If You Give Teenage Boys Snow...

If you give teenage boys some snow, they'll want to go play in it.  And by play, I mean torture each other by doing everything in their power to ram, throw and smush snow onto their brother's skin.  When The Great Storm of 2010 came 2 weeks ago, it was way too cold to go play in it.  The wind chill was down to negative 17 on some days.  But we had a pretty mild day where we could go outside for more than 30 seconds without feeling like our noses and fingers were going to burn and fall off.

 So we thought we'd get a little play time in before the snow melted.  As you can see, the torture begins.

 Can I just say there is actually very little time in our household currently where a teenage boy is not torturing another teenage boy?  I have 3.  There is very little peace here right now.

 The snow was very powdery and had melted a bit the day before.  That night we had a hard freeze so there were layers of compacted, dry, powdery snow.  It sort of exploded into a powder when thrown.  I have to admit, it was kinda cool...

 Note the two on the right.  Okay...now note the one on the left...umhmmm. I give him props for trying.  A quick, "NO" did the trick and he found another target quickly...

 Unfortunately they were too engrossed with each other to notice him coming...

 Uh Oh!!!  Man down!!!  Man down!!!  Please understand this is a daily endeavor in my home.  I have learned not to panic and to remain calm unless there is blood or a body part bending in a manner in which it shouldn't.

 This is my baby.  Can you see that there is snow inside his hood?  Can I just say he is not happy!!! That is not a smile folks. After I got him up and dusted off, he decided he had enough and went to go thaw in the shower.  Now don't you worry...he's just fine.

 Here's Ryan making a snow angel.  Um...Ryan?  I think you're supposed to be on your other side.  Might work better...

 Okay...try that.  We are from South Texas.  We get no snow.  We are learning...

 TaDahhhhh!!!  A snow angel.

 Now it is big brother's turn.  By this time, we'd been out for about 15 minutes.  We were having a good time but my feet were starting to burn and it was cold!!!  So I made us all go inside. I know...I'm such a buzz kill man!

 I guess they were feeling a little guilty about torturing the little brother so Ryan helps his brother up in a rare moment.

 So this is it for the snow!  It melted in the next two days and we soon discovered that the beauty of snow is but a moment compared to the gray, dirty, slushy, icky, mess of melting snow.  I'm still cleaning my floors...and car...and laundry...

But for a moment, it was beautiful!