Surviving the Blizzard of 2009

I have pictures/posts about my company Christmas party, Christmas with Eric and His Family, and just Christmas overall but I felt I needed to get our experience of the Great Blizzard down before I forgot or too much time passed! It was an experience etched in our minds for quite sometime!!!

I did have to come into work for about 3 hours on Christmas Eve. It wasn't too bad because my boss brought me biscuits and gravy and we just hung out together. Very relaxed!! Luckily we left the office one hour before our original set time. Bryan and I have always spent Christmas Eve with his family for the past 13 years. Although it was snowing in OKC/Moore, we decided to leave for Ada, hoping to drive out of the storm. That did not happen. Instead, it felt like we were in the eye (if a snow storm has an eye) of the storm the entire drive to Ada!! Just some basic information...from Moore to Norman, the drive is usually 7-10 minutes. From Moore to Ada, the drive is usually 1 hour 10 minutes. On Christmas Eve, it took us 50 minutes to get from Moore to Norman. And it took us 4.5 hours to get from Moore to Ada!!!

These pictures were taken on the interstate about 5 miles from Moore.

We passed this jack-knifed semi-truck along Norman. At this point, the snow, wind, and road conditions made us afraid to turn around and we had already spent 45 minutes in the car. We did not want to get stuck/stranded in it driving back and it was hard to find a place to turn around.

We stopped in another town to use the restroom and Bryan bought "provisions" in case we got stranded in our car. I had asked him to buy some crackers and peanut butter, thinking of a source of protein. I had two bananas from home already in the car. Here are the provisions he bought...

Cheetos and Gatorade!!!

I must remember this when I ask him to get dinner for our future children!! :)

The last 3 hours of our drive were very scary. Our visibility was terrible and we had to stop every 2 miles or so to clean off our wipers. I don't think we ever got over 10-15 mph. At one point, we discovered we had crossed over the entire road and was straddling the edge of the road with a small drop off about 75 ft in front of us!!! Bryan was able to correct and get back onto the road. Needless to say, I was crying at this point and nauseated!!

As I recalled this to Brooklyn, I told her I would never have gotten out in this if we had a child!! Promise!!!! Looking back, we were crazy to have driven to Ada. We should have stayed home! I am so thankful we made it safely.

My father-in-law on Christmas Eve

In the midst of a blizzard he was concerned about the star falling off his tree outside! Ha!!

There is some beauty of a white Christmas...

This was outside my in-laws home on Christmas Day. The bird was just beautiful!

We drove back home on Saturday. The drive back was dramatically different:

Here are some pictures of our house, 3 days after the blizzard when we got home. I couldn't get into my driveway and my poor car had to spend the night outside.

This is standing in our garage, looking out. We brought a few bags in and then took time to dig a small path so we could walk into the garage. Can you tell how deep the snow was up against our garage!

The pictures in the daylight were taken yesterday after some snow melt.Bryan and I had fun shoveling snow. I love Bryan's action shot!!

At sunset yesterday. And now my car is in my garage!!!

Have a great week!