Rocks, a storm and guardian angels

We spent the rest of Memorial Day Weekend at my parents' house.  One of the fun things the kids & I did was take the Kubota down to the creek to throw rocks.  I can't tell you how many rocks I chucked from the driveway above into this creek during my childhood!  It's still fun as a grown-up. :o)

We heard the rumbling thunder as we emptied our bowls and made it back to the house just as it started pouring.  It turned out to be a stormy night.  After supper a 70 mph gust front with heavy rain and hail blew through.  The sirens went off, so we spent some quality time playing in the basement.

There were a lot of trees down around the farm and in town.  It took 20 min. for my dad to find a way to bring my grandma home, and she only lives six blocks away.  My parents had a piece of fascia ripped off the house and wrapped around a tree.   Everyone chipped in to clean up the next day.  The kids helped load the Kubota with sticks and rode along to haul away larger branches.

Memorial Day turned out to be beautiful.  After the traditional pancake breakfast at my home church, we attended the memorial service at the cemetery.  My Grandpa Vander Kooi, a WWII vet and POW, was able to come on the trolley from the nursing home.  Emily was very interested in reading names on gravestones, so I showed her many family sites. 

After a big lunch, we packed up tired kids and headed home.  About 40 miles from my parents' house the kids & I had dozed off and all of the sudden, Austin did, too.  We ended up crossing the center line, driving half in the ditch/half on the opposite shoulder, hopping a culvert and landing in the parking lot of a vet clinic.  By the grace of God, no one was hurt except for a little mark where Emily had fallen asleep on her seatbelt.  After washing all the mud and grass out of the wheels, the van was running fine except for the A/C not working.  There was some damage to the front bumper and some other nicks and scrapes on the van, but nothing really serious.  We were able to drive the rest of the way home and the kids even slept a good bit during the drive.  There are a thousand worse scenarios that could of happened.  We thank God for the guardian angels watching over us!