopped by at the end of our lunch to inform us that we would not be going anywhere unless we had a raised 4-wheel drive truck with massive snow tires (unfortunately neither of our mid-sized SUV "mom cars" fit this bill so we were staying put!) At 3pm, Josh and I trekked over to the neighbor's house to call work and let them know that we were snowed in until further notice! After chatting with the neighbor's, we decided that we could leave if the snowplows came through by 5pm, otherwise it would be too dark. Well, lo and behold, the snow plow came through at 4:55 that afternoon so we decided to make a run for it! The men shoveled the driveway and got the chains on the car while the women, with the children's help of course, packed up our stuff, packed the cars, and shut down the house. We were safely on the road by 6pm. We were moving slowly as there was already another 6 inches of snow on the road and it was still snowing (didn't stop AT ALL on Sunday)! Unfortunately, we didn't make it far because some "brilliant man" in a 2 wheel drive Toyota Corolla without chains thought he could make it out of there and got stuck, thus blocking the entire road! Thanks dude! That meant that we had to back down the road (still snowing!) and back to the house to load everything back into the house and open the house back up! It's now 6:30, the sun is beginning to set (remember, no power), and the men are headed up the hill to dig the "brilliant man" out! So, we stoked the fire and settled in for the night... We were suddenly awakened at 2:45am to a VERY LOUD bang and crack! A tree fell on the house DIRECTLY over where we were sleeping!!! Here is the view from Chris and Crystal's bed...
And here is the view from our bed...
And here is the view from outside the next morning! Top 20 feet on the roof, middle 20 feet on the ground, and bottom 20 feet still standing! Luckily no damage was done to the house because the 2 feet of snow on the roof did a great job of cushioning the fall but quite a bit of damage was done to our hearts and sleep that night! Chris had actually been up for about the hour before it happened because he heard the cracking and thought someone was trying to break into the house. When the tree did fall, he screamed "a tree fell on the house" so we all knew what happened immediately! Josh and Chris then suited all up in their snow clothes at 2:45AM to check around the house and make sure everything was stable and okay for the rest of the night. Everything was deemed okay but Josh, James, and I still decided to sleep downstairs so there was more padding above us before another tree landed on top of us!
The following morning we awoke to find that another tree had fallen a few hundred yards to the left of the house. This tree took two power poles and some power lines with it in the process of blocking the only exit we had left from the house. Looks like we are now "treed in"!
Thankfully we were set for food because Mom and Dad have lots of extra food at the cabin just in case of situations like this. Unfortunately though, we had three boys in diapers and only a limited supply of diapers left! So, the decision was made to send the men into the store with empty backpacks and a shopping list (which included diapers, Tylenol, breast pads, and nipple cream, among other things!) What great husbands they are! The trip was about 2 miles each way, in about 2-4 feet of snow, with an unknown number of trees down. Here is the loot that they came back with! When they returned with twice as much as we had asked for, we got worried about how bad the conditions were out there! They had to climb over 4 fallen trees blocking the road to get to the store and through snow up to their chest at times according to them! Yikes!!!!
Luckily, we got a land line phone from the neighbor on Monday so we were once again connected to the outside world. We also found out that there were MANY fallen trees around Arnold and that the electricity should be back on by about 6pm on Tuesday. (By the way, the estimated number of people in Arnold without power at one point was 3600, the population of Arnold is 4000!) We decided on Tuesday morning when we still hadn't seen the snow plow since Sunday evening that we better accept the ride out of town. So Mommy, Jill, and Mike drove two cars to Arnold to rescue us. As they were driving into town, they must have been thinking about how crazy we were because it was a beautiful day and the roads were perfectly clear right up to about 300 yards from the house where we were "treed in". We packed our luggage in our cars and left them in the garage, then had the men carry the must have's and car seats through the snow to the rescue cars. We all made the trek though the waist deep snow carrying the kids (with a path, thanks to the men) to the rescue cars and safely made it home!
