Enjoying the unseasonable temperatures

The weather really hasn't been horrible here, so far.  Yes, it gets really cold when that arctic air comes in, but nothing hibernation doesn't take care of.  Then the other days that weren't in the negatives, a nice layer of clothing, a heavy coat, a scarf, thermal gloves, ear muffs, and snow boots were sufficient to keep us warm.  Luckily, we haven't had near the amount of snow they had last year, but the little bit that we have had has been challenging for us - only because of the drifting in the open country. 

I have to say we have never owned a sled and the kids had never been sledding before.  So, they have enjoyed the packed snow and the new adventure it has provided.  They have built forts in the yard and then they dug a tunnel through that massive snow drift in front of our house.  They have had some great fun!!

Apparently, we've had some unseasonably balmy days. I can't say I, we, haven't enjoyed them. The last few days, we saw temperatures as high as 50*.  We had a couple of days back to back that were in the mid 40s and it was nice and sunny.  Of course that kind of warmth and sunshine brings a January thaw.  So our yard is showing spots . . .

The side of the house where the kids sled is not as snowy anymore either . . .

Then they were sad when they saw that their tunnel had collapsed.

Of course, Chloe is enjoying the warmer air temps and the snow free deck.  There when it was so frigid cold, she'd go out do her business and then was back at the door before you knew it.  Now she is taking her time enjoying the fresh air.

I have to say, with the warmer temps we took advantage of it and broke out the grill.  You see, in Ohio, it didn't matter what season it was, we always grilled at least once a week.  Well, our grill has been buried in snow under the deck and it has been way too cold to stand out there to make food.

But the other night, we ALL were craving cheeseburgers.  Now keep in mind we are not big cheeseburger fans, matter of fact it has probably been at least six months, if not longer, since we had grilled cheeseburgers for us.  Jay's dad is a huge cheeseburger lover.  When we'd grill burgers for him we usually grilled fish or chicken for the rest of us, but every once in a while we would devour a burger too.  Well, the other night we had cheeseburgers . . .

Now at first we didn't think we'd get to have them on the grill.  Jay had gone out and shoveled the back patio off and moved the grill to just find out it wasn't working.  He figured the propane was out, which didn't make any sense because we filled it in November and hadn't grilled since.  Jay was pretty sure he closed the valve but he didn't know why it wasn't lighting.  The only thing we can think of is the line was frozen because when he went out about 15 minutes later, it was working.  YEAH!!!

Of course, since it had been a while Jay and Mackenzie had to make their master pieces . . .

It was so funny, because once we had all finished our cheeseburgers we all agreed they were they best we had ever had.  And I'm sure it was only because it had been half a year since we had them.  But they were pretty tasty!!!

I'm not sure when we'll get to grill again because they are already predicting a huge winter storm coming in this week by Friday.  But for now we'll just enjoy the above average temps.