We had the opportunity to borrow a home-made costume from some good friends, and it just happens that it allowed Ezra to dress up as one of is favorite animals – a lion. Full disclosure: the first time that he put on the costume he didn’t like it. It was hard to see his hands, it was a lot bulkier than his clothes, it was a little warm, and it had a tail that kept getting caught on things. But the longer that he was in it, he either started to like it or just got used to it. Either way, we all had a good time walking to our neighbors in the building and eating some candy (well, Ahna and I did. Ezra just enjoyed putting the candy in his pumpkin).

The great thing about Colorado is that even though we got nearly 30 inches of snow over the past couple of days, it was sunny and topped 50 degrees today. Ahna had a third consecutive day off (!) so we took advantage of it by just hanging out together….you know breakfast and lunch down at my parent’s house, a nap for all three of us, and a relaxing evening at home.

In the spirit of measuring horses by ‘hands,’ we have determined that this storm has dropped a little more than 1 Ezra of snow. By the end of the melting today, there is only about .5 Ezra left on the ground, and the streets and sidewalks are completely clear of snow and only wet due to melting.

It normally snows here in October (we even posted pictures from mid-Sept a few weeks ago) but to get a storm the size of the one that we have just received is a rarity. Since Tuesday night, we have gotten 26 inches in Castle Rock and the wind is producing drifts that are topping 4 feet.

I had the fortune of being at work on Tuesday and Wednesday and responding to all sorts of traffic accidents caused by questionable driving in the weather. Ahna had the fortune of experiencing two consecutive snow days (which is even more of a rarity than the storm itself) and has been mostly cooped up in the house with Ezra. They did venture outside for a while yesterday afternoon, and everyone quickly realized that even an inch or three of snow is enough to trip up Ezra. He had a mostly good time exploring around, but the cold forced them in after only about 20 minutes.

We had the opportunity to spend the day together today and ventured out once for lunch and some errands. Otherwise, it’s been hang out inside and hope that we can find enough things to do to avoid driving each other crazy.

The photos of Ezra playing were taken on Ahna’s cell phone, and the big one below is our best impromptu impersonation of a picture from the book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

Special Wisconsin Edition

In the LaCrosse area, the leaves were in various stages of falldom. On the west side of the Mississippi, the leaves on the bluffs were absolutely spectacular. On the east side of the river, the leaves were a little less vivid. In the yard, there were lots of leaves on the ground. The area with the leaves on the ground is the area where Ezra seemed to find his particular liking of the fall events. Running, tossing, playing, crunching….you know, all of the joys of playing in the leaves (until at some age you realize that someone is going to have to rake all of them up, and you realize this when it’s you that will have to do the raking). Anyhow, the fun couldn’t be stopped, and the photos prove it.

Special Wisconsin Edition

A quick day trip to the farm….it’s always great to be there with lots of family, but it’s equally as good to spend some time there just by ourselves. It was a lot of fun to see Ezra interact with Bestemor, Marie, and Ruth.