shortly after arriving home from our whirlwind tour of eastern pennsylvania, our family’s portable hard drive took a turn for the worse and we thought all (meaning our last 6 years’ worth of personal images and videos) was lost. after a few friends tried to help out, we turned to some pros. and voila! we got everything back, including all our videos! yay!

so, here it is, our long overdue post on our fun times in doylestown during the holidays!

presents, presents, cute baby girls and snow!

we enjoyed ourselves for almost a whole week in d-town, meeting our newest niece, ginger miriam, having a date night with matt and naomi (way too much fun, needs to be done more often) and just plain hanging out with grandma and grandpa. along the way we took a few pics, but for the most part we just enjoyed everyone’s company. looking forward to a planned trip out west to see more of the idaho spences soon!

look what santa brought jackson… a big kid bike! super cool, dude!

the girls and their aprons from jan.

it’s the crazy hat family!

got your hands full there, matt!

the girls loved taking baths together! lots of splashing all around!

jackson thought the girls were wacky!

naomi trying to read the girls a story, but there was just too much squirming!

ginger is a master of the serious stare. but get her started on laughing or talking and watch out! she’s a riot!

she’s not a fan of the hugs, phoebe.

phoebe and daddy had fun in the snow…

…and big brother jackson loved it, too!

while most people remained holed up in their homes, waiting out the blizzard of 2010, which dropped at least another foot of snow on top of 32 inches that fell only a few days before, what were we doing? walking downtown to volt, of course, to interview and photograph famous chef bryan voltaggio and eat the food he and his staff created in a special “snow fixe” menu.

are we crazy? yep! but who could pass up this opportunity? dave and molly first ate at volt in october 2008, and fell in love with the food. one year later, bryan and his brother appeared on “top chef” and became nationally recognized personalities. jackson loved to watch the show with us, and could spot bryan every time he came on screen.

on wednesday afternoon, as winds howled outside, molly fielded calls from her reporters, all working at home. one of them lamented not being able to cover a great story — the fact that volt was indeed going to open its doors to diners during this historic storm. so molly said, “ok, i’ll cover it instead!” she was eager to put her reporting skills to good use again. and, what luck, she happened to live with one of the gazette’s freelance photographers. so, she volunteered dave to work, too!

check out the story and photos by clicking here.

all of us got majorly bundled up, phoebe riding with molly in the bjorn, and headed out for a surprisingly short walk downtown. when we arrived, the staff was waiting for us, and helped us get our many layers off and put away. we settled in for a memorable dinner.

it was such a wonderful experience in so many ways. first, the other diners were all so fantastic! everyone was in a great mood and very willing to talk. our “neighbors” to the right took several photos of jackson and complimented us on our very well-behaved children. another fellow diner offered to take  a family shot of us eating, and a third gave jackson his iPhone so he could play a game on it.

the highlight for molly — aside from the outstanding food — was definitely getting to meet bryan, and hang out in his kitchen for a short while. he is a bit shorter in person than he looks on television. but he’s very kind, genuine, and knowledgeable about food. he talked about getting himself and his staff up to frederick through the storm, about wanting to get back in his kitchen and cook after a long absence, about loving downtown frederick, and wanting to offer those of us living downtown a respite from the storm.

jackson was thrilled with the special chicken fingers and fries the chef made for him — with tiny dipping pots full of mustard and ketchup. molly loved her main course best — pineland farms beef strip loin with yukon gold potatoes, filled with three different sauces: roasted red pepper, chive and sweet golden raisin, with turnips. dave’s favorite was his first course — yellowfin tuna with jasmine rice, sesame lavash, yuzu vinaigrette, chili oil and cilantro. molly liked dave’s dessert better — goat cheese dulce de leche with granny smith apple sorbet.

what a wonderful dinner, and a memorable way to spend a snowy day. we won’t soon forget it!

predictions of record-breaking snowfall, crippling the capitol region, came true. by our yardstick, about 32 inches fell on east church street from about 6 p.m., friday, through about 4 p.m., saturday. the snow came long and hard, quickly coating all our trees, our car, and even jackson’s basketball hoop in the backyard.

on friday night, dave and jackson took a long walk down church street to pick up friends roman and zach, then on to la paz for some mexican dinner. the place was packed! we think it was the only restaurant open.

dave also managed to get out early saturday on an adventure downtown, shooting photos for the gazette. you’ll see some of what he saw in the gallery below.

who knows how long the snow will stick around. it’s highly doubtful that school will be in session for at least a few days. molly’s getting ready to brush off her boots for a trek into work on monday, though. the news must be posted online!

for now, enjoy our photos. we’re thinking of printing up some t-shirts:”we survived snowmageddon 2010″. or: “snowpocalypse now, redux 2010″!

a few days before we left for christmas vacation, a massive winter storm dumped almost 2 feet of snow on frederick! and pennsylvania only got a fraction of that amount. what? are we in opposite world?? needless to say, all the boys in the spence household were super excited to run outside and play. so, brooks, jackson and dave all put on their sweaters and boots and went for it!

this was just the beginning! so much snow, and all jackson had to wear was his rain boots. thank goodness that aunt beth came through a few days later with some snow boot hand-me-downs!

brooks likes to dig his nose deep into the snow and bound around, but he’s one of the first who wants to go back inside and get warm!

we don’t get snow like this very often, so we were actually happy to see it all over our patio! the best moment came the next morning when, without prompting, our neighbor came over with his snowblower and dug out our driveway! hurrah!

phoebe seemed unimpressed with her second-ever snow experience. just give her a few years!

jackson was all smiles later, after getting some warm clothes and lunch!