Bike Ride and Tornadoes

I thought that yesterday would be a fun day, take a leisurely bike ride, check out the campground, see Scott and Teresa. Well, that part was fun. We headed over by Cottage Row and around to Blackhawk Park. Lots of cyclists and walkers on the trails. It was a beautiful ride, we love being so close to the bike trails.

This blog update is a little overshadowed by the tornado, but here are some pictures of us getting ready to go...

Anderson and Annaliese in the burley. They were very patient waiting. But on the ride home, I think there was a little hair pulling going on. They were both screaming at each other. Kind of funny, but only because I wasn't pulling them...

Jackson, better known as speed demon. I was riding behind Jackson and Brad and I heard Jackson yell at Brad, "Quit cutting me off Dad!" I had to laugh, because Jackson is all over the place when he rides his bike. Clearly not Brad's fault.

It was about time to leave the campground, so Anderson went over all by himself and started to put on my helmet. He was sitting inside saying "Go!" really loud. Very funny guy. Scott also taught him how to do knuckles but I don't have a picture of that one yet.

Abby and Jackson. Then Scott and Brad playing beanbags. A family favorite to be sure. I think Scott won this one.

It wasn't until we started home that the sky started to get dark. Within 20 minutes, we were all in the basement for a tornado warning. We stayed there for over an hour. I was in the middle of preparing dinner when we heard the sirens. All that I had time to finish for dinner was watermelon and french fries, so that's what we had. The kids were thrilled, it was a little out of the ordinary and there was plenty for them to occupy themselves.

A couple of shots from next door to my parent's house. They were fortunate as well to not have a lot of damage. The whole way to their house, it was kind of a pick and choose for which homes were affected.

Luckily, we did not have any damage, only a few stray branches. There was one that was as close as 2 miles to our home, just past my parents home. As we went out to survey the damage, we saw quite a bit of a mess. Trees uprooted, fields littered with debris. A-1 Campers had about 20 campers upended and overturned, at least. All the signs along the highway were snapped or bent over. And the devestation in Parkersburg is incredible. Over 1/3 of the town is gone. We found out this morning that our house that we lived in before we moved to Cedar Falls is gone. Many people we know have been affected by this, including many members of our church. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families.