together again

we had a crazy storm last night! it was hot, hot, hot all day, so we stayed inside because i didn't want to take laney out in the 100+temps. matt and i were watching the olympic trials, when the news started coming on during commercials warning about the weather. a crazy, fast moving storm was coming across our region with hurricane strength gusts of wind, up to 80mph.

this morning matt looked at the weather history: at 11pm the wind was blowing at 7 knots. at 12 it was blowing at 30 knots, with gusts up to 50. weird. the news said to expect power outages, so we brought up our glowsticks and flashlights so we would be ready. our power went out around 11:30 and didn't come back on until 4'ish. it was really hot. the girls all took turns waking up and it was a pretty miserable night.

i texted sarah to see if she'd heard from tony and if the boys were okay. they were stuck in their tents through the whole thing, and then when the storm passed tony was able to check on them and they were all good and safe. wet, but safe. and actually christian and robbie's tent was one of the only ones that stayed dry.

i was worried about alexis and crew at girls camp too, but figured that was such a big operation, that they would let me know if there was a problem. colleen texted me at midnight to let me know that all was well there too.

 thankfully the power outage didn't last long and we, and all of our campers, were safe. 13 people died in the storms, including 2 and 7 year old cousins that were camping with their families in southwestern new jersey. :(

today i went to christina's baby shower at red robin. before that i stopped at wally and this is what their fireworks tent looked like. there were some trees down and lots of debris.

lunch was good and i thoroughly enjoyed visiting with the ladies. christian and crew were about 2 hours away by the time we finished lunch, so i ran to the commissary and got some more groceries instead of coming all the way home. the boys had to cut their bike trip a little short because there were so many downed trees that they really weren't able to ride over or around. also, it was over 100 degrees again.

lana brought alexis home, so when i got home with christian she was here. kelly had called to let me know that she did a good job at camp. one day she said out of the blue "i miss my mom." that girl, i swear. made me cry. :) i'm soooo glad that she did well, i really wasn't sure there for awhile.

they both had a great time. christian said the riding was easy and he can see a difference in his muscles. food was good and tubing was fun, even though he got in trouble for not staying with the group. alexis also had fun. she bonded with some of the other girls in our ward and enjoyed being a leader. chaiya said she "made lemonade," and that she was impressed.

hallelujah. 

since we were all home together for only one night, and it was too hot to even think about cooking or grilling, we went to celebrate with dinner at el cerro grande.

yum.

there were supposed to be more storms tonight, but so far it just looks like a little lightning, thankfully. tomorrow morning c and i are leaving at 3:30 for a 6:55 flight, so off to bed i go.

and today's bonus pic: