Crazy Midwest Weather

We have had a lot of phone calls from friends and family concerning the floods here in Des Moines. We are so blessed to have so many people who care about us and want to be sure that we are doing okay.

I was quite concerned about all the rain we had been getting, especially when our friends who live in the building next to us woke up to soaking wet carpet a little over a week ago. I kept wondering what we would do if we did flood so Nate had to prove to me that the floods downtown were not going to reach us. He got on Google Earth and showed me that the elevation difference from downtown Des Moines where all the flooding is to here is about 200 feet. I was surprised that it is that much of a difference because we are only just a few miles west of where some of the flooding occured. Well, that calmed my fears of flooding a little. But I still find myself going into Brynlee and Gracen's bedroom to feel the carpet by the window to make sure it is dry... so far we are doing good!

I just thought I would post a few pictures of some of the flooding for those outside of Iowa to see, it has really been amazing how fast the water moved in and how much the people here worked together to help people in need, we are sure going to miss Des Moines!

the mile long bridge at Saylorville lake, the water is usually about 80 feet below this bridge

this is before the spillway was open, the water was rushing out and people were going up to see it because it is not normally this crazy.
this is a bridge downtown over the des moines river on Wednesday June 11downtown bridge 2 days later, the water nearly covered the arches and I think it may have been higher than this at its highest point

I believe this is in the Birdland area where evacuations were mandatory because of a breach in the levee

The picture above and below are both at Raccoon river park in West Des Moines, we go to this park quite a bit and just a week and a half ago I was down there and the water was high, but the water hadn't reached out of it's banks yet, now it is covering the shelters.

I found this last picture when I was searching for flood pics. A lady somewhere in Iowa took this from her back porch, it just touched down and went back up. I can't believe anyone can get pictures like this, I would have been hiding in my closet at this point, and if I wasn't in my closet I would have been there as soon as I saw something like this. Before all the flooding we had a lot of severe thunderstorms and most nights that they woke me up I layed there in bed telling myself that if there was a tornado outside, I would be hearing the siren. Sometimes I had to get up and turn on the tv to check and make sure we weren't under a tornado warning.

There was one night that we had a tornado warning and the sirens were going off and I started grabbing shoes and blankets and different items that I thought we would need and throwing them in our "tornado closet" just incase... Nate thought I had lost it, but I just am not so good at being prepared so I was doing my last minute quick preparations. This last week I got out our emergency bags and made sure they were well stocked, now I am ready... well, maybe not ready, but prepared.

New pictures

Well kinda new, these are Gracen's 6 month pictures. We also had a picture

of him and Brynlee taken together. I have been terrible at blogging lately and

I decided I better get these on for family to see, they will be in the mail as soon as

I address the envelopes.

Gracen's haircut

With the warm and humid weather I have been bugging Nate to cut Gracen's hair. He didn't want to but I finally convinced him that it was a good idea. Gracen cooperated quite well and held still better than I thought he would.

Before

I fed him while Nate cut his hair and he held still until the bottle ran out.

After

Here he is all cleaned up, and just so cute!

On the move

I have mixed feelings about this new milestone Gracen has reached. I love that he is growing and can get toys he wants and be entertained a little longer than he was before he could crawl. At the same time I am not ready for him to be so mobile and able to get into things. Now we are having to really watch what Brynlee is leaving around on the floor and we are back to baby proofing things like electrical outlets and that sort of thing. We found him chewing on a small piece of crayon today, so we have some work to do.

About 3 weeks ago Gracen figured out how to push up on his hands and knees and he started rocking on them. He figured out how to go backwards, in circles and sideways, but he would get really frustrated because his toys would get farther and farther away the more he moved backward. On Wednesday he finally figured it out. It was a little shaky at first, but now he gets faster and faster each day. Oh where does the time go... he is growing up so fast!

Trip to the zoo

On Wednesday, the weather was somewhat nice so we got to go to the zoo with our friends Becca, Natali, and Isaac. The girls loved running around looking at all the animals. Brynlee said the elephants were her favorite. She also liked seeing the lions and the giraffes.

Just before we got started Brynlee and Natali posed for a quick picture.
Gracen and Isaac enjoyed riding around in the strollers, I think they just loved being outside.
This was the cute elephant show. Brynlee loved it! There was a mommy and a baby elephant and they did some fun balancing stuff and played catch and painted. It was fun to see them do all those things and the baby was just too cute!