The storm of the Century

As mentioned in my previous post, while John's two brother's and their families were up here, we had come up with this fabulously fun idea to have an "Olympic Kick off party" with the kids.   We were super stoked about it and had grand plans of dressing up in "Team Canada" attire and playing all sorts of Olympic style games with the kids!   

Luci bought some Canadian prizes...

Jordan decorated Max's back yard with Red and White...

I had a couple of twin mattresses from our house laying in our van awaiting our high jump competition....

It was all going to be so great!

As I drove up to Max's house though, we could see that off to the North West of us - the clouds were alarmingly dark and sorta funny shaped.   Jordan, Luci and I decided to go for a quick drive to check them out.    (This might be a good time to admit that when I was younger, I'd watched the movie Twister, and ever since then a teeny little party of me has always wanted to be a Storm Chaser.   True Story!)   

Anyways, we only had to go to the very edge of town to catch this photo.  

And it only took me about this long to realize that I really wasn't a storm chaser and that we really should probably just get home.   By the time I'd turned the van around and we crossed the highway - the clouds were this much closer!

It was so eerie the way the darkness swept over us, and we weren't the only ones who thought so, because as we raced back to Max's we noticed so many other residents out on their lawns marvelling at the clouds.    It was just so unusual!

When we reached Max's house, we parked the van and hopped out, still staring at the skies.   I honestly have NEVER seen clouds move so fast!    The darkness felt so heavy, and it suddenly occurred to me that this storm could really be quite serious.   

I was headed into the house to check for any weather advisories online when THIS baby fell right onto Max's front step.  I immediately yelled to Max to come check it out, and just as he did the sky unleashed the most craziest deluge of giant sized hail I have ever ever seen!  

I'd say that most of the hail was golf ball size or slightly bigger, but it wasn't hard to find some that were baseball sized.    And they fell with such force!    The kids were FREAKED out (I probably didn't help that situation;) and they rushed downstairs to the basement and hunkered down.  

John ran out into the storm to try and move our vehicles to a safer spot.  By the time he got our van parked under a giant tree - the hail was coming down so hard he couldn't even make it back into the house!    Every bodies windshields were getting smashed, and not wanting to be stuck in a vehicle with glass breaking,  John was forced to hunker down under that tree and wait it out.   

I stayed at the front window and took pictures.    

Just kidding!   Actually, I threw my camera down and ran outside to save my husbands life, that's what I did!    Grabbing a giant garbage can in the garage, (and dumping out the bag of garbage) I threw it over my head and shoulders and began to make my way toward John.   Suddenly though, a GIANT ball of hail (one of the baseball sized ones I swear!;) hit me hard on my back.

I looked towards John and yelled, "Forget it!  Save yourself!!!" and ran back into the house to nurse my wound.    It seriously hurt!

I wish I could say that the storm ended after a minute or two, but it went on for so very long.    

I heard of one person who timed it and said it was 11 minutes long!    

As soon as the hail and wind and rain stopped we all ran out side to inspect the damage.    

 Here is Max's van:

Here is Max's Truck:

Jordan's Vehicle:  (Meh.  No big deal.   They only had to drive back to the states in a day or two;)

Here's John's work truck:

And our van:  

Out of the 5 vehicles at Max's that evening- our van definitely fared the best.  (Thanks to John's heroic attempt at parking it under a tree.   ...and of course, for my heroic attempt at saving him when he got stuck under said tree.)

For the next hour or so the streets were full of neighbors and family surveying the damage and checking on each other.    It really was quite touching as I looked around at this mess, and saw so many people thinking of others.      

We managed to snap this photo of the double rainbow that appeared immediately after the storm.

 Under normal circumstances I maybe would have taken the time to really appreciate the beauty that is in each rainbow, but in this particular moment I could only think of my own home and how it survived.   Besides that- my back was BURNING and I could tell that a giant bruise (exactly the size of a BASEBALL) was forming right where I'd been hit.   

Under the circumstances who had time to stop and think about a rainbow?    

The latest report is that our home now needs a new roof, new eaves, new siding, a new door, and new windows.     It's been a super fun week to say the least, as we've met with adjusters and agents and contractors, and begun the process of repairing it all.   For the most part though - I think we were very very lucky.    We experienced pretty much the same amount of damage that everybody else in town did, and the only thing that didn't have hail coverage was John's work truck.     

 So all in all - it's really not so bad.   

I mean, at least no one was hurt right?

Oh wait.   I WAS HURT!!!!

That John better know what a hero I am, that's all I have to say;)

Sigh...!   Love knows no bounds folks.    Love knows no bounds.