Melting snow

I thoroughly enjoy the beauty of newly fallen snow that covers the ground and makes everything white. I love the cleanness, purity and peacefulness. There’s nothing like it. I also enjoy the landscape without snow, seeing the grass, maybe some flowers depending on the time of year, but I hate the days of melting snow.

When we recently experienced the rapid loss of snow I literally felt frustration and anger rise within me as I looked upon the once beautiful, covered land. It was ugly. Patches of snow, with wet, brown ground peering through. The once beautiful cleanliness was just a muddled mess, dirty and unsightly.

As I walked through that melting snow that was more mush than snow at that point, it hit me that this was the current state of my heart. A muddled, ugly mess. Maybe that’s why I had gotten so frustrated in the first place at the sight of it; I didn’t want to see the physical example of my emotional state. As the day wore on and most the snow had all but disappeared, I continued to ponder the snow and the natural melting of it. Snow must melt. Without melting, there would be no spring, no new growth. No flowers bursting forth to display their beauty. And as ugly as the process is from snow covered hills to the grass, leaves, and dirt below, it has to happen. It is a necessary evil.

My life was snow covered until recently. Things were in place, going as I would like. And while life wasn’t perfect by any means, I was pretty happy with it all. It was fairly clean and put in order, following the plans I had for us. But now, I am muddled. I am an ugly mess in the transition of life. There are days that are better and I think maybe all the snow has melted, but then something triggers the pains that I thought were through and I see the fields of white still covered as they have been shaded from the heat of the sun and I realize I’ve hardly begun the melting process.  There is a lot more ugliness to be had before spring arrives. Yet, I find hope in the thought that spring will indeed come and with it the fruits of new growth that have been nourished by the melting snow, regardless of how ugly and painful the process is. So I will continue to sit in melting snow, even though I really don’t like it, because I know the growth to come is worth it.

Snow day in Raleigh

Thankfully when we left TN we didn't leave the snow for the rest of the year. Raleigh got a couple inches the other week and the boys enjoyed playing once again. Of course, D enjoyed eating it. 

We didn't take the camera out the first time they went sledding so things had already started to melt. There was more than it looks, promise. :)

That would be my mom, folks, out sledding. I think she enjoys it more than the boys. :) She and Dawson were out for the longest time sledding.

LeGoLaNd

As seems to be the norm now, we made our way to Legoland while in Florida. The boys loved it. It is a great park, I must admit, and I would rather go there than Disney any day. Dawson also helped a bunch by finding free admission coupons for kids with the purchase of an adult ticket in a Lego magazine before we left. All three were free! 

Chima was new for them this year but has become their thing now. They are in love with it. This is one of the characters in the Chima show.

Driving practice to earn their license is always fun. Kenan was old enough to do it this time and we may have exaggerated the age of Silas just a bit to let him go as well. :)

I love parks like this because it allows you to catch pictures with your kids when they generally have happy faces. Probably one of my favorite parts of the park!

Just had to add this one to prove that I stuffed my pregnant body into this ride for my children. :)

Brett wanted the boys to ride a roller coaster. None of them were too thrilled about it, though Silas probably did the best. Dawson was white as a ghost when he got off. He never wants to ride again. :) At least I will have a buddy at the bottom, because pregnant or not, roller coasters are not my thing.

Another favorite part of going to these places is the face paint. Only Silas did it this year, but I love it.

                                      
There was this workshop area where you could build a robot lego alligator. Really neat. So they went through all the steps and added the motor to it and all. Then they could choose what sound the alligator would make.

Sometimes the alligators got out of hand. :)

Silas was supposed to be a spiderman or something like that but when we passed Darth Maul, we realized he really looked like him. :)
                                                     

 We made it through the whole day! It was so much fun!

Florida pictures

We left Tennessee in the snow, as another storm had blown through the night before our departure, and arrived in Florida. The boys were determined to swim and play at the beach, even though it was only in the 60s at best. 

We got to enjoy the home of Brett's mom's cousin as well in Naples. It was absolutely gorgeous there. There were tons of dolphins each morning. The boys also enjoyed the kayaks.

Dawson going solo

D and K together

Brett trying to stand...

It didn't work. 

Our last night there the sunset was simply amazing. One of the most beautiful I've seen in my life, I think. So bear with me as there are lots of pictures as the sky continued to get prettier and prettier.

 Dawson gave up just looking at the water and decided to swim one last time. The other two followed, at least for a few minutes, but D stayed for quite awhile.

The small black dot in the middle of the photo is D's head. (And it wasn't as deep as it looks, just in case you were wondering)

We managed to get one family picture, though we weren't together enough to do it earlier on when there was a bit more light.

We also stopped one night in Charleston during our travels to break up the trip for the boys. Despite the cold, it is always fun to go back to our old stomping ground and show the boys our old house and where D was born.

Being silly!