Storm hits too close to home

Today is Kaeleigh's first birthday... pictures will be posted soon.

As a precurser to the celebration we were visited by a monster wind storm. My account of the events...

It's around 4pm, I'm vacuuming, Mike's on the computer in the basement and the older kids are out riding their bikes. The warning siren sounds which is confusing because we didn't know of any severe weather today. The kids come barrelling in the front door...they think a tornado is coming.
The news station reports a wind storm coming with winds 70-90mph and large hail. The clouds coming over head were amazing, i'd never seen clouds move so fast. We had the kids on their way to the basement and I remembered my flip-flops on the deck and naturally didn't want them to blow away. I stuck my head outside and pulled them inside but in doing so I heard the wind coming. It was so loud I thought it was a tornado. All five of us crammed into the basement closet and weathered some scary noises. We took a look out the window and visability was zero. Then came the hail and I was sure that the windows would break and the Jeep was sitting in the driveway which Mike thought would have damage (it didn't).

The aftermath was quite surreal. Walmarts fence behind our house was blown down in places, our trampolene had been picked up and moved over (first time that's happened), leaf debris was plastered on everyones houses, reports of traffic lights knocked down and trailers blown over and we had water runoff cascading down our street not to mention the drifts of marble sized hail everywhere. We have friends who live close to us who lost their fences and got windows smashed. There are some homes by our church building that suffered severe damage.

Here are some videos of the damage to our property and the homes in our neighbourhood.

Mountaineer in Training

Kaeleigh was just 11 months when she spontaneously climbed the rock wall of our swing set. Today she climbed the wall and was peaking through the wood slats at me. She was really cute even when I had to race over there and stop her from going headfirst down the slide. As you can tell..I have a climber on my hands.

Oh and if you were wondering, she's pretty good on the stairs too!

Snack Attack

http://www.ldslivingmagazine.com/articles/show/1568

I came across this article about kids' snacking habits. It has a great idea to teach kids how to snack healthily and they learn life skills at the same time. I loved the idea but haven't decided if I want to implement it yet.


Check it out, it's only one page of reading.

The Robins Take Flight

This little cutie is one of three that left the nest and is now being feed by it's parents in our back yard. It's funny to watch it crashing around. We found it taking shelter from a storm by standing up against the bottom of our patio door. Good luck little fella!

Now we have a second nest in our tree housed by more robins!

Happy Father's Day

The kids made these frames for

Dad's desk.

"Embarassing? Ah yes - one of your Earth emotions." - Spock

Braden took it quite literally when Mike suggested he should cut his hair. We just couldn't hold back the laughter. I think he has an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Spock.

Day Trip to Winter Quarters

(below) This violin belonged to Mike's great great great grandfather, Isaac Morley who was friends with Joseph and Emma Smith. Isaac let the Smiths live in a cabin on his farm which is where they delivered and lost their twins. He endured persecution in Nauvoo and lost his first wife at winter quarters where she is now buried. I love having that close tie to the pioneers whom I admire so much. Isaac played the violin all during the journey across the plains to the Salt Lake valley.



(below) This is Brigham Young's cane (maybe a replica?)


Aren't they all so cute together?



My friend Karen and I took our kids to the Mormon Trail Center which is a short ride across town. The weather couldn't have been more lovely. We learnt about the pioneers and enjoyed the beauty of the cemetary. Our kids had fun playing hide and seek while we sat on a bench with our babies and talked.

Mother Nature's Beauty

The storm rolls in.

My first picture of a lightning strike. It's not easy. Beauty after the storm...It's been a long time since I've seen a rainbow from end to end. Where's my "pot o' gold" :)

Tornado : Round 2

Tonight was another crazy evening of storms. I was able to get this video of a tornado forming just north of my house. It was very close and unfortunately it moved over into Iowa where it killed 4 boy scouts and injured many others at Little Sioux Boy Scout Camp.

Baby Robins

For the first time in 5 years...I have babies! Baby birds that is.

Despite my efforts in the past to have a regular supply of food and water, birds never nested in my tree.

A mother and father robin have been raising three babies and it's been great to see the dynamics of a bird family. The adults take turns providing and protecting. One protects while the other gets food (usually worms, which has been in abundance from all the rains) it's like a tag team.

Little by little I could see heads bobbing up and down and getting larger. Just today Kaitlin came running in saying that one of the babies was on a branch. She was right and there it was just hanging around the nest. I had to take a picture before it's tail feathers came in because I'm sure once that happens they'll be on their way. Maybe I can get some video of flying lessons ;)

Tornado Damage

Some of you might have heard on the news about the storms rolling through the midwest. We had our very own tornado in the city, Aren't we lucky...NOT.

It developed from downdrafts (which is rare) so the sirens sounded after the fact. Not good for a lot of people who were still asleep in their beds.
We happened to be awake with Kaeleigh that night and after hearing it roll in and pound furiously against the house I became increasingly worried. It just seemed different than other storms. Mike checked his phone and exclaimed in surprise "There's a tornado warning". Just as he'd finished those words we heard the sirens sounding. I grabed the girls and Mike grabed Braden and we hightailed it to the basement for cover. Thankfully nothing serious happened, just alot of wind and a couple of bangs.

My parents we're the luckiest of all though because it came right over their house. They have a weather radio but were confused because it didn't say there was a warning so they were experiencing a tornado without realizing it. Damage was all around them but they were fine which is truly a blessing as they don't have the safety of a basement to go to.
Phew... Thanks Heavenly Father!

Here are some images of the damage around my parents home. Mike's sister and her family used to live in the apartments and the car wash is down the street from my parents house.
The pictures were taken by a friend of Mike's sister.

http://cmbpics.smugmug.com/gallery/5130682_VNk9Z#310014759_5PL8Z

Little Miss Sunshine