See You (mon)Soon!

Some random shots for you today. First of all, IT RAINED! No, really. The funny thing is, it'll say it's going to monsoon for about a week. The clouds dance around us all day,

and the storm comes at us from a couple different directions, but they get here and stop. Especially if Maestro is working. It will NOT rain. The go-kart track will remain open. But last night at 8:20 PST, it hit us. Rosebud & Juju were here for dinner and we were waiting for Bwin to come home from work. Unfortunately, he had to drive about an hour to get here, and the storm was in his path. He's from the Seattle area, and knows what rain is like, but the winds were up to 60 mph and you do have to be very careful not to drive through a flooded area, like a wash. Btw, a wash is kind of like a dry riverbed that takes the water from a storm -- since it doesn't soak into the ground here -- from the high ground to the low. In our case, that's the lake. If you get caught in one of those, you are in serious trouble. Actually, 2 men died the other day near his work b/c they thought their pickup truck could drive through a wash. While we were watching the storm come our way, the power went out and we found a couple of candles to light. It was really nice and quiet! But then came the bad news. Our mesquite tree was down!!!! Poppy and I were really sad!

It may be able to be saved, since the roots are still intact. This was my first official "monsoon" and wow, it was pretty cool. (Bwin made it home safely, of course. He was very smart and avoided the washes.) The lightning was spectacular as we watched it approach over the mountains.

The next photo is for Webster. She requested a current photo of Juju's belly. She's getting a little tired of strangers asking her how much longer she has. When she tells them 3 1/2 months, there's a gasp and a (trying to be polite) "oh my!"

And last, but not least, some more photos from our visit with the kids. Here's Dimples enjoying a ride through the air.

Another pool pic. The kids loved having races across the "beach" area of the pool. Okay, it was Baby's idea and they almost always let him win. They would do this so many times, with Baby saying, "mark, set, GO!" each time.

I got a "kick" out of this stop sign in Oatman --

Here's another cute photo of my 3 kids --

And a very sad Ma3stro and BDE on the morning they left.

Good news! The tree is back up. We'll see if it takes hold. Poppy & Bwin and the Trailblazer put it back into place. Good job!

My next post should be from Cheeseland! I'll miss my friends but I'll be in "heaven" spending time with the kids. Time to finish the post, it's pool time