Surrounded by Tornadoes

Saturday afternoon Jake and I were driving around aimlessly in a desperate attempt to find a home. We had heard of the "tornado warnings" going on in our area, but it seemed to be a nice enough day... We are obviously not in Kansas anymore. Well, Utah, but you get the point. We were on our way to get lunch, humming along with some tunes, when suddenly we were interrupted by the scariest radio announcement we have ever heard. Here are some bits and pieces of the announcement (Yes, of course we recorded it!):

"This is an extremely dangerous and life threatening situation... Take cover now."

"Move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a home immediately... Move away from any windows... Protect yourself from flying debris..."

We looked and each other and started laughing... Insensitive perhaps, but this was awesome! We thought about chasing the storm so we could see the tornado, but decided to be adults about it instead.

On our way home we began feeling the large gusts of wind tossing us to and fro across the freeway. The warnings became more serious, so we stopped at a friends house. Not only was their house closer, but probably much safer than our hotel room on the top floor. We huddled in their home watching the storm grow in intensity. It began to poor, so naturally Jake and I had to run outside. When we looked up, this is what we saw:

Ok, not really... But we did see tons of tree branches and chunks of houses spinning through the sky. It was incredible.

When things cleared up, we headed for home. Debris was tossed all over the roads. When we got home we turned on the news. At least two tornadoes had hit Wake county alone (where we live) and one of those hit in Raleigh just two miles from our hotel, killing three people. Tornadoes have been attacking the east coast. Within two days (Friday and Saturday) there have been 100 reported tornadoes resulting in at least 35 deaths.

We love our adventurous crazy lives, but we know we are so blessed to be safe and unharmed. Thank you for all of the calls, texts and prayers.

Quick Update

Here are some pictures from our current crazy lives. I apologize that the pictures are in a total random order.

Airport- on our way

A piece of Virginia. So green and beautiful.

This is in Illinois. I wanted to get a really good picture of a tractor for Zavian. It became a game-- Who could get the best picture of a tractor for Z?

I finished my portfolio this past week! All done with school! This is an example of one of the activities I did with my students. Oreo moon phases!

Dixie enjoyed the plane ride

Here is some stuff I've been working on:

If I could paint:

I've spent my life looking at scenes wishing I could paint them, so this was a fun little game for me.
Cadence and Campbell at a little pond by the Sundance Cabin last summer. At the Botanical Gardens in Miami, Florida:

At the St. Louis Zoo with Devin and Amie Orton-- Cadence and Cache finding they have great chemistry: (Remember, Mikee, you were there, too)

You don't have to paint me, but that little newborn face is just toooooo squishy-cute. Layla at about two or three weeks old:

I also have some really neat ones from Southeast Asia that I'll post, unless you don't want them.

Dear every one,

I am constantly in need of pictures to paint/draw etc. and I was wondering if you guys had any you could post? it would be greatly appreciated! landscapes, and people! I love doing people. thank you thank you thank you!

I thought this was a pretty good picture.

So, Clive's lost a couple cameras, So here are the pics from our trip to Ark.