Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Scary Storms

Our Tree (above) and the Neighbor's Tree (below)



Last night was extremely scary- what started off as rain, turned into lightning, thunder, and wind within a couple of hours. After I put the boys to bed, I laid awake listening to the rain and branches hitting the house. Just when it seemed that it was starting to die down and just as I was falling asleep, the brightest light and loudest boom I've ever experienced made me jump a good foot out of bed. I was sure that we had been hit by lightening! After running to check on the boys (not even stirring), I sat up waiting to smell burning. Luckily, there was none. The night lasted forever as I laid in bed, listening to the wind gusts, thunder, and tree limbs snapping. I was sure that when I woke up, one of the trees in the back yard would be down.


When I got up this morning, I walked down the stairs to see that our neighbor across the street's tree had split into two, with half of the tree just brushing their house. As I looked at the park, with it's limbs everywhere and an entire tree split into three pieces lying on the ground, I just knew that something bad had happened. After feeding Nolan, I went around the yard. While the back yard was littered with tiny branches of leaves, there was a huge limb that had fallen from one of the trees in the front yard. Luckily, the tree limb fell toward the street and wasn't harming anything. After a few phone calls this morning, I found an awesome company, S&S Tree Service, to come out and take it down. Within 2 1/2 hours, my yard looked just like it did yesterday!

Nolan's 1st Birthday/ 4th of July



Although Nolan's birthday is July 3rd, we couldn't celebrate until the 4th because Don wasn't in Hot Springs. So on the 4th, we celebrated the birth of our nation and the birth of our son!

The day began with a trip in the boat to take Uncle Dave and Cousin Johnathan out on the skis. John was able to get right up on two skis and skied around the lake for a while. When he was tired, Dave got up on one ski (I was highly impressed!) . Nolan and Brennan loved watching them ski on the lake- Brennan even wanted to try it! When we went back to the house, Don wanted to go out on the jet skis. I love the jet skis, but I haven't been on them in two years. It was so much fun to chase Don and Brennan around the lake.

When we returned, we got ready for a huge BBQ. Gram, Elaine, Johnny, Theresa, Wesley, Luke, Rebbecca, Patricia, Calvin, Johnathan, Kimberly, Genna, Shannon, Gigi, Papa, Dave, Teresa, Brett and Sara were all there for the party and BBQ. While Nolan slept, we chowed down on awesome burgers and hot dogs, chatted, and played a rousing game of volleyball. It was so comical to watch everyone go at it and get so competitive over volleyball.

After the game, Nolan woke up and we decided that it would be best to sing to him when he was happy. Nolan had the cutest Blue's Clues cake (complete with musical notes drawn on). He was so enthralled be everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to him. It was so cute- he looked around and smiled at everyone and laughed when it ended! He didn't quite get the blowing out the candles part, so Brennan helped. Nolan was a little timid at first about the cake, but he really got into it when we held it up to him to take a bite. He's just like Brennan; he hates to get his hands dirty!