Friday, June 06, 2008

"T" is for Tornado

2008 has been an interesting year thus far, but Mother Nature decided to throw us another curve ball. This morning several tornadoes touched down, one of which hit our property. We were very lucky in that we weren't home when it hit - Cary and I were both at work and the kids were at Kay's house - and also in the sense that we didn't sustain major damage to the house, although 3 trees fell on it. We lost our barn; the kids' wooden swingset/play yard was destroyed; and we lost my new yard swing, our picnic table, and the trampoline. Here are a bunch of pictures of the damage we sustained.

This is a view from the road - we lost several 100 year-old Norway Pines that were pulled up by the roots and dropped onto our driveway. Our house is the brown thing behind the trees...

Here is the view from 270th - we are looking at three large root balls from the fallen Norway Pines...

This is taken looking towards the house from the mailbox...

This huge tree was uprooted, but our mailbox remained in the ground...



Here is a shot of the three trees that landed on the house...
Here are several shots of the destroyed barn...

All that remains is a portion of the two sidewalls...
What remains of the inside of the barn...

These pictures were taken standing inside the barn looking out...
Here's 1/2 the barn roof...
A look into the pasture...
Looking down the hill...
Fallen trees beside the barn...
See the white thing in the tree? That is a piece of the sheet metal from the barn. It is about 60-70 feet up in the air in that tree!



The kids' playyard was trashed...
Our corral sustained damage...
Brad, from the National Weather Service, stopped by to view the storm damage to assist them in determining the severity of the tornado...

Here is another view of one of the trees on the house...
And here are Cary and Chuck removing the trees from the roof...


With some help from Carl in the skidsteer, they were able to remove all three trees!


As I said above, we were very fortunate that no one was injured, and that the house was spared. We were also lucky as the two dogs and the cat all survived! :)





Thursday, June 05, 2008

Chance's Baptism

This past Saturday, May 31st, we held Chance's baptism. It was a wonderful celebration.



Chance is fortunate enough to have 4 Godparents, from left to right...Mike and Missy, good friends of ours, and my brother Colin and Kahri, (friends of ours in addition to being relatives!)...

Colin and Kahri had a baby girl, Kenedi, on Jan 23rd - here they are holding Chance and Kenedi. Hi Cousin!
Here is a picture from inside the sanctuary (all of the rest of the pictures of the actual baptism are on my mom's camera..I will upload them as soon as I get them!)
Here are a few pictures from home, after the baptism...
My cousin, Jacinta and her husband, Matt were due with a baby the same day I was due with Chance. She delivered Calvin on Oct 25th, while Chance was snug as a bug until Nov 7th. The boys are only 13 days apart, and we look forward to them growing up together!
The Three Stooges!

"Hey man - that's my face!"

Three little monkeys, sittin' in a chair...


Time to open presents!
Ooooohhhh...what an interesting book!
Sunday morning the crew grabbed a bite to eat at a local resturaunt. Grandpa David and Grandma Connie are shown here holding grandkids, Chance and Kenedi...
And here are Colin and I with the Three Amigos!
What a fun weekend!