Right before we left, I took this picture of a door that my parents have in the yard to show how deep the snow was. As dramatic as the whole event sometime sounds, it really was a wonderful and memorable weekend! We got to spend a nice long weekend with some great friends who were thankfully as laid back as we were and just made everything work! Though we didn't have any electricity, we did have cold food (thanks to lots of snow), a stove (thanks to a propane tank and match), a wood burning stove to keep the house around 62-70 (depending on the area of the house), hot water, and great company!
And here is the view from our bed...
And here is the view from outside the next morning! Top 20 feet on the roof, middle 20 feet on the ground, and bottom 20 feet still standing! Luckily no damage was done to the house because the 2 feet of snow on the roof did a great job of cushioning the fall but quite a bit of damage was done to our hearts and sleep that night! Chris had actually been up for about the hour before it happened because he heard the cracking and thought someone was trying to break into the house. When the tree did fall, he screamed "a tree fell on the house" so we all knew what happened immediately! Josh and Chris then suited all up in their snow clothes at 2:45AM to check around the house and make sure everything was stable and okay for the rest of the night. Everything was deemed okay but Josh, James, and I still decided to sleep downstairs so there was more padding above us before another tree landed on top of us! 
The following morning we awoke to find that another tree had fallen a few hundred yards to the left of the house. This tree took two power poles and some power lines with it in the process of blocking the only exit we had left from the house. Looks like we are now "treed in"! 
Thankfully we were set for food because Mom and Dad have lots of extra food at the cabin just in case of situations like this. Unfortunately though, we had three boys in diapers and only a limited supply of diapers left! So, the decision was made to send the men into the store with empty backpacks and a shopping list (which included diapers, Tylenol, breast pads, and nipple cream, among other things!) What great husbands they are! The trip was about 2 miles each way, in about 2-4 feet of snow, with an unknown number of trees down. Here is the loot that they came back with! When they returned with twice as much as we had asked for, we got worried about how bad the conditions were out there! They had to climb over 4 fallen trees blocking the road to get to the store and through snow up to their chest at times according to them! Yikes!!!!
Luckily, we got a land line phone from the neighbor on Monday so we were once again connected to the outside world. We also found out that there were MANY fallen trees around Arnold and that the electricity should be back on by about 6pm on Tuesday. (By the way, the estimated number of people in Arnold without power at one point was 3600, the population of Arnold is 4000!) We decided on Tuesday morning when we still hadn't seen the snow plow since Sunday evening that we better accept the ride out of town. So Mommy, Jill, and Mike drove two cars to Arnold to rescue us. As they were driving into town, they must have been thinking about how crazy we were because it was a beautiful day and the roads were perfectly clear right up to about 300 yards from the house where we were "treed in". We packed our luggage in our cars and left them in the garage, then had the men carry the must have's and car seats through the snow to the rescue cars. We all made the trek though the waist deep snow carrying the kids (with a path, thanks to the men) to the rescue cars and safely made it home! 
Right before we left, I took this picture of a door that my parents have in the yard to show how deep the snow was. As dramatic as the whole event sometime sounds, it really was a wonderful and memorable weekend! We got to spend a nice long weekend with some great friends who were thankfully as laid back as we were and just made everything work! Though we didn't have any electricity, we did have cold food (thanks to lots of snow), a stove (thanks to a propane tank and match), a wood burning stove to keep the house around 62-70 (depending on the area of the house), hot water, and great company! According to the neighbors, the roads were clear by Wednesday evening and the electricity was back on Wednesday night. As far as the cars are concerned, Mom, Dad, and Chris drove back up to Arnold on Saturday morning to rescue the cars. They had a 6-7 foot burm to shovel though and several feet of snow in the driveway but they got the cars home safe and sound! Thank you!!!!
As far as ever returning to the cabin, we would all love to... in June, July, or August only!
Another Arnold adventure!! What a fun story to be remembered and retold.. So glad everyone made it out safely!
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