Happy Birthday to Grandpa.....and a March snowstorm

The Kohler's Celebrate Grandpa's Birthday

What better way to celebrate Grandpa's birthday than with a trip to Ohio and a family dinner!  It was a milestone birthday for Grandpa (we won't say which one), which warrants a family celebration.  Fortunately Anna had a three day weekend, thanks to a teacher workday, so the family headed to the Buckeye state for what they thought would be an early spring weekend.  Mother nature had other plans.

The 70 degree weather of earlier in the week turned to sub zero weather by the time of the trip.  After a windy departure, Anna and family made it to Columbus in time to enjoy lows in the teens.  After spending the night with Uncle Tim, they hopped in the car with Cousin Aidyn and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Anna and Aidyn had a great time hanging out and playing with remote control cars. In the meantime, Theresa began watching the weather as a storm began to form along the East coast.

Sunday, the Kohler clan gathered at the Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Grandpa's birthday.  If you like steak, this is the local place to go to.  As an added bonus, you get to shell and eat peanuts while you wait for your table (shells go on the floor).  Uncle Rod proceeded to throw shells at this niece and nephew.  You can imagine where it went from there.  After enjoying a meal, another Kohler tradition ensued....the battle for the check.  No matter what the event, Grandpa always insists on getting the check.  Usually some family member is forced to "go to the bathroom" in order to corner the waitress and intercept the check.  This dinner proved no different.  It actually required both Rod and Theresa to intercept the waitress and Grandpa in order to treat Grandpa for his birthday.  Mission accomplished!

4 inches of snow.....note the bags of mulch

Meanwhile, a storm continued to brew off the east coast with a prediction  of up to 14 inches of snow to hit the DC area Monday night - right at the time the flight was to land in DC.  By 10 PM, Southwest canceled the flight.  This left Theresa and Joe scrambling for Plan B - driving.  This required a different level of coordination.  First, after leaving at 5:45 AM, the family drove their rental car back to the Columbus airport to return it.  They then had to make a second reservation to pick up another car.  This was the best part of the day for Anna as the new rental was a minivan.  Fortunately the weather was good for the all-day drive and the family returned to the DC area around 4 PM where they then drove to the airport to drop off the rental car and pick up their car.....all before the massive storm hit.

Only it was not a massive storm.  In fact, it was barely 4 inches of snow.  Oh sure, Anna got another day off of school.  Theresa got to telework.  There was some quality family time shoveling the slush off the driveway.  Theresa actually found some frozen worms on the sidewalk while shoveling.  The daffodils peaked out through the snow.  So much for that storm.  At least it wasn't 14 inches.  That 4 inches was heavy!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Celebrating Theresa's birthday on March 1 - when it was 76 degrees!