Today was a snow day. It snowed all night last night, and partway into the day today. By mid-day we had a full foot of snow. Depending on where you live this may not sound like a lot of snow, but in Portland, Oregon, this is very unusual and more than enough to shut down the city. I worked from home, and in the afternoon – it was time to play!

Actually, before play time was haircut time. A.J. went out in the morning and came back with big blobs of ice stuck in the fur around his legs and feet. So I got out some scissors and hacked away at the poor boy. After I got a good amount of hair off of him, it was time to get ready. Greg and I got bundled up into layers of warm clothes, put on our boots, put a collar on A.J. and headed out.

We walked to the park, alternately walking easily along the sidewalks that people had shoveled and trudging through deep snow where they hadn’t. We got to the park and A.J. joyfully bounded through the snow! He went from tree to tree looking for squirrels. When he didn’t find any he came to me looking for snowballs. The park was beautiful, and we had a ton of fun! Neither A.J. nor I wanted to go home, but I had to work and I wanted to get A.J. home before the ice and snow started bothering his feet.

Before we went to the park, Greg had shoveled our driveway and sidewalk. Half the front yard was piled high with shoveled snow, but there was one smooth, untouched spot. When we got home from the park I dropped A.J.’s leash, trudged through the giant pile of shoveled snow to the smooth spot, and fell onto my back to make a snow angel.

The next thing I know, A.J. is standing on top of me. He had plowed through snow taller than him to get to me, and didn’t seem to want to go back into it. I was completely unable to get up; A.J refused to move and I was trapped in my snow angel. I finally gave him a shove, at which point he moved just far enough to sit down on my leg.

After a certain amount of flailing and the destruction of my beautiful snow angel, I was finally able to sit up, move A.J. off of me, and stand up.

What a great snow day!