Igloo in New England

Weeks before we ever saw a single snowflake, Taber got an itching to build an igloo. I don't know where it came from, perhaps his Alaskan roots? All I know is he started researching igloos on the internet and couldn't wait for it to snow so he could build one. Luckily for him our first big snowfall came during his Christmas break. With plenty of snow and time on his hands he got to work.

The first night he was all on his own and the work was slow moving. He got a few blocks done but I told him he should probably recruit some helpers if he wanted to finish it before he had to go back to work.

The next day Garrett, one of the young men from church came over to help. With an extra set of hands it started moving a little faster.

The girls were "helping" too, and LOVED being out in the snow with their Daddy.

After an hour or so our friend Jeremy and his son McKay joined the effort and that's when things really started picking up. They were packing three snow cubes at a time and the walls started coming up.

Garrett worked on the inside, smoothing out the sides with a machete and packing the blocks in tight after they were stacked on.

Meanwhile Taber, Jeremy and McKay were cranking out snow cubes. They put a little water in the bottom of the bins to make the snow stick better, then they packed it in tight.

Once the blocks were molded they stacked them on top of each other moving them in a little closer each time to narrow the igloo out towards the top.

Here's a nice action shot of Taber and Jeremy hefting one of the snow blocks on.

With about an hour to go Garrett's three younger brothers joined the effort. It was exciting to see it so close to being finished.

With some help from a stool they packed the last cubes of snow on top.

Finally after 5 hours of hard work, the boys (and Teya) had finished their snow-tacular igloo.

I think we were all amazed at how awesome it turned out. Definitely exceeded my expectations!

When they were done everyone crammed inside.

All 9 of them fit in there, it was pretty impressive.

It looked so cool that even I decided to squeeze my big belly through the tiny entryway to check it out.

Once it was finished the true test was to sleep inside.

Taber and McKay braved the 17 degree weather and earned bragging rights as the first people to sleep in the igloo. I'm sure they won't be the last though, Taber can't wait to get out there and do it again.

The girls haven't slept in there yet but I'm sure they will at some point. Taber did bring them out there last night and they LOVED it. Teya was especially excited about wearing the head lamp.

While I had my doubts at first I'm pretty happy about the fact that there is now an igloo in my backyard. It's made our first snowfall especially memorable and I'm sure it will be a fun thing to keep the girls entertained all winter.