September 22nd started out as a beautiful day. Absolutely GORGEOUS weather! We dropped Sophie off at a neighbor's a few minutes before preschool started so that we'd be to Mia's 15 month check up on time. Lydia was having a wart examined as well. The doctor's visits went without a hitch. Mia doubled her weight percentile. She went from 1% to 2%. That's our girl! Lydia was brave while the doc applied a coat of medicine and we were on our way.
Somewhere on our journey to drop Lyds off at Kindergarten Mia lost a flowered hair clip. I don't know why I was so upset about it (it was a gift and I like that it had a match. Sets for pigtails are the best), but really, it's shouldn't have bothered me so much and yet it did. I was determined to get it back. I figured if I waited for school to let it out it'd be less likely we'd find it. I drove to the school and back. Nothing. So I got Mia napping and Sophie practicing her ABCs/watching a show and walked to the school. Fortunately I only made it 3/4 of the way there when I found it in someone's driveway. It's amazing how my afternoon suddenly seemed so much better. Such a silly thing and yet I was so relieved to have it back!
Our cute neighbor Evie then came over and she and Sophie painted pumpkin pictures for a few minutes until it was time to pick up Lydia. I sent Evie out the door with her drying picture and was surprised at how intense the winds were. I was taking the girls to a neighbors at 4:00 so that Jon and I could go to the temple and though I'd planned to walk to school to pick up Lydia I was starting to reconsider. School gets out at 3:30. That might not be enough time... so we ended up driving. At 3:28 Sophie confessed to needing to go to the bathroom. And she couldn't wait. She hadn't brought shoes, but no matter. She'd left a pair of flip flops in there previously and we rushed to the bathroom. She finished up the same time the bell to go home went off. So we rushed outside and met Lyds in the usual spot just as things got crazy. A ton of leaves/other things that hang from trees were suddenly swirling through the air. In the minute it took to open the car and climb in we were joined by lots of leaves and loud howling wind. And then as we slowly crept home we stared bug eyed at little kids huddling together, just holding each other tight as garbage flew up fences next to them. It was trash day so the entire neighborhood had their garbage cans out. I'd rolled ours to the backyard just before picking up Lydia, but while we were inching home in our van we saw two garbage cans swirling in the street. This poor little girl was sobbing hysterically as she tried to cross the street; every time she moved forward the garbage cans moved toward her, seeming to taunt her and block her path. Garbage cans were everywhere. One neighbor lost three of their park strip trees. They'd blown apart about four feet up the trunk. I've never seen anything like that. And once we were safe inside eating a quick snack the girls stared out the window at the gray skies. The top of our sandbox blew off and settled at the base of our yard. We had a discussion about the weather and the girls asked if Jesus could stop the winds. I told them He could but that doesn't mean that He would. They said, "He sends the rain. Maybe He can calm the winds." I was grateful they weren't too scared. We got ready to head to the Price's and when I dropped the girls off I noticed this beautiful bird on their porch. So pretty and so unreal looking, and yet it was. Real, that is. Their grill blew over and they later found that the top of their sandbox made it over two streets to land in a neighbors yard. But the girls had a great time while Jon and I were at the temple and when we came home we discovered that other than our sandbox lid relocating itself, only a panel in the fence had gotten loose. Nothing serious.
Our neighbors were not so lucky. When I'd gone to pick Jon up from work Gentile was completely blocked off. I turned around and took a different route to get him. We later found out that trees had been knocked down, blocking the entire street. And a few homes on Gentile had giant trees fall on them, bashing in the roofs and causing much damage. Saturday was spent chopping up trees and cleaning up the devastation. Lots of progress was made, but not enough. Our Ward Conference was supposed to be on Sunday, but word from our Bishop and Stake President went around saying that all meetings except Sacrament would be cancelled and the morning would be spent continuing what was still left to do from Saturday, so come in your work clothes. There were dumps open special for the disaster relief efforts so we were going to take advantage of that. Not your typical Sunday, but what needed to be done for sure. Jon represented our family while I stayed home with the girls. I love where we live and the support of the community for each other. While we were driving one day the girls would point out things they could see that had happened because of the storm. Fences ruined, roofs damaged, trees knocked down. One of my friends told me about seeing the sky turn brown (she's sure a tornado touched down in our neighboring fields and her husband chopped up some twisted tree roots that appear to be evidence of said tornado) and rushing her kids into the bathroom (the only room in the house with no windows) when their trampoline crashed into their home and then blew over their fence into the street behind them. It was terrifying. She'd almost gotten them in the bathroom when the deafening crash occurred and her infant son woke up screaming. Her five year old son is still terrified every time the wind blows. It was definitely unnerving. Whoever says we don't get tornados in Utah is mistaken. This is the second one I'm aware of in my lifetime. We were incredibly lucky and I'm grateful things weren't worse all around.
Lydia says, "I remember that there were garbage cans in front of us. I remember that it was raining and windy. I know how to draw wind. I was thinking 'that's so sad' about the little girl going home from school who couldn't get across the street. Leaves were blowing on our windows. There was a family who found their trampoline hanging in their tree."
Sophie says, "I remember picking up Lydia from school. I felt like I was going to blow away in the wind. I saw lots of broken fences. I thought that our tomatoes were going to blow away. I was thinking that Jesus could make the wind calm down. The top of our sand box blew off. There was a dead bird on Ms. Lisa's front porch. Some trees fell down."
Such a surprising turn of events after our day started out so bright and beautiful.
Yikes! I'm glad that there wasn't more damage done to your house. And yeah, what is with Utah getting tornadoes? What weird weather. And that poor girl! I could see her in my mind and I would be terrified too!
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