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OLD TAPPAN, N.J. – People battling the effects of the polar vortex may not be sad to bid this particular winter adieu, but one family decided they wanted to make the season unforgettable in a magical way.
The Trokhan family spent a lot of time inside over the past few months as freezing temperatures and relentless snowstorms slammed their New Jersey town. Instead of getting stir crazy, the three Trokhan kids hatched a plan to make the most of the frightful weather, and quickly got their parents and extended family on board.
The mission: build an igloo in their backyard.
“We started planning this a while ago,” dad Shawn Trokhan told TODAY. “It was a team effort.”
But if the Trokhans were going to a build an igloo, they were going to build it with style. After all, white gets swallowed in white, and they wanted their “ice palace” to shine. Their solution came in the form of food coloring – lots and lots of food coloring.
The family picked up roughly 210 aluminum tins from Restaurant Depot, filled them with water and mixed in a rainbow of food coloring. Then they set the tins outside overnight to freeze.
The result was nothing short of art – the family worked side by side for an entire day, tirelessly constructing their multi-colored igloo.
"We would stack two blocks together, fill the cracks with snow, and then pour water over it," Trokhan wrote on Reddit. “After packing the snow, it would take about 30-60 seconds for it to freeze enough for the block to become stable.”
As with most construction projects, the igloo did not come without its share of stumbling blocks (no pun intended). But that just made the process more meaningful, according to Trokhan.
I think the fact that we came up with a difficult project and followed through on it was the best lesson for any of us.
–Shawn Trokhan
“We encountered a situation early on where the blocks weren't stacking well, so we had to come up with a solution, which was nice for the kids,” he said. “When you’re in the middle of a project, and things aren't going right, what do you do? It was good for them to think on their feet a little, and be prepared to make changes as needed.”
The family made a time-lapse video of the process and shared it on YouTube. It’s been viewed nearly 40,500 times in just three days.
Trokhan said that while the igloo itself is pretty cool, he’s more impressed by what it represents to his family.
“I think the fact that we came up with a difficult project and followed through on it was the best lesson for any of us,” he told TODAY. “There’s never a good time to stop your life and take on some silly family project, but if you don’t stop every once in a while, you never will.”
There are at least a few more days of freezing temperatures in the forecast, so the little ice palace will likely be around for a while longer.
Looks like Frosty the Snowman will have some serious competition from now on, wouldn’t you say?
