Outside Country People 外国人: SNOW!

After a week of temperatures around 50, this week we had a surprise- snow! We were out of town for a three day trip (just an hour north so not too far) and we had two days of wonderful snow. It was very powder-y and soft- perfect for playing in. We happened to have already planned to spend one afternoon at some ski slopes- the day it started snowing. Chris went skiing with some of our group but I did the inner tube with Austin. He loved it, as you can see below. He wasn't scared at all on the tube and we had a good time until he got too cold and wet. Today we returned home and there was snow on the ground here as well.

We had one crazy night last night though. About 11 pm right before I was about to go to bed i noticed I had this bright red dot on my eyeball, in the white part of my right eye. I was a little worried but not too much- Chris encouraged me to call our SOS doctor to ask their opinion. Well, the doctor said "Its probably not anything serious, BUT you don't want to mess with eyes. I strongly encourage you to go to the ER tonight just to make sure". What? So, we debated but decided since the doctor had such a strong opinion that it probably was a good idea. SO, we had a friend who was with us come sleep in our room with the kids. We go to the front desk of our hotel to ask about getting a car. Now, we were out in the middle of nowhere. At midnight. And it was snowing outside. Not a good place to start. The girl at the desk kept asking if it was really serious to go tonight...if not it was better to wait because it would be really hard to find a car.
She called the manager, who called our friend who had arranged our travel. At this point I was feeling pretty stressed and ready to just forget it and wait till morning. But Chris encouraged me to persevere and our friend called a taxi hotline, who happened to have a taxi in our general area. He finally found our "hotel"- which was over a narrow, one-lane snow covered bridge with no lights to speak of. With the bad weather it took us about an hour and a half to arrive at the hospital. I was there 30 minutes, to be told it was a popped blood vessel- a large one, but should be fine as long as it didn't get bigger. SO we then drove an hour and a half back - in the snow. We saw several trucks that had gotten in snow-related accidents. We got back at 4 am- I felt a little silly, but was glad it wasn't anything serious.

Now we are home and enjoying our hot house- I am very thankful for it after three rather cold days away.

I taught Austin to make snow angels. He thought it was fun, but afterwards stood up and said "Make God". I explained to him it didn't work the same way with God, but thought it was cute.

This is the ski slope. See that tall, almost vertical slope in the background? After gaining confidence on the intermediate slopes, Chris' friend convinced him to try it. He ended up coming out of his skis and sliding (rolling, falling etc) 100 meters down the mountain...without getting hurt, thankfully!