Rain on Kelsey's Parade

For the first half of the summer, we had REALLY dry weather. Everyone's grass was brown and people with flowers had to water them everyday. THIS month, it's rained almost everyday. I feel like a duck - living in the water!!

Today seemed like it was going to be a pretty nice day, and I was excited about that...Kelsey was going to be in the local parade with her dance class for our annual town festival. The sun shined all day today, right up until 15 minutes before the parade was to step off and head downtown.

All of a sudden the sky started getting dark and the wind picked up. My friend Erica and her daughter were with us since both girls take classes and all kids under 8 had to be accompanied by at least one parent. We asked the girls if they wanted to go home or if they wanted to walk in the parade and take a chance of it raining on us. They said they wanted to walk. Jordan said, "You made me come to this, Mom - I'm not going home because of a little rain!" So it was settled - we were walking anyway.

The parade started - so did the rain. Sprinkles at first. Then it started picking up more and more. The further we got downtown, the faster the rain fell and the darker and greener the sky got. The sky changed from light to gray to black to an eerie green color. The wind picked up and the rain drops began to fall so hard that they stung when they hit us.

When we were about 2 blocks from the end of the parade route, Kelsey's dance teacher came up from behind us and told us that we needed to go in the Senior Center and that everyone needed to get inside because a bad storm was coming (obviously).

We started jogging toward the center and then the tornado siren went off. It scared me, I can imagine how all the kids were feeling. A lot of them started crying. Jim scooped Kelsey up and put her on his shoulders. Erica grabbed Jordan and we all started running. We got into the Senir Center and assured the girls that we were going to be just fine. Erica was shaking, she was so nervous.

We sat there for about a half hour with all the other "refugees". I've never had to utilize a community storm shelter before, and although I appreciate the fact that they opened their doors for us, I really hope I never have to do it again. I'd much rather be at home in my own basement than crowded in with a ton of other people. Don't get me wrong, I REALLY appreciate the fact that we had somewhere to go this evening!!

Eventually they made an announcement that we were clear to go. There had been no tornado in our area, just extremely high winds and the city officials didn't want anyone to be injured, so they sounded the alarm and urged us all to go inside. Although the siren scared a lot of the kids, they were probably much more comfortable inside the Senior Center than they would have been outside during that storm!

I don't have any pictures from the parade - the weather was too bad. But we have an adventure to remember. On the way home Kelsey said, "We're not going to walk in the rain anymore!"