From couch forts to snow forts

Here are a few pictures I caught of the boys outside today. They didn't want any part of building snowmen but 16 inches of snow couldn't go to waste either so they built a series of igloos and forts.

Trying to keep the boys entertained

Because the city of Fargo is using all of the West Fargo school buildings as Red Cross shelters, school is cancelled for the week. The boys were happy about that for about a day and a half and are now quite bored. They read, played video games and watched tv and today they were on the hunt for something new. I am not sure who decided to build a fort but they have been in it most of the day. The mayor is only allowing "essential" businesses to open during the flood and coming blizzard so that the rescue vehicles and guard vehicles are able to travel easier. That essentially means that only grocery stores, hardware stores and Walmart can open. I am definitely getting stir crazy.

Hope everyone is doing well and that the world is sunnier in your neck of the woods.

Winter again

This entire winter has been rough. We have survived 2 blizzards, snowfall amounts I couldn't begin to measure and weeks at a time of temperatures below zero. Now we are hearing that on top of dealing with a massive flood, we have another winter system bearing down on us. Depending on what meteorologist you listen to we will be getting another 8-14 inches of snow and strong winds Monday and Tuesday. We really are beginning to wonder what we have done to annoy Mother Nature so badly here in North Dakota. We have been thinking that Amarillo sounds really good about now...except that you guys are digging out of your own wild weather!

Fargo Flood 2009

By now I am sure you have heard and seen pictures and stories from our historic ongoing flood. The Red River runs through Fargo and right now it is 22 feet (or 2 stories) deeper than normal. It remains a scary time for the city but we pray the worst is over. The river has crested and now we hope the massive dike system will hold over the coming days. Don't worry though, we actually live in West Fargo and are far enough away from the river to keep us dry. Things were more stable today so we were able to walk across the Main Avenue bridge over the Red River and take a few pictures.

We had to build over 3 million sandbags and it has been a true community effort. The college kids from the 3 local universities, high school kids and middle school kids truly stepped up. Everyone we know has played some part in this, even Steve. He helped sandbag in a neighborhood of an adjacent community. These are right next to the river and help form a 2nd line of defense.

There are thousands of Minnesota and North Dakota National Guard soldiers here. This soldier is patroling the river and watching for any leaks in the earthen or sandbag dikes.

The city had to build miles and miles of earthen dikes like this around the city. Everything had to be able to withstand 42 feet of water.

Although not a great picture, this shows you our VA hospital and the tenuous position they are in behind the main dike. I am not sure but I would guess they evacuated the patients. Our main hospital evacuated all its patients by air and ambulance a few nights ago.

It's really hard to show you how deep the water really is without having some reference point. This stairway normally leads down to a walkway that runs along side the river.

I guess we would just ask that you continue to keep our family, our city and our state in your thoughts and prayers but try to not worry about us.

New Blog Address

I guess you must have found us. The old blog suddenly died and I was unable to resurrect it. I am sure I did something to make it unhappy but I can't figure out what it was. We hope you check in with us periodically here.