Hooray for a Seattle Snow Day (or two. or three…or 6 actually)! Yes, this month here in Seattle, we were hit with several inches of snow. Snow is a rare occurrence in the emerald city, and with our hills, it can have a huge impact bringing “business as usual” to halt!

Maybe it’s the teacher in me (or the perpetual student), but I get absolutely giddy for snow days. There’s something so freeing about cancelling the normal routine and pausing our responsibilities. Instead of the regular drill of work, school, and chores, we head outside to play in the winter wonderland. Or better yet, we cozy up with a warm mug of hot chocolate in front of a movie or with a good book.

We tend lean more toward the former (with the latter happening naturally afterwards), and over the years have formed a tradition of walking to get donuts whenever there’s a snow day! Edit: At least the very first snow day of the year. It all started back when Slaed and I were dating. He’d just returned from living abroad in Barcelona, and hadn’t started working full time yet. An epic snow storm shut down the city.

Between the snow and lack of a regular gig, he had some extra time on his hands. Since driving wasn’t really an option, he decided to walk from his house in central Seattle to my house in northeast Seattle. Our homes were over 5.5 miles apart!

As a walking and hiking family, we’ve now logged longer treks, but this one always sticks out as remarkable. We stopped at one of our local donut shops that day, in addition to a host of other adventures. Ever since then, we’ve made it our tradition to take a big snowy donut walk. It’s fun to think about how we added family members along the way, first carrying them, in ergos and backpacks.

For this most recent journey, it seems awfully special knowing that all 4 of us made the journey on our own two feet! It also felt a lot different because we actually had to tear the kids away from their snow play in our front yard. Over the years more and more kids have moved to our block (and surrounding blocks). And as the kids get older and more independent, there’s more and more spontaneous play.

The promise of those sweet pastries was enticing enough (barely) though, and we were able to log over 12,000 snow-filled steps between the donut shop, a couple of churches that we wandered into, tacos for lunch, and even a beer at our local watering hole.

Of course there was some complaining, and a few too many unwelcome snowballs thrown, but that’s all to be expected. Do you follow us on Instagram? We shared more of the journey on our “stories” section. You can watch by scrolling through our highlights!

Speaking of snow, we’ve accumulated quite a few posts on the subject over years. I thought I’d share a quick list here as a resource in case you need some inspiration, motivation, and guidance!