Might as well be raining meat

J and I like saving dollars. We also don't want our sweet X and E to get teased for being the fat kid at the dog park. So one of the best tricks we've ever pulled off is convincing them that ice cubes are a delicious gourmet delicacy. These two will do all kinds of rolling-overs and shaking paws and prancing around to get a coveted hunk of frozen water. Which is why, when they woke up this morning and saw this:

They were pretty sure they had expired at some point in the night and gone to doggie heaven. E took a flying leap into the yard, belly-flopped on the ground with her jaw open and very efficiently, if maniacally, scooped up mouthfuls of snow in a little arc around her head. Then they raced and rolled around with complete abandon, reminding me of an old cartoon of this miserly duck that would go swimming in piles of money.
It's the most snow we've had since moving here 3 years ago, and my AZ mom is almost as excited as the dogs. There are actually several inches more since I took the photos. You can barely tell, but the white on the ducks there is actually little piles of snow that built up while they swam across the pond. It is coming down that fast! At the moment, Little One and Grandma and I are staying cozy. But what kind of an evil monster would I be if I kept X and E in the house when there are great drifts of milkbone-dust out there piling up?! In fact there are four very sad, hopeful eyes staring me down as I type. Better go get some boots on.