Winter Storm Linus

We got our first snow of the season on November 1st.  From then, it would snow on and off, stick around for a few days, and then eventually melt, since we still maintained a temperature just at freezing.  After a snowless Christmas, it started to snow at the very end of our winter break on January 4th and I haven't seen my back yard since!  Through January we continued to get colder.  We would have snow showers of an inch or two every other day or so that slowly accumulated.  It was just enough snow to enjoy all the winter activities, but not so much that it would be a problem.  Jacob would plow the driveway in the morning and it would be good for a few days.

Then on February 1st Winter Storm Linus came.  Over the day the storm dumped snow across Sarnia.  We had areas of snow drift that were as deep as 4 feet.  That's when we learned how hard it really is to deal with winter.  Jacob couldn't even get the snow plow out of the garage because of the mountain of snow that had drifted between our front door and driveway.  He spent the pre-dawn hours trying to dig our way out of the house.

Our back patio is built about 1.5 feet off the ground due to the basement.  Because of the way the snow drifted there was about 3 feet of snow on the back deck and you couldn't tell where the patio ended.

Brenna's First Sled Adventure

In early January once the snow had accumulated, Brenna insisted that we try out the new sled that Santa brought her.  Despite the fact that it was 5 F with a wind chill of -13F, we visited the sledding hill located in a park not far from our house.  When we arrived there were two boys with sleds and snow boards enjoying the runs.  After Brenna watched them go a few times, she was ready to give it a try.  It was fun, but very cold that particular day and we only lasted about 20 minutes.  We left with the satisfaction that she had tried it and the promise that we would do it again on a better day.

Sarnia Then and Now

One afternoon, I suited up with determination to brave the cold (especially cold on the lake) and get some pictures of Lake Huron and the St. Clair River.  I revisited some of our favorite places that we spent time at this summer.  After returning home I realized that I had inadvertently captured several of the same images that I had taken this summer.  It provided some very interesting "before and after" pictures.  The summer images were all taken in late July and winter images were taken in early January.  I'm considered another outing because since then things have continued to significantly change.  These pictures were taken before we plummeted into sub-zero temperatures and had not yet accumulated the significant amount snow that we now have.  Eventually I may have "after the after" images!

The Seasons of Ontario

I'm very behind on blogging and hope to have some winter pictures up soon.  Until then, I thought I would share our first real experience with the seasons since our move to Canada.

SPRING - April 15th, 2014
Within two weeks of moving we experienced our first snow the week of Easter!  What a way to welcome us to Canada!