Back in Nebraska and Back to Blogging!

After quite a long hiatus from blogging and about a year since I was last stateside I am back to blogging. I would love to use the excuse that the country in which I reside cut off internet access to both Blogger and Flickr, which is entirely true, but I was so busy in the spring that I do not think it would have been possible.

We returned to Nebraska this past Monday and I am so happy to be here. I think the most exciting thing about being here (other than seeing my Dad) is that I am bound and determined to take it easy and have a relaxing 4 weeks here. I have caught up on reading my friends blogs, practiced yoga and started reading "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society ". I just keep I can keep on the relaxation route for the next 4 weeks. So far so good!

Back to China

We have a 7:59 am flight tomorrow to Chicago to catch our flight to Beijing. I cannot believe how quickly a month has flown by. I believe I have had a very relaxing time in Nebraska compared to my day to day life in Chengdu. The kids however probably will sleep for days when we get back as I have never seen them play so hard in their little lives.

I was really hoping to catch up with my blogging, but I haven't even posted my 4th of July pictures yet. We will see if I have time between the jet lag and our trip to Northern Ireland (we leave a week from Thursday!!!). I guess I should have caught up while I was here because it wouldn't have taken me as long because the internet connection is so fast it is unbelievable!!! Until next summer!!!

Here are a few shots of today. We hung out with my sisters and their kids.



Angus and Aiden playing in the sand. Boy are my kids going to miss this!!!



Gemma and Isaac on the trampoline. And this too!!!



The cousins! (Gabe couldn't be with us because he was going to Adventure Land.)



Aunt Becky and Gemma



and Angus



Aunt Jenny with Angus



and Gemma



The Hendersons



The Woods

Fireworks at the Lake

The one major disappointment on our trip back to Nebraska was that we had the major storm the week-end before the 4th of July week-end. Woodcliff Lakes, where my parents live, always has an incredible 4th of July party with the best fireworks display I have seen (in America)! Unfortunately they decided to delay the party to Labor Day week-end! We ended up having some fireworks of our own though and had a great time!



Jonny's favorite spot in Nebraska!



My Dad, the fire master!



Isaac, being cute!



The kids loved the fireworks!



Angus holding his ears and watching the show.

'

Isaac and Gemma holding their ears.

The funny thing about my kids holding their ear was that I think they were trying to copy their cousin! They have survived 3 Chinese New Years in China and have never held their ears and we have fireworks from 8 pm to 4 am every night during Chinese New Year!

Fishing with Daddy

Jonny fishing off the dock.

Everytime Jonny visits my parents one of the first thing he does is throw a line in the water. This trip it was all about teaching the kid to throw a line in the water.



Angus loved to net the fish for his Daddy.



The proud fisherboy!



Jonny trying to get Angus to release the fish by himself. He wasn't quite sure of the slime factor.



Another catfish too small to keep. Gemma reeled this one in and Angus netted it for Jonny. Although I do not have many pictures of Gemma fishing she loved it!



Taking out the hook, a Daddy job.

I feel like bad luck!

The day before my class reunion as I was preparing the food for the party the weather started to get a bit dreary, so my Dad turned on the television. The weather report was that there was a hail storm heading our way. I was cursing to myself because my van was just out of storage for one week and now it would be pummeled with hail the size of golf balls. While this was all going on I was also on the phone to my friend Cyndi. I ended up having to get off the phone with her because the winds picked up and the water on the lake had so many waves it looked like a really rough bit of ocean. We started to hear noises on the rough and I took the kids to the hallway thinking a tree might fall on the house and that would be a safe place. The wind didn't stop and there were more loud noises and I finally realized the bathroom would be the safest place for all of us. The kids and I climbed in the bathroom and in true fashion my Dad paced around the house checking out what was going on outside. In my 25 years of growing up in the Midwest through hundreds of thunderstorms, tornado watches and warnings, I have never seen a storm quite as bad as this. I was thinking to myself as I sat in the bath with my kids, 'We just made it though an earthquake and now this?'. Honestly I couldn't believe that I could go through two stressful situations like this in a matter of 45 days.

After about 10 minutes the wind started to slow down and the loud noises from the roof stopped. I had the kids wait while I went to assess what had happened and I couldn't believe my eyes. Here are some pictures of the damage.



One of the 5 fallen trees and one side of my parents back patio.



The other side of the back patio.



A view of my parents house from the beach. (This is about an hour after the storm. Notice how it appears to be sunny and great weather.)



The roots of the tree.



My parents side yard. The leaves just stuck to the fence.



We had part of a tree fall of the roof. I think this is the one that made me run to the bathtub.



My Dad's truck underneath some pretty big branches. There is also a power line that fell 4 feet from his truck. Remarkably there was no damage to his truck.



A tree across the drive from my parents house.

Many people thought the storm was a tornado, but it was actually called a Straight Line Wind Storm and if you could see the damage it went in a complete straight line through this area.

The worst thing that happened though was that there were thousands of corn and bean crops that were completely shredded. The beans were replanted, but it is too late in the season for the corn. It will result in big losses for farmers and food prices growing again.

We ended up being without power for 5 days, but luckily thanks to my electrician brother-in-law Jared we had a generator that provided power to a few outlets in the house. My class reunion had to be moved to a different location (post to follow!).

We took a drive around the neighborhood and here are a few pictures from our damage tour.

One of the fallen trees. There were hundreds of trees just like this in the neighborhood.



There were a couple houses with massive trees on top of them.



This garage was complete destroyed by a tree.