So, let's begin. Mommy had work off on Good Friday because her hospital observes this day as a holiday (for administrators). So that meant she could keep the boys home and have a "Stay at Home Mom" day! They had a very nice day together after some early morning storms (with hail) and a trip to the ever popular Chick-fil-A that just opened near our house. Here's the whole gang having fun in the morning:
Daddy worked all day and was watching the weather pretty closely. We had a cold day on Friday, but around 1PM the sun came out and the temps warmed up very quickly. We had planned all along on Friday to go to the Cardinals game because we got a great deal on tickets and Emmy and I personally wanted to see the Reds play (since we went to college in Cincinnati of course). So, off we went and with the threat of thunderstorms to the west, we packed a picnic and headed into the park. I had figured that there would be some sort of rain delay, but the storms were moving pretty quickly so I thought they'd be through and we'd be back to game in no time.
Here's everybody at the game and eating our picnic dinner at the ballpark:
Same smiles huh? You're kidding right?
The boys played on this Ford thing forever, they loved running down the side and climbing back up.
Had to tickle that Mookie to get a smile...what a stinker!
A helping brother...what a good boy that Aidan is.
Our 5 minutes in our fantastic seats (right near the end, close to the potty and refreshments, darn shame the weather didn't cooperate)
So no joke, no sooner did we sit down for more than 2 minutes, an usher walked up and told us that tornado sirens were being started in western St. Louis County and that we should be prepared to move our kids under cover. After thinking for about a minute, we decided to get up and move the the US Cellular Family Section which resides under the Right Field Bleachers. Thank goodness we did. About a minute after we got under cover (and six, yes 1.2.3.4.5.6, pitches) it started raining and they halted the game. Now, in the family area they have lots of cool things for younger people such as batting cages and video games and a little baseball themed playground for wee little ones to play on. Aid made the cut and the boys both partook in some serious playing!
Mookie on the bat
Full speed and soaked in sweat...they loved that place!
Chasing each other, loving it!
Mookie rounding for home!
So, while the boys were running around like crazies, I was on my phone watching the seriousness of the weather that was about to decimate parts of St. Louis. I started watching the storm as it approached St. Charles County and spotters out there reported a large tornado doing damage in New Melle, Missouri, which is about 2 or 3 towns directly to our home's west. The storm was moving east at 50 mph. I looked at Emmy and probably for the first time ever in my life I told her that I was very worried and scared for our house, and for Allie, who was riding the storm out by herself. Everything that I have studied and researched for my weather degree at Penn State and just as a hobby indicated that this storm was producing a tornado, that it was probably a large tornado and that, if, it was going to continue on is same path it would most likely come very close to our house. We were stuck. We couldn't race home. The thought went through my head that I watched our house be destroyed by a tornado by watching the radar on my cell phone. It was horrible. I kept refreshing the page and checking spotter reports and the service was so slow. One update that I saw was one that reported that a potential large and damaging tornado was located near Harvester (where we live). At this point Emmy and I said a few prayers and tried not to be overcome.
Well, sure enough the storm moved through our house region and headed east towards the airport and you've seen all the damage the tornado did there. From what the National Weather Service has reported, the storm's tornado lifted up shortly before entering our little municipality and then reappeared, much stronger, just 5 miles east of us. If you figure that the storm was moving at 50mph; 5 miles equates to 4.1 minutes. We were that close to having a tornado in our neighborhood. See the graphic I made below. This was it, this was the storm that really could have nailed us. Thank God we were spared and our hearts and prayers go to those just east of us that did in fact receive heavy damage.
Our house is the gold star. On the path the supercell storm took, we were less than 1/2 a mile away from it. I told Emmy that if we would have been home, we probably would have pulled the mattress in the basement and been underneath. It was that serious.
Here's a radar picture of the storm that I captured after we got home. The little curly-cue of red just to the upper left of the blue circle (which is our house) is the makings of the tornado that damaged areas east of us.
Two words, Unbelivably Violent. I'll leave it at that.
So what about us? At the time, I didn't know the motion of the storm exactly and because this storm was so large, it can move and turn as it likes. So, Emmy suggested that I take Aid to the restroom and as we were walking there the severe weather alert came on in the stadium and the tornado sirens started going off. After a quick (and very, very compliant and mindful boy (seriously, he listened to me like none other when I told him the seriously of the situation)), I made the decision to leave the stadium and walk one and a half blocks north to the Hilton hotel. I figured that we would be more safe if we could get into a large structure that: 1. didn't have so many things that could fly around like at a stadiums and 2. had WAY less people to try and sardine into the bathrooms (because that's where you hide at Busch, in the stinky bathrooms). So we high tailed it, me holding Aidan and a 20 lbs diaper bag and Mommy holding E. As heavy as they were, both of us were so juiced that we didn't even fatigue. It was amazing.
We got inside the lobby which had nice couches to relax on and also had the news on. I was able to see that 1. the storm with the tornado was not going to hit our location there, but 2. may have struck our house. It rained hard in downtown, but no hail. At that point, we made the decision to try and go home. It would be another 45 minutes before the game would resume and the boys, after running around so much, were spent. So all in all, we watched 6 pitches of the baseball game and left. :( The Cardinals did win though!
We made it back to our home quickly and I could tell right away that things were OK. There was no debris whatsoever, no limbs no nothing around our area. We were lucky. Very lucky. In fact, our house didn't even get any wind. All our plants looked good and from what I could tell, it was just rain. Thank God. We were very scared.
So, Friday night ended with all of us thankful for God's mercy this time.
Saturday was a busy day, lots of errands to do to because of Sunday's Easter.
This morning the boys awoke to, of course, the Easter Bunny's surprises. I'll let you watch their morning.
Yes the Easter Bunny loved lining up the Monster Trucks Grammy T!
Egg hunting...
E found one!
The boys did great together as you saw earlier. They really worked as a team to find all those eggs...it was a joy to see.
Behind the couch cushion!
E also got some playdoh which just had to be played with after Mommy's great turkey sausage and egg caserole and raspberry butter braided danish for breakfast!
Well because Saturday was so busy, we had to delay egg coloring till today. Both guys really got into it!
They both have the same "concentration" face :)
Ethan Picasso
Is the egg in there?
Is it?!
I gotta have it!
Aid writing his name on his egg.
The final products, including two "shrink wrapped" ones that really turned out cool.
Mommy made a fabulous Easter Dinner tonight, Bacon Wrapped Roasted Pork Loin with HOney Dijon sauce, Taragon Brown Butter Asparagus and Four cheese Rice. Very good folks. She's a cooker!
Now I should mention that the Grammies and Grandpa John did send the boys some good Easter things that they probably want to see when the boys got into them. So...first Grammy P
E's really loving books right now. :)
And your surprise is...Air Bubble Wrap!
How bout some Peeps?
Tearing into Grammy T's gifts
Lady bug chocolates!
Aid couldn't believe his eyes!
But that didn't stop his mouth from gobbling down a ton of fruit!
Mookie went right for the strawberries. His FAVORITE!
So that's all for this weekend. Next weekend we'll be doing some thing very, very special for our boys. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?
Have a great night and say prayer or pledge some support to the tornado victims here in St. Louis. They have a lot of cleanup to do and we're expecting more severe weather later this week.
Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan
