October 26th was a much anticipated day at our house, at least for one exhausted momma! Since report cards were already completed, we were able to use our Records Day as a rest day, and it would be our first day off, at home, of the school year.
That Tuesday morning, the kids were watching videos and playing quietly, and momma was taking advantage of a rare moment to sleep in. Word came that there were heavy thunderstorms on the way, and we were under tornado watch. Knowing that at least two of the kiddos are intensely afraid of storms, we decided to ride it out at papa's house, just in case something wacky would happen. Within just a couple of hours we began to receive lots of calls and texts from people who were worried about us. Because we were about 8 minutes north of our house, we didn't realize that our town had experienced an EF2 tornado that had ripped through from one end to the other. Greg kept in touch with us, letting us know what he knew, and I called the neighbor to see if we had damage. Other than power outage, she said we were fine. Eric and Meg had been at dad's with us for awhile, and Eric was able to drive by our house to check things out, also. By the time he reached the other end of town, all the emergency vehicles were coming in and the roads were being closed. After another hour or so, we were ready to go exploring, and thanked God for His protection as we viewed the damage. These photos are just some of the minor damage. Roads were closed to the buildings that were demolished. The bulk of the damage was done one block south of Main Street. 3 families from our church live within 1-2 blocks north of Main Street, so you see how fortunate we were! Even though there were trees through windows, at least a dozen houses totally destroyed, two nursing homes and a school damaged, not one person was killed or even injured. It was pretty amazing, and we were thankful that our town acknowleged God's protection through this dangerous event.
Not sure how we missed posting Thanksgiving pics, but better late than never, I suppose! We didn't get too many pics this year, due to the photographer spending much of her vacation sick with the flu. There will be some who are really happy to see these, and you can feel free to save them to your computer without feeling like a thief...haha (that's for you, Val)! I didn't post most of the group pics...they just weren't quite worthy. It's a little difficult when there are like 40 cameras, all coming from different directions, and a zillion kids who are looking every which way! I think next year we ought to elect one person to take all the group pics and email them to anyone who wants them...but since the tradition is 40 cameras, 40 cameras it will probably be! :) We are thankful to have had another opportunity to be with one part of our family tree this Thanksgiving. The importance that the Yount's place on 'family' is evident by the effort that is made each year to keep this tradition alive for our kids. 
