Spring: it loves me, it loves me not

I took this picture on Thursday and intended to use it as my Spring/Easter photo, suggesting as it does, the coming back to life of our lilac tree and the promise of leaves and flowers and so on. There was also this picture, which I called in my head "What the snow left."



Thursday was what we in the Upper Midwest would call a beautiful early spring day: the snow had almost completely receded and melted from the yards, there were birds about, it was above forty degrees, and the sky was blue, blue, blue.


Thursday was also the day we left for our mini spring break trip - an overnight to a small town about two hours south of us where we planned to watch for bald eagles over the river and visit a toy store we've been hearing about for years. Thursday was a really nice day. We had a really nice hotel room with a river otter headboard, a big tub, and a carousel animal mural. Cora especially loved the hotel room - exploring all the little corners of it, lying in a bed to watch TV (we have discovered WonderPets), being in a really big tub with bubble jets, and just generally getting to goof off.

(fashion tip from Cora: the really cool people wear socks on their hands and really big shoes!)


Then there was Friday, the first day of spring, when we woke to four inches of snow and more falling. We ditched all our plans in favor of having plenty of snowy daylight for the drive back home, and hoping to beat the worst of the storm before it reached the metro area. But, we (or at least one of us) still had some fun in all the winter leftovers.



Not the spring break adventure we were planning on. But, on the plus side, Thursday night Cora had her first ice cream cone - a little kid sized one at the DQ off the highway (on the way there we drove off with the diaper bag on top of the car - it hit the road with a semi coming towards it, the bag with not only all the diapers, etc., but also my wallet, the camera...the only thing we lost was the little plastic wipes holder box - the semi was extremely careful not to run over the bag. Whew!)