Where Do We Live?

I am starting to think the US has shifted and we are farther north than we originally were. We just had our third snow storm of the winter - with more on the horizon. This time we really only got about 2 inches, but all the schools were closed.
After a lazy start to the day, we headed out to shovel at Paul's mom's house and my dad's house. This was the first snowfall this year where the snow was easily packed, so snowball fights ensued as we shoveled.

Rudy likes to try making "tongue prints" in the snow. He has such a fascination with eating snow, sometimes it is like having a toddler around because he's not always discrete about where he tries to eat snow!

A silly pose...

A nice pose. Paul had sunglasses on so Rudy insisted he needed his.

After shoveling, we decided to stop at the playground for some more fresh air. The play equipment was a little too wet and snowy so we took a walk around the pond instead. I put Rudy's clothes out for him, but he always manages to add his own flair- today's fair was his long johns on the outside. The worst part is, they are kind of big so he kept asking for help to pull them up.

We had fun looking at the snow tracks and trying to figure out what animal had been there. And then we had to make up animals that might have been there, like a turtle duck.

The partially frozen pond. You can't see too well, but on the other side are many, many ducks and some geese hanging out in the water and on the ice.

As we rounded to pond to the other side, the ducks came charging from the water toward us. You aren't supposed to feed the animals here, but obviously people do since they were excited to see us. They came right up to us and followed us for a while. Paul took a video of the ducks following us and Rudy saying, "Sorry, we have no food. Go find someone else."

Yes, they really were this close. Paul crouched down and held the camera low to take this picture.

A Spring Day

Okay, it really isn't spring but since the temperatures hit the low 40s today - the first time in weeks it's done that - and the sun was shining brightly, it felt like spring might soon be here. We decided to get some fresh air and take a walk at the park.
When we arrived we were greeted (or attacked) by ducks hoping for a handout (we had none).

The park didn't look very spring like in some places. It just shows how cold it's been lately - some places are still snow covered, others are all grass - since it hasn't been cold enough for all the snow to melt, only the areas that get a lot of sunlight have melted.

Even the sidewalk was covered with snow in many parts (something we didn't anticipate when we chose what to wear!).

You can see the pond in the back is also half frozen and half thawed.

Being the boy he is, Rudy of course found a stick to swing around for a while.

Shadows on the ice - didn't this turn out good?

Saying good-bye to the ducks.