Whirlwind

 A few days before we left Texas, Phil found this toad.  It looks different from our toads, rather fancy with it's little frill going around it's sides.

 That same weekend we test drove a truck that Phil wanted to get.  Not just a truck, his DREAM truck.  I have to admit I fell for it like a 15 year old girl with a big crush.  I kindof wanted to drive it home.  But that would have been stealing, so I didn't.

 The boys giving the backseat a test run.  Matthew fell in love with the back window, which completely rolls down.  A week later, Phil became the proud owner.  A week after that, someone else became the proud owner of the Celica.  Ahhh, life is good.  No more itty bitty car for me! 

 The real whirlwind started in when we'd almost made it home.  I wish I'd taken a photo, of the clouds, of the storm we ran into.  It was the scariest storm I've ever driven in and I've driven in plenty, in quite a few states across the western half of the country.  It was like being in a car wash, then clouds so low you could watch the lighting go from cloud to ground within feet of you.  After that the winds would blow the water literally off the ground like some huge industrial fan one way, to suddenly change to the other side and try to blow you off the road.  The weather report confirmed winds that were 60 miles an hour in there with me.  The way the 4-Runner was rocking, I thought we'd go over.  And then it would cycle through again.  Thank goodness we weren't in the Celica.  I don't think things would have had a happy ending.  I was sure a tornado was trying to form above us once I hit a calm eye of the storm only to plunge back into it again.  Again, the weather confirmed that is what it tried to do.  By time I made it to the next town, I was a wreck.  After consulting with people that had TVs, I decided to take an alternate route home, which meant I ran into serious flash flooding and turned around.  What a welcome home!

 Auntie brought a bouncy horse for the boys.  Matthew immediately became a Texas Ranger with his "rifle," taking care of the bad guys.

 Another day he used his pistols.  Can you tell that Poppa and him watch westerns together?

 Remember the creek Matthew I safaried in?  Well that won't happen for awhile.  We got so much rain for awhile that we almost flooded 2 different times.

 We were lucky.  People to the south of us have had major flooding problems.

 The last day the brand new pool was open, we went.  Matthew went down both slides.

 But the fast one hurt on impact, so he only likes the curvy one.

 Rain, rain, and more rain has been the story for the last 2 weeks or so.  Puddles were begging for his new boots to come stomp in.

 Although since he fills his boots with water and takes them off, I'm not quite sure why I bought a new pair.  (The old pair has a crack in them and leaks.  How would he know?)

But it's worth it to see him have a good time.