New Holiday Tradition?

This has been a lovely summer for us. Both Memorial Day and Independence Day were spent out at the lake with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dick and Daddy! For the 3rd and 4th of July, we got to reconnect with Daddy's cousin and his family who were also spending Independence Day there. We hadn't seen them for two years, and, wow, kids grow up amazingly in two years! We are still wrapping our heads around the idea that their oldest boy, Erik, will be 18 this fall. Mr. T and I giggled (well, he laughed - he claims men don't really "giggle"; he laughed, and I giggled) about the fact that I was only two years older than Erik is now when Mr. T and I met. I felt so grown-up at that time, and yet I still can't help but see Erik as the 7-year-old that I met ten years ago! The Mice had a great time with the younger two children, too, and Sunny had warmed up enough to start flirting with everyone by the time we left, even though she was woefully exhausted and glued to Mommy for most of the day. It's always treasured time when we get to spend time together on a holiday as a whole family unit of four. The Mice love it just as much as we do, too.

Notice that Miss Mouse is wearing the shorts, while Sunny Mouse is wearing the shirt? Grammy found a sale on cute clothes, but the only appropriate sizes left each girl with one of the matching set! I am a sucker for matching Mice, so I loved it! We have a picture of Sunny Baby Mouse on that same church pew bench, with the same quilt as a background, two years ago. I shake my head at how quickly she has gone from that baby to this little girl. Each day that goes by reminds me even more of the importance of slowing down to focus on and enjoy each moment. The moments, the days, the weeks, the months, the years all pass so quickly.

Great Aunt Linda and Great Uncle Dale brought the Mice these little presents - Hawaiian-type leis (Did I come even close to spelling that right, I wonder?!). The girls wore them nearly nonstop all weekend, and Sunny even insisted on having hers in her carseat, although I refused to let her wear it around her neck. She was content as long as she could hold it! I should probably add that Sunny is making a happy face in that picture, and Miss Mouse is "holding and walking" her. It's one of their new pastimes, I guess! Sunny Mouse will come running, asking Miss Mouse to "hold and walk" her. I do supervise pretty closely because of the nature of the choking-type grab, but they seem to do quite well and be gentle to eachother for the most part.

Perhaps you're wondering if the "new holiday tradition" of the title refers to spending time together out at my in-laws. It does not, although that is a very nice tradition we have going on. We're blessed to be able to have lake kids and farm kids simply by virtue of our parents' living arrangements! Alas, the tradition I referred to has solely to do with our apparent penchant to become storm chasers. Really, what family of four, with two small children, does not think storm chasing is a great idea to incorporate into their summer holiday activities? Um, yeah.

We inadvertently (and stupidly) drove straight into the big Memorial Day storm. Driving into a dark, black wall cloud, hearing 'tornado warning for" and then knowing that you are driving in the exact location they just named on the radio....it wasn't our most brilliant moment, and unfortunately, it was not my calmest moment under pressure, either.

When I was 11, a terrible storm rolled through the farm. I remember looking at the clock in the kitchen and thinking "3:11? Wow, that's funny that the clock got reset...." because I for a brief moment thought it was night. The clouds were that dark outside. I've never experienced anything like that again, thankfully. My Dad had been in town and driven into it to get home to us. We had run frantically to put in our toys and pick everything up outside as we saw the wall cloud approach. I remember my Dad making the call that we would be going to the basement, which my Mom and sister heeded. He, though, headed to the back of the house for the flashlight, and I followed him instead of going downstairs right away. We both remember the walls of the hallway shaking as we were making our way back to the front of the house heading for the basement stairs. I think he nearly jumped down the staircase carrying me with him. When we all got back upstairs after the storm had passed, our garage had been pulled off its foundation and moved a couple feet from straightline winds. Since then, I've been extremely skiddish of serious storms. Certainly driving straight into them in the dark is not something that I do very well with!

So, there we were during the Memorial Day storm, with two wide-awake little Mice in the backseat, a Mommy in the front seat shaking like a leaf, and a Daddy with white knuckles on the steering wheel. It was great fun. Insert sarcasm here please. Thankfully we got home right through it just fine....our fence in the backyard was not so fortunate, but with a few days' worth of hard work, Mr. T was able to fix that.

Fast forward to Independence Day....yet again, we had not looked at the radar before we left.....we've definitely learned our lesson now....but, we were visiting and having a good time; Miss Mouse was squirrelly; Sunny Mouse was clingy; we just didn't think to check the radar. But we should have. Oh, we really should have.

About 45 minutes into our drive, we realized we were heading into something again. We thought we'd skirt it, but the farther east we got, the more we were sure we were driving straight into it. White knuckles and shaking Mommy enter the picture again, although at least this time the Mice were happily snoozing! We decided to be more intelligent this time and attempt to drive south of the storm, loop around behind it, and return north. It was a great idea....if the storm hadn't blown up into a 100-mile line out of which we were not able to drive. We ended up driving into Minnesota and just driving ahead of the crazy lightning and wind. We didn't think driving into town while the tornado sirens were going off was a great idea, so we headed the opposite direction. Really, if we could have gotten back to my in-law's, we would have holed up there for sure! Instead we followed my father-in-law's advice and rode the storm out in Minnesota. He had access to the radar, and, since we couldn't hear the radio information for all the lightning static, we called him and relied on his assessment of the storm. We actually got a hotel room, woke the girls up, moved us all inside, and weathered the storm there. The girls fell asleep again. After the storm passed, we woke the girls up again, got in the vehicle, and got them back to sleep in the vehicle again. We left the lake at 8:30 or so. We got home at 2 a.m., moved the girls inside again and were thankful that they both stayed asleep through the last move. I'm hopeful it was the scariest and longest trip home from the lake that we will ever have! We love the traditions there, but this storm chasing is not one that we want to add to our list - fishing, baking, coloring, reading, relaxing - great, but storm chasing? Not so much!

Sunny's facial expression here is very similar to what mine must have been as we drove closer and closer to the blackish-greenish wall clouds. We do look an awful lot alike, but I'm fairly sure I didn't look nearly as cute as she did with that same expression!