Tornado???

I tried to add a couple more images of our latest natural disaster, but uploading photos with dial-up internet is REALLY time-consuming, so I finally gave up and just added the one picture. Maybe Mom will add a few more to her blog. It doesn't really matter though--the pictures don't even begin to show what our back yard actually looked like.

What happened was the following: Friday evening, we decided that we'd take the kids out for ice cream to celebrate the last day of school. We ate an early dinner and then we headed out. First we needed to run to the pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions so we stopped at Jonathan's house to let everyone there know our plans so that they could join us at the ice cream shop. When we got there, Mom told us that there was a tornado warning for the county and that they were advising everyone to get into their basements. We sort of just shrugged it off. They do those tornado warnings all the time and we usually just get a good soaking and a few tree branches in the yard. So we decided to proceed with our plans anyway. (Denali Chocolate Moose Tracks ice cream is totally worth braving a tornado for!) We drove to the pharmacy and Kalen ran in while the kids and I sat in the car to wait. That's when the rain started. We all had a fun time watching people who probably haven't run so fast in years dashing to their cars. There were some big streaks of lightening and loud claps of thunder that were scary/entertaining too. Kalen came running out of the store shortly after a very close bolt of lightening scared the daylights out of everyone. Then it was pretty much over. So we drove back to Jonathan's to see how they had all fared and told them we'd meet them in a few minutes for ice cream. When we got to the Sweet Tooth, we discovered that some people had rented it out for a giant poker tournament and so we weren't going to have our ice cream after all. We debated going to Frosty Dan's, another ice cream establishment, but we decided we'd just go back to the Sweet Tooth another day instead. So we drove home. Well it didn't take long to realize the the storm had been far worse on our side of town. Traffic lights were out, huge tree branches were littering the roads and the closer we got to home, the worse it got. Entire trees had been uprooted. We had to drive around the block to get to our house because our usual path was blocked by a tree and a downed phone line. And even that route was partially blocked in a couple of spots by more trees. When we pulled up to the house we breathed a sigh of relief because we only had a few branches littering the yard. It wasn't until I got out to take the prescriptions into the house that I caught a glimpse of the backyard. Yikes!

One of our pine trees had completely fallen over, roots and all and hit a corner of our patio. Our neighbors big maple tree had split nearly in half and also fallen into our yard. Both of those trees took out a smaller tree next to our patio that our kids called "the climbing tree" since it was perfect for climbing and hanging in. Our apple tree which finally was getting apples for the first time this year was also knocked over. We think it can be salvaged but the top of it is completely broken off, so it'll be awhile before it looks decent again and even longer till we get apples. Anyway, it was a giant mess!

Jonathan, the elder's quorum president, and the missionaries came over the next day and spent most of the day helping Kalen clear away all the branches and cut up the pine tree. It looks much better now but the neighbor's maple is still there because he is having his homeowners insurance take care of it for us (thank goodness!) so it may be a few days.

As bad as it is, I do feel so lucky that we weren't at home at the time it all happened and that the tree fell diagonally instead of sideways or we may be out of a kitchen! It's sad to see those trees go too, but the kids are feeling better about planting some new ones and getting to see how big they grow over the years. I guess every (funnel) cloud has a silver lining!