This past weekend we went to Cincinnati so I could work for a few days and also to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary.
As usual, it was a fun, busy trip. I had to work Thursday and Friday. On Thursday the rest of the family went to the zoo with my mom, Jill, Elsie, and Madelyn. In the evening we went to the Lumenocity dress rehearsal. On Friday I left work early and we headed to the museum center for a couple of hours of exploring. Saturday morning we met Will and the girls downtown to play and we all met up at Mar-Mar and Be-Bob’s for dinner. Sunday we had brunch with my newly-ordained cousin Bill and his friend from church. Monday I had to work in the morning and then it was time for the drive home.
One other important thing to note about this trip is that Lucia was awesome in the car. She did really well, especially since when we traveled in June she did not enjoy it.
This weekend was a big one for Lucia – her first night without Susan! Susan went with Mary, Erin, and Gary to a wedding in Nebraska and I stayed home with all the kids, including Lucia. It was a fun weekend and Lucia did really well, even at night.
Today the kids hosted a lemonade stand, trying to raise money for Cousin Camp 2015. They made quite a ruckus each time a car drove by and sold some lemonade, too.
This summer has been fairly busy, so it was nice to spend a weekend at home this past weekend. With the Reagens out of town and no travel plans, it was a good weekend to get some things done around the house and spend some time with the Lieslands.
Starting on Friday Susan got the ‘weeding’ bug and decided to start tackling our gardens. There is a lot of landscaping around our yard and we gave everything some time to come up before we started determining what we wanted to keep. This also gave a lot of weeds a fair amount of time to get established. We have weeded a lot, but there is still a ways to go.
Friday and Saturday nights we spent some time at the Clive Festival. It is a community event put on by the city, with live music and fireworks each night. The music is good and the fireworks were awesome, especially on Saturday. We were up a little later than planned, but I think it was worth it.
We spent some time at the festival during the day on Saturday. The kids wanted to try out the slip-n-slide and then they spent about an hour climbing the rock wall. They could not get enough!
Sunday was more weeding and other things around the house, then swimming, then we had Mimi and Papa over for dinner.
Today I was trying to rest on the couch and Lucia kept taking my hand and making me press the button on “Don’t Wake Daddy.” I don’t think she understands the game.
This kids just wrapped up another great weekend at cousin camp. This year Erin and Nate took them to Kansas City and they had a fun weekend. Highlights included going to Science City, going to a local pool, watching Mulan, going rollerskating, and then watching the World Cup finals.
Monday and Tuesday of this past week we made a quick trip to Mahoney State Park. Monday evening we celebrated Joe’s graduation then on Tuesday we hit the pool and watched some soccer.
From the Observation TowerHikingMari, Hope, Erin, and Susan on Horseback
The day started out dark and cloudy, as predicted. It looked like it could rain at any time. By noon we had the car packed and ready to head to Mahoney State Park for our nearly annual trip with the Liess clan. About 45 minutes into the 2.5 hour drive it started to get very dark and we could tell that it was going to rain. It rained – hard. It was nothing unusual, so we continued heading West.
It got incredibly dark because the clouds were so thick and up ahead the kids were relieved to see some brighter skies. I could see the skies, too, but I knew that they were not supposed to be green. I have always heard that the sky turns green before a tornado and now I knew what that meant. It was an eerie calm before the storm. Even when we got to the ‘brighter’ skies the rain never stopped. It just intensified and it started to hail. Driving on the interstate was difficult because it was so hard to see. I would have exited, but there was not an exit for several miles.
The rain and hail was so hard that we had to pull over. We were in a construction zone and the right lane was closed so I joined the legions of other drivers who decided to ride out the storm in park. We still had the radio on and our song was interrupted by the emergency alert system, “A tornado has been indicated by radar in Guthrie County near Stuart, IA and is headed toward Des Moines. Take shelter immediately.” Or something like that. Does a car count as shelter?
By this point Lucia was asleep and the other kids (and mom and dad) were a little scared. The wind, rain, and hail were intense and we could not see even when we were parked. The car was rocking because of the wind. I told Susan to just keep an eye out and if need be I would drive off the road into a ditch. I pulled up the radar on my phone (a screenshot would have been nice) and the blue dot indicating our location was right in the center or the purple area.
It was definitely tense for a few minutes, but eventually the storm started to slow down and once we could get driving again I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I don’t know if there was a tornado, but the high winds were evident. The construction cones were all over the road, there were entire corn fields where the corn was snapped in half, we saw one semi that had been blown off the road, and there was plant matter all over the place.
After the storm we called Mimi and Papa. They were just a few minutes behind us and had decided to stop at Subway for lunch. This all occurred while they were at Subway in Stuart and they had to spend 10-15 minutes inside of the pitch dark refrigerator!
This weekend we decided to cut our camping trip short because we knew that the weather was going to be questionable and we are in the midst of a very busy stretch. That meant that after dinner tonight we had time to make it down to the Des Moines Art Festival. It was a beautiful, fun night.
This weekend we tried to get out camping with some friends, but we ran into an issue at the first attempted campground (Whiterock Conservancy) and decided to relocate to Springbrook State Park. We ended up having a great time and really enjoyed Springbrook State Park.
