So This is Snow...

Recently I visited my brother's family in Utah. I was a little nervous about going because it's been so snowy and cold there and I am an Arizona girl through and through...very warm blooded. I don't even own a heavy jacket. But I packed things I could layer...like 3/4 length sleeve shirts (I don't have comfortable long sleeve shirts), a hoody, sweatshirt, and my light everyday jacket. I hoped that would be enough. I was also nervous about driving in that kind of weather...I've hardly ever in snow!

I was very pleased to find that when we arrived, it was a little cold (in the 40s during the day), but it was very bearable! I didn't even have to layer too much! And it was sunny and dry...there was snow on the ground, but not on the roads. Driving was easy. I had to laugh at myself for being so nervous. I took some pictures of the scenery near where my brother lives. I think the Wasatch Mountains are very beautiful:

My niece took this one of me. It was so sunny, I had to squint just to see anything!

See it was even warm enough for kids to be in short sleeves.

The day my sister and I left Utah, there was a winter storm warning in the Salt Lake area, but we just missed it (my mom said that she took a couple of grandchildren for a walk right after my sister and I left, and it started snowing so hard she couldn't see very far in front of her. I am glad we left when we did. My brother gave me some driving tips, and I was ready to use them, but I didn't need to. We escaped Utah without seeing bad weather.)

But when we flew into Tucson, my other sister called and warned me that there was a winter storm warning in Sierra Vista. What? Really? I just escaped one in Utah!

When we landed in Tucson, it was a clear, beautiful night. It was a little windy, but not that bad. I thought I escaped another winter storm. But as I drove the hour and a half to Sierra Vista, the wind picked up and became very strong gusts...it was very difficult to drive in it. I could see a huge storm system above the Huachuca mountains over Mexico. I knew the wind was blowing that system over to us. I arrived home safely (it was after midnight when I finally got home). But man! The wind was so strong, it was shaking my house so hard that pictures were rattling on the walls. It was kind of scary. But I was so tired, I went to bed and prayed my house would not blow down.

The next morning, I woke up to this:

Snow in Arizona! And I had to use my brother's driving tips after all. When I drove into work, it was very slippery. Luckily, there was not a lot of traffic on the streets and I got to work safely. By lunchtime, though, the snow was all melted away. I didn't even have an opportunity to play in it. Oh well.

It was a funny experience...missing bad weather in Utah, only to get it in Arizona. I guess I brought the good weather to Utah and the bad weather back down to Arizona. But it didn't last too long down here. We're back in the 60s again. You can't beat the weather in Sierra Vista!