Another Strange Arizona Winters Day

Remember when it hailed last year?
That was weird.
But it did melt almost right away. Except the stuff we put in the freezer to look at later. Ice doesn't happen all that often here.
At least it didn't used to! But a couple of weeks ago, we found ourselves with a serious cold front. And I am fully aware that this same cold front hit pretty much the entire country and brought all kinds of really really intense winter weather to places that I can't even begin to understand. I am certainly not comparing. But, after all, I am an Arizona girl and I know what I know.
When this cold front hit us, we did our best to bundle up...both ourselves and our plants.
We fared much better than the plants, in case you were wondering.
Anyway, it was pretty darn cold! It was kind of neat to experience more cold weather than we usually would...though having it literally blow into town as I was walking home from picking Bethany up from school with the kids in t-shirts and at least one of them without shoes...that I wish I had been better prepared for.
Live and learn. (Time to start keeping a preparedness kit not only in the house and car but in the stroller, right?)

We did get used to bundling up for the cold for those few days and one morning after an especially chilly rainy weather the night before, Ben and I ventured into our backyard to play while the other two were at kindergarten/preschool.

We never expected to find what we found.
In fact, I don't think Ben has ever seen this kind of thing before in his life.
Aside from the hail experience that is.

Since our sprinklers had come on two nights before, leaving our ground saturated...and then we received heavy rain the night before...it appeared we ended up with some standing water in the random places in our backyard that usually retain water in such an occasion.
Except the water looked kind of...strange.

And made a tapping noise when you poked at it.

We were fascinated.

Then we stepped on/in it and realized what we had found.

We had ice in our backyard.
Ice.
Ben could not believe this was happening.

I started breaking out pieces for him to examine.
Which made my fingers almost fall off.
But no big.

And this is what he did with those pieces.
Stood at the top of the stairs and crashed them to the bottom so they would shatter.
(Something I didn't expect...these pieces remained frozen and in tact for over 24 hours...much colder than I remember it being before)

Then he would come down to look at the mess he had made and dance around like a loony, so so excited that we had ice growing in our backyard.

And the best part?
Eating the harvest.

It was really fun and really cold and I hope it happens again someday.
I hardly ever think about how rare a climate we live in here. Our children think snow and ice from the sky are things that are in the same category as the tooth fairy...something fun to talk about but very ethereal in nature and something they are not sure even really exist.
I used to kind of cringe at the fact that we live in the desert. It always has felt like such a blah place, such a boring landscape and SUCH a torturous place to spend the summer. But, as of late, I have started really appreciating our location here in the desert. I love the sun, and I love the mild (to others' standards) winters! I love the citrus in the winter and the thirsty, sun baked summers.
But it is really fun to have these random times when we get to experience something different.
Especially through the eyes of a three year old!