Snow Day!

In honor of my day off due to “hazardous weather” aka yet another big snowstorm… here’s a few pictures of Kaitlyn playing after the last big storm we had…

Blizzard of 2013

The storm kicked off Friday morning.  By the time we woke up there was already a few inches of snow on the ground and work had been canceled for me!  Kevin decided to go into work an hour early since the blizzard warning was supposed to take effect at his usual start time.  The worst of the storm was supposed to hit overnight and the wind was really howling by the time I went to bed.  Since I was a little concerned about falling trees, Kaitlyn and I had a camp out downstairs in the living room.  

In the early morning hours the city and state could no longer keep up with the snowfall and the blowing winds.  So, they stopped plowing the roads.  Instead, plows were sent to the fire stations they could reach and the plows would clear the road in front of the fire trucks and ambulances as they received calls. 

Since Kevin and I knew there was no way I was going to be getting out in the morning, we had planned on him walking from the PD to his mom’s about a mile down the street and waiting out the rest of the storm there.  As you can see, I wasn’t going anywhere!One of his co-workers who has a 4 wheel drive pickup truck graciously shuttled Kevin and a few others to their homes when they got off work.  She got Kevin to the end of our street  and then he had to hike in from there.  When he arrived we discovered there was no way he was getting in the front door.  I put all my weight into it and this was as far as I could get the door open!                                       

So he had to turn around and hike out back where we could slide the patio door open.  Here’s a view of our neighbors’ patios out back.  Needless to say they will not be barbecuing any time soon!

The view out the front.                         

Kaitlyn is ready to help dig out the car!

Actually we got really lucky.  The way the wind was blowing, it piled the snow around three sides of the car, but not the front since I had backed in.  I shoveled out the side so I could get in and pulled right out with no problems.  Then we got to spend more time watching Kaitlyn play.                                                                                                         

This shows how deep the snow is.  Kaitlyn is standing up here…                                                             

Playing around…                                                              

Her gloves were frozen solid when she got inside!

These pictures are from downtown Portland early Sunday morning.  These are the stairs at City Hall.  The news showed people skiing down them!

This one is in front of the PD.  Portland broke it’s single storm snowfall record…  31.9”. 

Maine is serious about snow cleanup!

Kaitlyn in front of the snow mountain created by the plow.  She’s looking forward to playing in it again.

Tonight will be the third straight night of parking bans in the city of Portland as the city continues to try to remove the snow.  City officials are estimating three weeks before all of the snow is cleared from the city sidewalks.

AHL All Star Game

This year’s AHL All Star game was in Providence, Rhode Island.  I was very excited because I LOVE the Providence Place Mall!  I’d been planning a shoe shopping excursion since the AHL announced the location last year!

Here’s Kaitlyn in our hotel room playing with her Leapster Explorer…

The view from our seats…

Center Ice…

Chris Summers, our representative from the Portland Pirates this year, at the Skills Competition warm-up…

Summers is #5…

Ready to cheer on Chris and the rest of the Eastern Conference!

Player Introductions…

Singing God Bless America…

Chris competed in the Fastest Skater Competition.  Not only did he win, he set a new AHL record!

Being interviewed after breaking the record…

Chris getting his Fastest Skater award…

Let’s play spot Cyndi… Kevin apparently took a picture of me getting the guys’ autographs.  I’m in the middle of all that mess. 

Kevin adding to his emergency vehicle photograph collection…

Here we are on the way to the mall…

The walkway into the mall.  We actually ran into some players about 10 seconds after this picture was taken.  You can see some of them getting ready to come through the glass doors towards us…

That night was the All Star game…  Eastern vs. Western Conference.  For the game, Chris Summers was #2 for the Eastern Conference.

The pre-game warm-up…

Kaitlyn was excited to get the free pompoms at the door…

Player introductions…

Game time!

Nothing better than hot chocolate and hockey!Chris got an assist!

My little cheerleader!Western Conference scored with 11 seconds left in the game and won .    Afterwards were the MVP awards and team photos.

The game MVP…  He got a hat trick and the game winning goal!

Rumor has it next years will be in St. John’s (Canada).  Hopefully we will be able to pull off some tickets to that and continue our tradition.