tornadoes and power outages and floods - oh my!

We had a very bizarre weekend! It all started Friday afternoon, when I decided to take Allie to visit all of our dear friends at the bank for the first time. Our visit was rudely interrupted by a terrible storm that appeared out of nowhere. All of the sudden the sky turned black and the bottom fell out. I was a little nervous about how I was going to get Allie back to the car, as people were saying the wind was so strong that it was hard to even stand up. After a few minutes of waiting, there was a break in the rain, and although the tornado sirens were blaring, we decided it was probably our best chance to head for home. Allie slept through the whole thing and was completely oblivious to the fact that sirens were blaring so loudly that it hurt my ears!

Next, we arrived home to find that our electricity had been knocked out. This was really no big surprise - but by this time, the storm had pretty much blown over, so we figured we'd be back up and running in no time. So, we waited... and waited.... but still no lights and no air. We kept thinking that it would come back any minute, so we decided to stay at home instead of getting a hotel. Well, let me tell you that a combination of uncomfortably hot temperatures mixed with midnight feedings and diaper changes by flashlight does not equal a restful night of sleep!

By Saturday, my family had regained power, so we headed over to camp out with them until ours came back. Saturday night came, but there was still no power at the Kendall household, so we spent the night with my parents. When we woke up the next morning, we looked out their window to this:

That's right, that is their backyard - and no, it does not usually have a river running through it, but yesterday it did. The water was a good 2 to 2 1/2 feet deep. We are still unsure how this happened, but after about an hour or two the water was completely gone! Bizarre is really the only word to appropriately describe it.

Sunday morning, we found out that we had finally regained power! So, after a LONG weekend, here we are safely back at home, extremely grateful for electricity!