DUST STORM!

Wednesday afternoon at Carter's soccer practice we noticed some dark clouds off to the south-east.  I was excited... maybe it would rain?! By the end of practice the dark blue and grey clouds had turned an orange-ish pink... DUST STORM!!  It was close so we loaded quickly into the car to get home before it was on top of us...  But we were TOO LATE!  We didn't make it even halfway home when it was on top of us and after near zero visibility as we were driving by a dirt field, I elected to pull over into a neighborhood and "hide" behind a wall. 

We watched the storm from the safety of our car and got a little nervous about the blowing trees near us...especially after we saw a limb break on a tree just a short block away from where we'd parked! 

And then the rain started... first one drop on the windshield, then another, then another, then... just like that the rain was over leaving nothing but dusty drops on our car!  After 15 or 20 minutes we decided it had calmed down enough to driving home... but it was still dusty and windy!

When we arrived home the garage door wouldn't open! YIKES! The power was out! It was still daylight, about 6 pm, but it was dark because of the storm. So we lit some candles and let the kids choose something from the pantry for their dinner. Allison had cereal while Carter chose poptarts. Then, my wonderful, sweet husband who had planned on celebrating my birthday early because we were going on a weekend trip and wouldn't be home on my actual birthday, declared that all the CANDLES had given him an idea! He brought a birthday cake out from its hiding spot and we had CAKE for desert be candle light!

The power came back on after an hour or so and the wind calmed down. Fortunately, none of our trees lost any limbs. One of our corn plants was blown down, but we propped it back up and I think it may be alright.

And here are the pictures from the storm...

The front edge of the dust storm about to roll across the road in front of me.

Blowing dust and whipping trees in front of us as we waited out the storm.

Blowing trees and dust to the west of us as we waited out the storm.

My awesome husband with my birthday cake...

A perfect desert during a power outage!!

Remnants of the "rain" we got during the dust storm.

(And a cute little boy inside the car.)