Going Through the Storm Was All Worth It!

After a quick shower and a great breakfast Thursday morning, we piled into the van for the last time and headed to the freeway! I was beyond motivated and excited by the fact that we would finally be seeing Jimmy after 6 LONG WEEKS (I know for you military wives that is nothin, but for me it was a lifetime)!!! I only had one wrong turn before finding the freeway, stupid round abouts, and as we finally got on our way the clouds looming over head and off in the distance seemed only partially deterring because I was insistent on making it to Parker! I knew we had about a 4 hour drive ahead of us so the kids were set up with snacks, movies and fun work sheets to keep them entertained!

About 25 minutes into the drive it began to sprinkle and then it stopped and I thought "Bah, those clouds had nothin bigger!!?!" k well I should not have thought that because soon enough there were HUGE drops of water falling from the sky which morphed into sleet and then as the altitude rose and the temperature dropped it was now snowing!! HUH? There's no Snowing in JUNE!! Not where I'm from, no way!

As the road became less visible and the winds were howling around the vehicle Lexi and Grace were talking about sledding and then Grace yells from the back "But LEXI left the sled at Grandmas!!", as if I was even contemplating pulling over and letting them get out in the blizzard!! The van was being blown about and I was focused on seeing through the white and keeping us in our lane while big semi's seemed hardly fazed by this Summer Frost! Then the words "Mom, I have to go to the bathroom!" echoed in my ears, are you freaking kidding me, we are in the middle of a snow storm, it's 28 degrees outside, there are no city's in sight and no way to pull of the two lane road, and you have to go to the bathroom?!?! Nice timing!! I told Grace she would be holding it until we could find a place to stop, which once we made it over the pass there was a small city to get off the freeway in. (I know I'm as mean as Ms. Hannigan)

It was still really cold and the snow was mixed with rain which made for lovely slush on the roads, lucky for me I had Lexi who was kind enough to take Grace into the grocery store while I waited in the warm car with James. One of my favorite moments was as I was waiting for the girls to come out a guy pushed his motorcycle into the parking lot and was trying to start it over and over again, when he finally surrendered and went into a coffee shop near by to wait, not sure if it was for help or for the storm to let up, but I thought "Who the crap buys a motorcycle to ride in the Mountains of Colorado?" I mean there are maybe two weeks out of the year to ride it, in the higher elevations!

Well the girls came out and I swooped them up and it was back to the freeway, the clouds continued to provide slush as we drove on but I was stronger than the rain/snow/wind and then as we got closer to Denver there was this twisted cloud funnel thing and I thought "Hmm, now in the movies they call those tornadoes."


It was quite a bit in the distance and seemed to be staying that way so I wasn't too worried but I do remember picturing the car being picked up by the tornado and taken back to Las Vegas, oh there's no place like home!

(Now none of you better be wondering why I didn't take pictures of this stretch of the drive, just in case you are let me refer you back to the previous paragraph)

The kids were very excited as we came up over the last hill and you could see into the Denver Valley, and so was I for that matter! It was strange to be the odd license plate in a sea of Colorado ones, I kept looking at them and saying to myself "Stupid Tourists!", oh no wait that's me! We made our way to Parker, which is the City in which my in-laws house resides and is just a 30 min drive to downtown Denver and coming off the freeway it looked like there was snow EVERYWHERE, I guess I just figured that somehow the snow storm had hit here as well, until we came to a stop at a light and I realized it was just hail, oh wait, I mean HOLY CRAP it was hail! Of course, how silly of me, I was totally expecting hail to welcome us into our new home town in JUNE!


We pulled into their driveway around 3:30pm and in our first conversations, found out that indeed a tornado had hit and left the hail in it's trail (I was a poet and didn't even know it), good times I tell ya what! Many of the houses had minor damage like torn window screens, trees shaved down to their skivvies looking like it was fall, debris all around and chipped roofs, and some areas had a bit more serious damage but heck me and my kids were safe and sound and I was pleased!

(So far all I have seen is White or Gray, pretty dang Colorful there Colorado)

We took some of our things in the house and then chatted with my sister-in-laws who were the only ones home and then the clock struck 4:30pm and I knew Jimmy would be on his way, the kids and I couldn't sit still so we made our way to the front yard to wait his arrival!! He called as he entered the neighborhood so I pulled out my camera to capture the event, his white Suzuki Forenza rounded the corner and the girls began jumping and squealing with joy and then James figured he better join in! Jimmy barely made it out of the car before the girls were hugging on his legs, James was a little confused, I think he thought Jimmy was now only available in voice form on the phone, poor boy! Well as you will see in the video it is shut off after just a few minutes because I had to join in the fun too, I couldn't wait to get my lips on that boy!! It was quite a ride but thanks to some new tires/brakes, some visits with good friends and family we arrived to our destination. This adventure is just beginning and I pray you will all come along with us as we become acquainted with a new City and new people! Love to you, especially those holding down the home front!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com