Stormy Weekend

Here's some (once) live footage of our storm last night. Note: We don't usually have a small river connecting these three yards. That's a special treat the storm brought along.

Yes, that would be hail that you see.

We were going to measure the rainfall by some candles that were on the deck table but we noticed that the water was bouncing out and not collecting. So we used this measuring cup instead. This picture was taken about 10 minutes after we put it outside.

After 30 minutes we brought the measuring cup in. And since no one measures rainfall by cups (pretty close to 2cups) we used a ruler. I'm not sure you can see the inches... 3 inches of rain in 30 minutes! Crazy! We are so thankful!!!!!

Just a few minutes before the rain came I was sitting outside reading in this chair. Now it is filled with water.

Hannah and I enjoyed watching the storm through the back door and windows. When it was all done we took a walk around the neighborhood to see how the other yards had faired. First stop: our back yard. Yikes! It looks like that small river brought the leaves and branches from 3 of our neighbors' yards!

This picture shows that there was some serious water flow through the yards. The grass was still bent down from it.
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One of my favorite things about summer storms is the beauty afterward. On our short walk we found three different flowers. The photos are below. I have no idea what kind of trees they are (and my very florally-knowledgeable friend is in another country right now) so if you know and would like to attribute to my education in this area, let me know.
Maybe some of you will think that I live in a tropical wonderland. I don't. I have some friends who do though. (Love you and miss you tropical-wonderland-living friends!!!)