Memorial Day weekend 2015

This weekend has been compared to Memorial Day 1981 for good reason.  The flooding and severe weather were unreal!  DH was the same age Lucy is now when the '81 floods hit. 

We had planned to spend Friday-Sunday out in the country, but waited until Saturday to go out due to the weather and my oldest nephew recovering from strep throat.  My sister's family spent the morning at Grosspapa's, picking brazos berries and helping set up for the party that would be held the next day.  I arrived in Lincoln and had lunch all set up when everyone else arrived. 

We went out to eat at the Bullpen for dinner and had an enjoyable visit with Grosspapa, Aunt Marian and Uncle Jack.  I got to play shuffleboard with my nephews. :)

Our sleep was interrupted around 4am when some violent storms came through, and there was a fantastic amount of lightning.  In the morning, after breakfast, the kids and I went to survey the flooding.  It was spectacular--especially since it was already flooded from recent rains. 

A carrying Lucy over the spillway

A crossing the stream

splashing through the spillway

J dumping out size 13 mud boots

sweet picture of these besties

Hitching a ride on J

J standing in a deep hole

I love this so much--J in the spillway, Lucy dumping out her boots

running up the spillway at the upper pasture

The "overflow pipe" was supposed to keep the spillway from flooding too much

I rescued a soggy mouse

Brownie got a little too close and fell in

picture of Lucy on the dam.  I don't think I've ever seen the tank this full!

We cleaned up and then headed to Grosspapa's.  Our original intent was to enjoy the Serbin Picnic this weekend but we ended up moving the family meal part of it to Grosspapa's.  Not as many people showed up but just as well--conditions were extremely muddy and the Mazda got stuck just trying to park. 

We enjoyed BBQ, noodles, beans, fruit, etc.  It was a fun visit!

We took a walk after lunch to the big tank--Lucy took this one of us

my sister's family--trying to have a cute "walking" picture.  A wasn't too sure about it. :)

Us again, this time with rabbit ears

We headed home instead of going to the picnic and hunkered down for the next round of storms.  Sure enough, the most severe weather came through the next day (Monday, Memorial Day).

The biggest blessing was that all 3 of us were home (no work or school) and that our house is kind of on a hill so we didn't get flooded.  We received between 3.5-5 inches of rain in 5 hours.  On top of the countless inches in the past 3 weeks!  The tornado watches/warnings were very scary and I said a lot of prayers during that time. 

The rain was coming in buckets!

Lucy, her tablet, and the makeshift tornado shelter

Mr. Jimmy looked a bit like a drowned rat

I forgot to note her pastime of the weekend--making duct tape super hero masks.  :)

 Around 6pm, the weather stations finally turned back to their normal programming and we headed out to survey the damage.  The creek was FULL!

very swollen creek

The creek had come over this bridge.  The creek is normally a trickle.

I'm so happy that God saw us through another scary time.  I haven't been in a flood this scary since San Antonio 1998!



One last tidbit--check our our Sam Houston peaches!

I turned half into a cobbler, half into freezer fruit