Saturday we went swimming at the Provo Rec Center. We decided to try a 3-month pass, so we can go swimming whenever we want, and now I have a place to workout! I didn't get any pictures of us swimming, but everyone had fun … well everyone but Jacob. Lol. He really doesn't like the water still. He enjoys the tub, but the pool water just isn't quite warm enough for him! The rec center has a bouldering wall that the girls like trying to climb. Lily has made me nervous a few times. Sometimes she gets up higher than I can reach and I worry she'll fall. Lol. They also love the indoor play area. Its like a large obstacle course with slides!
Crystal got up this high and looks at me, "Mommy, is the wall going to fall? Or is it strong?" lol. She wasn't so sure she trusted it.
AND DOWN IT COMES
After a long afternoon at the rec center we decided to get take out and go home to watch the BYU vs Texas game … even if they were probably going to lose. Lol. Crystal and Lily were tired and Jacob needed to eat, so we ended up going home first. When we got out of the car, we kept looking at the ominous clouds in the sky. We could tell a really nasty storm was coming. The cloud nearing us was pretty scary looking and there was just something in the air that warned “GO INSIDE!” lol. The girls saw one of their friends outside, so they stayed to play while I went inside to feed Jacob. Ty came in to get the restaurant's number to order dinner before he went outside to watch them. He was going to go get dinner as soon as I finished feeding the baby. . . and that's when it hit …
The wind was blowing in every direction, and sticks, leaves, and dirt flew in EVERY direction! I sent Ty to go get the girls. It had gone from complete calm to utter chaos in seconds! Ty came running in with the girls just as the rain started coming down. I pulled the video camera out because the scene was so insane.
It was raining so hard and the wind was still blowing it in all directions. People were stuck in their cars, and the ones brave enough to get out were SOAKED in SECONDS! I noticed our drain in the front door wasn't working fast enough, so Ty opened the door to clear it of leaves and debris (it has happened before getting our carpet in front of the door a wet so we wanted to avoid it if possible). He tried clearing it twice before the water started getting the carpet wet.
Not a minute after Ty closed the door, water started POURING in from the lower side of the door. Ty tried stopping it with a nearby towel to no avail. He then tried stopping it with his foot … which slowed it down but not enough. Water was into the middle of the living room. Ty gave up, and we started lifting everything we could find off the floor, especially electronics. I called the managers who told us to put a towel down and they would be over soon. I told her towels weren't cutting it and that it was already running into the kitchen. She still didn't understand that I LITERALLY meant the apartment was flooding, but I figured she'd figure it out when she came over. Lol.
Ty said he was going to go outside and bail water. I looked out the window and almost died! The water was 3-4 feet deep in the walkway. Opening the front door was out of the question! Unfortunately the first words out of my mouth were “Ty we are going to drowned!” I wasn't serious, but Crystal overheard me. She was already upset about the water coming in the house and that sent her over the edge. I picked her up and put her on her bed thinking it would help her feel better. It didn't help. She was worried about all of us. Jacob was sitting calmly on the couch through it all just chewing on anything he could get his hands on. And Lily was 'helping' by throwing clothes or towels in the water and picking them up to ring them out. She thought she was helping stop the water.
I did try putting towels down between the hallway and living room to stop it from getting into the back rooms but the water just flowed right over it. There was nothing anyone could do to stop it. By then the managers had come over and started bailing water from the walkway. All three apartments in the walkway were completely flooded. We finally flipped the breaker and climbed out a back window (we needed to get Crystal out of the house). When we came around front, the storm drain in the parking lot was backed up which had probably caused some of the flooding in the walkway. The most amazing thing was that all the neighbors in the complex were out in the POURING rain bailing water out of the walkway (we have the BEST neighbors) while we waited for a water pump. They had the water out of the walkway before the pump got there (they did use it to pump water out of the storm drain to stop the flooding in the parking lot). The owner told us to get a hotel for the night, and we'd make a plan the next day.
We ate fast food and found a hotel (not easy on a BYU game day). We headed back to the apartment to get a few more things we forgot, and the owner already had the restoration guy there. He was cutting carpet out and getting our belongings off the ground and on blocks to dry. Fast action probably saved most of our stuff! Ty stayed to help move things around and get the carpet out while the kids and I went to the hotel. Even though we had been wet ALL day, the girls wanted to get in the hotel pool. I on the other hand had finally gotten dry and wasn't about to get wet again. Lol. They played in the pool while J and I watched.
PS. After a long game delay due to UNBELIEVABLE weather, BYU actually won their game! Wahoo!
PSS. The Provo mayor says they determined that the storm was 50 years in the making before it dumped on Provo that night! Crazy right? A storm cloud wandering the earth for 50 years before deciding to finally give it all up!
PSSS. A neighbor who was on the freeway when the storm hit SWEARS he saw a funnel cloud. I believe him. It sure felt like tornado weather when we were out in it before it hit.
I am SO grateful we were home when the storm hit. Since our renter's insurance won't cover anything, we would have lost SO much if we wouldn't have been there to get the computers and other electronics off the floor. Had we been 10 minutes later, it would have been too late. I'm also grateful Ty was home since he was heading out to get dinner. I don't think I would have gotten things up fast enough alone.
River in the hallway
Crystal was fine as soon as we got outside. She even had a little fun! (They are on top of the storm drain).
A few hours after the flooding.
Not exactly the dinner I was hoping for tonight, but we felt too wet and messy to go anywhere besides fast food.
Lily was a champ thru it all, but she sure was clingy the rest of the night.
The girls playing in the pool while Daddy was at the apartment working!
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