The Silver Lining...

As many of you know, Kevin and I don't exactly "love" living in Chicago. Its really expensive to live here, plus, its far away from our family and friends, lacking in appropriate places to have family parties, lacking in anything that would be considered friendly for the outdoors man, (i.e. camping, rock climbing, hiking, etc.) and its COLD!

That being said, there is a silver lining. Chicago is SUPER COLD in the winter, but SUPER COLD WEATHER produces SUPER BEAUTIFUL ice art!


2 years ago when we were living at a different complex, I took these pictures on a walk with Brooklyn. There were water fountains all over the property, and they all looked like this.


Here's a shot of the whole fountain. Isn't it incredible to see that big mass of ice surrounded by green grass?! The weather really is strange here.

(Click on the pictures for a better view of the icicles)

Yesterday, we woke up to another wonderful ice surprise. The night before we had major thunderstorms rolling through, and as the weather cooled throughout the night, the rain started to freeze to EVERYTHING!


It was a bit of a hassle to get into our car that morning. We basically had to rip the doors open, and then the ice scraper wouldn't work, so we ended up having to pour hot water on the windows while simultaneously squeegeeing it off before it refroze!


But, obviously, our frozen car wasn't what I was happy about. The fun part was the trees! All the branches had tiny icicles covering them and they looked like they were sprouting sparkly leaves!


The other cool thing about the trees was that whenever the wind blew, they sounded like wind chimes as the icicles clicked together.


Anyway, Chicago may not be the perfect place to live, but it sure does have its perks. Its not everyday that you get to see Heavenly Father's ice sculptures in your own front yard!