More excitement...

A very powerful storm rolled through here about 4:30 this afternoon. I have never heard such strong gusts before. We were definitely (atleast the girls were) down in the shelter but luckily the storm went as quicky as it had come. The biggest fear for Lauren though is sitting in the shelter next to the loud "conditioner." (air conditioner) So, that is one more thing I have to remember to do before heading down there. Of course, nothing freaks out Emma and she even loves the sirens and the chance of a tornado. :)

Dave was on his way to work of course and left a little early to beat the storm, which he did. Stacy and the twins and the girls and I had this fun evening planned but things didn't pan out the way we planned, which was ok.

Of course our next door neighbor and I were out in the front "checking out" the very cool clouds while the girls were chilling out in the shelter. (I still had the toys, blankets, pillows from 2 weeks ago, so they were set) The clouds are so cool and I love it that there aren't too many houses out here to block their view. Here are a couple pics of the clouds to the west and southwest of us....... (I should have been a storm chaser)

The clouds in the photo on the right were just literally rolling over eachother. I got my "you know what" inside once that first gust of wind hit.

The girls had a good time with the camera again:

Once the storm blew through, of course we had to "survey" the damage. The girls were absolutely thrilled and amazed by the hail.

Did I mention I am SO DONE planting petunias or any flower for that matter......

And, our poor little trees need a little adjusting tomorrow. oops! I guess that's what 80 mph winds can do.

And, the little play houses were scattered into the neighbor's lawn. The small beige square in the background of the pic is the other play house that was broke into several pieces.

After all of this and watching the 10 o'clock news, we are VERY THANKFUL once again that we were spared the worst of the storm and just have some very minor clean up tomorrow.

Stacy and Ted's power has been out now since the storm so we may have some extra roommates tomorrow depending on when the power comes back on. I guess there are something like 120,000 plus people without power.

Again, we are thankful.