Our Journey to Carson

A "First" for Carson We've Been Dreading...

...his first encounter with a tornado warning! Tuesday evening, Meggie was in ballet class and I was (thankfully) sitting in the parking lot in the minivan, working on a project that was due Thursday for school. After about 45 minutes of a 90-minute dance class, they announced to the kids that tornadoes were heading into our area and they needed to evacuate...NOW! Meggie came frantically running across the parking lot and we quickly headed home.

We called and warned Daddy, who went and woke Carson and headed to the basement. By the time we arrived, Daddy had accumulated blankets and pillows and made sure everybody had gym shoes to wear. (If we got hit, I didn't want anyone walking through rubble and broken glass in flip-flops!) Meggie did a quick dash through the kitchen and ran downstairs with an armload of snacks and bottles of water. (She even brought me a Diet Cherry Coke -- thanks, Meg!)

Our basement is unfinished but we do have a stereo and a small portable TV down there, so we were able to monitor the storm and stay safe. The problem with all the new and improved weather reporting systems these days is they are just too stinkin' specific! As a kid, we had MANY evenings spent in our murky old basement during tornado warnings...we knew there were storms somewhere, but we felt safe that they were probably not near us. Today, they not only can pinpoint when the storm will hit, they actually pinpoint the odds that it will hit a specific STREET! ("There is a 48% chance the tornado will hit Smith Road in the next 10 minutes.") Are you KIDDING me?!!!

Carson was actually pretty tickled by the events. We were down in the basement (which is like a playground with all his toys down there) and there were SNACKS! This was SO MUCH better than going to bed! Because I'm a blogging maniac, I grabbed the camera and chronicled the events:

Here we have Carson chowing down on a bag of cookies while intently watching the colorful Doppler map on the TV...
...clearly having a ball! Ignorance IS bliss!
Meggie, on the other hand, understood what the meteorologist was saying and knows the names of streets around our subdivision. When they announced probabilities and street names, it sent her over the edge! Here is Meggie slowly freaking out...notice Carson is still chewing...
...and here is Meggie trying to control herself so as not to freak Carson out.
Here is Daddy, trying to convince us that it was really OK that he run upstairs and watch the storm from the kitchen windows...
...we weren't buying it. He decided to rearrange the basement to burn off his nervous energy...
...until Carson started to freak out as well (oh, wonderful!), so Daddy finally joined us as we all snuggled on the couch.
After the scary part was over and the storm had passed on, we decided a goofy-fest was in order:
Thankfully, we got through this one completely unscathed. From the news reports, there were no deaths attributed to these tornadoes and very little property damage. (Thank goodness!)

If it's all the same to Carson, I would like to request that his next "first" be something wonderful, like maybe the day someone gives him his first million dollars -- and he decides to share it with Mommy!