What a difference a few days make...

You may have heard about it a few weeks ago...

after not having much snow this winter...

we got almost 22" in two different snow storms...

Aka...Blizzard of Oz & Blizzard of Oz, the Sequel...

Snowpocalypse...you get the idea. 

We don't get snow on a regular basis...

so, instead of staying in the house and being snowed in,

I headed outside before, during and after the storms.

I took hundreds, maybe thousands of pictures.  

 Now, I deleted a LOT of them.

I was practicing capturing snow in action,

the dozens of cardinals in my backyard...

along with hundreds of blackbirds...argh!!

 I headed to the local nature center with a friend to 'shoot'...

it was so gorgeous!

 The pond was almost completely frozen.

These poor guys would waddle a bit stop and then warm up.

 This was over by the children's area...

remember this for later.

There were an abundance of geese...

and there was also a lot of bickering amongst themselves. 

Landings were sometimes a little, let's say, less than graceful.

(Dude...I know the feeling!  Ice & I don't play nice either!!) 

 Everything had a nice coating of marshmallow fluff!

Again...keep this picture in mind for later... 

 There was snow & ice every where!

 These icicles were thick!

 Another pic to keep in mind...

poor ducks trying to walk on the ice...

and there is no sign of anything moving below the ice.

Can you say 'frozen fish'?

 Oh,, and this is what the snow looks like when your lens falls out of your backpack!

I may have said a bad word.

Let's just say I'm glad that it was cold and no one was there!

Everything was covered in snow! 

 Found this duck and 3 friends napping near the edge of the water after the 2nd storm.

 This is also in the children's area...

 They waddled right by me over to the children's area to raid the bird food!

Thieves!!

 I scared this guy as I was taking pics of the geese and ducks raiding the bird food.

 Fast Forward Two Weeks...

Took a little field trip there last week with the grandone and daughter 

so that we could feed the ducks and run some energy off. 

I'm not sure he had really 'fed' the ducks before.

It was a lot of fun to watch him figure out the process.

 And we ended up feeding ducks, geese, fish and turtles.

So cute when we saw that he recognized the fish and made his fish face & noise!

Precious!!

 Then we went exploring over in the children's play area.

Remember those earlier pictures of everything covered in snow?

He would have been swallowed up by the drifts!

 Huge Pipe chimes!

He enjoyed playing them.

Then, Mommy picked him up and they 'played' these pipes...  

I really should make these into a movie. 

I wish you could flip through these pictures like the old 'flip' books.

He was having sooo much fun!

He is such a happy child. 

And to think that he was waaayyyy past his nap time. 

 He had almost been asleep by the time we got to the nature center.

 Back to the big pipes...

Hey...Look Mom!

Water!! 

 I wonder what he'll do in the summer when it's warmer...

remind me to take some towels...

  

 What birds did we see today?

Oh yes...he found the 'ramp'!! 

This face puts the biggest smile on my face...

glazed donut and all!! 

Melts my heart...

no wonder there is no snow left! 

 Look what I found Grandma!

 Had to play these one more time before we left to go back to Grandma's.

 And run up and down the ramp a time or two...

Explore a little more...  

...then run into Mommy's arms.

Hope it's warming up where you are and you can see the signs of spring!!