Windy

I think we moved to Kansas! We are happy to report that we have made it through the biggest wind storm any of us have ever experienced - breaking 100 mph.
It all started about 1am on Thursday morning. I had just dozed off when I heard the trees banging against the windows in the kids' rooms. I layed there waiting for them to wake up but they were sound asleep. Thank heavens! The winds continued to get stronger and I kept thinking that they were going to stop at any minute but they didn't. At about 3am, I got a text from Jamie Bare asking if we were awake and surviving. The whole neighborhood was up! Actually, all of Davis County was up! It seriously sounded like the roof was going to come off at any moment. It was hard to see outside but we knew things were coming apart and flying around - trampolines, pieces of fence, bbq grills, roofs, garbage cans, patio furniture, sheds, trees, etc., etc. At 5am, the power went out and we knew it was going to be awhile before it came back on. Shortly after that, I heard a little wimper coming from the boys' room. It was Cade. He kept saying "scerd" (scared). I felt so bad for him so I brought him into bed to help him calm down. The only way he would rest was if he was laying right on my chest, like when he was a baby. I was actually having a tender mom moment cuddling him in the dark and listening to the wind when all of a sudden he lifted his head and gave that horrible about to throw up sound. I screamed for Scott to grab a towel and he began to puke all over me. Under normal circumstances this would have just been an icky inconvenience but as Scott stumbled around to find a towel, I realized that cleaning up this mess in the dark was going to be anything but fun. We gathered all the flashlights we could find and placed them around the room to give us as much light as possible. Then I got myself cleaned up while Scott got Cade settled. He felt pretty yucky for the rest of the day but never threw up again. Whew!

When light finally broke, we had the chance to look things over. Pieces of fence everywhere, patio furniture and other peoples garbage cans scattered in the back yard. Some families became the new owners of mangled trampolines, bbq grills and play sets. Garage doors were either buckling in or getting torn off completely. Windows were breaking. Tiles from roofs were falling off and smashing car windshields. Our air conditioner was tipped over and trying to blow away. Old trees were coming right out of the ground. Big business signs were destroyed. Traffic lights were falling on cars. I watched a semi tip over on the freeway! Scott tried to go outside to save as much fencing as he could but it was impossible to walk and at one point the wind caught him and he was all but airborn as he crashed into the back fence. At that point we realized how dangerous it was for him to be out there. Everytime I looked out the window, I couldn't believe it.

When the winds finally calmed around 11am, everyone was out walking the streets and surveying the damage. Ella thought it was pretty cool that she got to sit on the street sign.

I had to laugh when I saw this little piece of fencing stuck in our garage door. There was tons of this kind of stuff where flying debris was lodged in all kinds of places. Most of our landscape bed mulch was in our yard and we found that a lot of it was filled with broken glass from blown out house lights.

I had another laugh when under all of the debris I found my flip flops. It's crazy what survives storms like these. I am just so grateful we were all home safe, together, and able to just grab some dry cereal and turn on the portable DVD player to survive.

We were fortunate to receive our power back much sooner than we expected. We had plans to go to a hotel, mainly because the temperature in our house was dropping quickly, even with the fireplace. Ella was super disappointed that we cancelled our reservation. We promised to take her to a hotel at another time, under much less crazy circumstances.

School was cancelled for Thursday, Friday and Monday due to power outages. News reports were filled with pictures of the damage across the county. Thousands of trees down. On Sunday, we went out to start raking some of the debris out of the yard when we learned that another storm was expected that night. A quick email was sent throughout the ward and the streets were filled with people, trucks, and trailers, trying to get as much of the big debris out as possible. The expected winds never came - a big blessing. The clean up continues and will for quite a while. May the snow fly later rather than sooner! And may we never move to Kansas!