Snow Day!

Clearly this kid doesn't see snow enough....

Yesterday the most miraculous thing happened... snow... and not just flakes of snow but snow that stuck to the ground!  You know you are a desert rat when this sort of event makes you giddy with happiness.  Just about everywhere in Tucson had flurries yesterday (I even got to watch it for a bit from my office) but up at our new house we got a heck of a lot more than flurries, we had accumulation, not once but twice yesterday.  At lunch time Patrick came home for a bite to eat and sent a fabulous picture taken from our driveway that I got so exicted about I made him face time with me and "walk" me around the house to show me all the snow.  I figured I wouldn't get to see it myself because that sort of thing never lasts for long... and snow around noon out hear is all but unheard of so I was sure it would be gone by the time I got home.  And it was.  But then as Patrick and I were leaving a restaurant from a very early dinner (aka leaving work a bit early to take full advantage of our babysitter who picks the girls up from school for us) big huge beautiful flakes started falling from the sky again.  This time we were minutes from home and I had a chance to see it and take some pics for myself.

A chilly palo verde

The view out our front window.

 It kept snowing overnight and by this morning there was a good 6 inches of accumulation in parts of our yard and on our deck above the garage (I foolishly discovered this when I went up there to take pictures of the mountains in my slippers, then almost didn't make it back down the spiral staircase because my feet were so soggy and slippery)  Every mountain around Tucson was blanketed in snow this morning.  I has to be one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen.  Something about snow in the desert is just so magical...  I think it is because for us it is so very rare.  Regardless I count myself very fortunate to have had this experience, who knows when it will come again!!

Where our grass usually is.

View of the Catalina Mountains from our backyard after a snowy night

Chilly barrel cactus