Temple and Tornado

We went to the Twin Falls Temple Open house on Friday. It was a wonderful time. Charles got the day off of work, and we decided to make the most of it. The children really loved it. It was a very good experience for them. I was so pleased that they had the opportunity to see inside a temple. I hope that they will remember it forever. When we were in the Celestial Room, William was captivated by the chandelier. I whispered in his ear, "Jesus." We have been showing William pictures and teaching him to identify Jesus. He repeated in his baby-way, "Jesus!" It was very sweet. It was a really lovely time. I was a little concerned about going because I have been sick. Sometimes I just go into these coughing fits, and it makes me nut! I prayed I would be o.k., I chewed gum the whole time, and I was just fine. :-) When we were finished with our tour, my plan was to have someone take a few family pictures for us -- but there was a hugs dark cloud blowing in, and it was beginning to thunder, so we missed out.

As we made our way home we were traveling in some pretty severe weather. There were storms all around us. It was pretty exciting at times, lots of lightning, rain and hail. Then the wind started to blow. We turned a corner into a little valley area and we could see this strange swirling motion of dirt and debris. Charles and I both said, "what is that?" We had to keep driving, we were on the highway. I have NEVER seen anything like it before -- we were in a tornado! The wind was blowing SO hard, and sagebrush and garbage were flying everywhere -- really high in the air. We had to try and dodge all of the things that were being thrown around, the car behind us was covered in sagebrush. We were contemplating pulling over and finding somewhere to be safe -- but there was no where to go, we had to keep driving. I asked Sammi to say a prayer for us, and she asked that our car would not be blown away, and that we would be safe. We were really that scared! It was such a weird thing! The car was being blown around, and the wind was making really strange sounds against the car. I was grateful that there were many other vehicles around -- we were not alone. I am not sure how you determine when it is just strong wind, or a tornado. It was the most severe wind power I have ever seen and felt, and I have been through some pretty nasty storms! ! As we kept white-knuckle driving, the force lasted for quite some time, then we made our way out of it. It really was so strange. We were excited and scared at the same time! The kids handled it well. Charles did a marvelous job of maneuvering through the storm. It was almost ironic, early that day as we were driving in clear blue sky I asked Charles, "What would you do if you were driving and saw a tornado coming?" he replied, " I would drive through it." and he did! It was so crazy! I tried to capture some pictures of the storm, though the pictures hardly do it justice! It was quite the wild ride home! Usually the chaos happens when you are trying to get to the temple, not going home!! :-)