Photos at KSU Gardens July 1, 2008

A family that we are friends with (the Hageys) recently found out they're moving to Las Vegas in a short time! We got together a bunch of us to take some group pictures before they had to... desert us. While we were at it, our friend photographer took some individual family and other shots. We really appreciated her taking pictures for us. (Thanks Melissa! Maybe this can be some good advertising for you. :-)

Our little family.

Look closely and you can see my little baby-belly bump.

Heartwarming, I know.

I don't know why, but Isabelle was really uncomfortable with getting too close to the water fountain.

It would have been a cute picture with Isabelle in there with the other kids...

but the little darling "hung out" with Dad instead.

Amigos queridos

Purple: Jill, Mike, Dixon, Will Gamble; White: Thomas, Dave, Lisa, Lily Thorne; Orange: Henry, Derick, Morgan, Spencer Hagey; Blue: Richard, Isabelle, Amy Brooksby; Red: Jeremy, Evherettt, Amelia, Florence Boyle

Lisa, Jill, Morgan, Amelia, Amy

Isabelle Haven photo shoot...

Want a taste?

Suit yourself, more for me then.

Isabelle's "funny face." She makes it on cue if you ask her to make her funny face.

She gets a kick out of it. Daddy teaches her lots of funny tricks.

Isabelle really loves flowers.

A-choo!

One of my favorite pictures.

Wildcat in training.

(KSU Mascot, for those of you who didn't know.)

Mmm, look at that handsome smiling profile.

A couple of cheesey random solo pics of me.

We'll bid you hasta luego with Richard's favorite picture.

Independence Day Delights

(Body written by Amy, Pictures and captions done by Richard.)
With the Fourth of July having come and gone, we hope you all enjoyed it; complete with friends, family, fun, FOOD, but most of all, that you took time to think upon the many people who have sacrificed and who are sacrificing so much to maintain our beautiful and free country. Amy says she is so grateful to live in this wonderful and blessed nation.

Our day began with a combined ward flag raising ceremony and breakfast held at our church building. Amy had been asked to sing the National Anthem at this event. She felt honored, but knew she needed Heavenly Father's help if she was to do well. So she practiced a lot and prayed a lot. "I wasn't nervous until night before. In retrospect, I realized that might have been the most nervous I've ever been for a solo." She was glad that she could get it over with in the morning and enjoy the rest of the holiday without worrying.

Isabelle with some friends at the breakfast.

Isabelle being silly and cute at home.

We enjoyed relaxing and watching Independence Day. Amy cried a laughable amount. Bless her little pregnancy-hormone-laden heart. Later, we went to a barbecue hosted by a family in our ward; the whole ward was invited. It was a beautiful day. We were surprised it wasn’t miserably hot like last week. Isabelle enjoy playing with other kids. She didn’t want to go in the “bounce house,” but she did swing, teeter-totter, use a tricycle, enjoy the dogs, play in the sand, eat the sand,....

Isabelle on the teeter-totter with a new friend. She wasn't heavy enough to push her side down, so Daddy had to help her.

Isabelle sporting a patriotic hat. It got glitter all over her.

Though the hosting family is known widely for their fireworks show, we left before they got started. Isabelle was already up way past her bedtime, plus we’d forgotten ear plugs (especially for Belle). Plus, well, frankly, Amy just really isn’t a fan of loud (or even really of fireworks-- I know, what a party-pooper.) So, we watched some from our parking lot when we got home. Tons of people do them here in Kansas because few fireworks are illegal.

On the drive home, Isabelle started singing and directing herself. It was so cute.

Isabelle driving us home from the BBQ.

That’s our day in a nutshell. Mostly it was just fun to spend time as a family. Isabelle and Mom got Daddy for the whole day!!

Manhattan Tornado on 6/11/2008

Most of you maybe unaware of the interesting weather happenings that have been going on recently here in Manhattan. We've taken some pictures of the most recent disaster and *lucky you* I'm finally going to start using this blog site to get pictures out to you. It's just so much easier than e-mailing. I've been so busy lately and wanted to fix the messed up format on my first blog entry before giving everyone my blog site address... but maybe I'll just leave it messed up and hope that the rest of the entries don't have weird spacing. (Sometimes you just have to get over perfectionism and move onward!)

SO, as far as the weather goes,... you may have heard on the news about the tornado that hit Chapman, Kansas. If you look on a map, you'll see that it's quite close to Manhattan. Well, a tornado also hit Manhattan that same night. Let me tell you that we were watched over and protected by Heavenly Father. Our apartment was in direct line of the path that the tornado was taking, but somehow it changed course, disappeared, never reached us. The next day, checking out the damage that occurred, we've discovered that it got as close as .35 miles from us. We were indeed very blessed.

I don't feel freaked out about torndados anymore, though I don't doubt we'll get more tornados this season (plus we're living here three more years anyway). But I feel so much peace. It is amazing to feel the sweet assurance the Spirit brings. To know without any doubts that Heavenly Father is all powerful over any disaster or calamity. He can temper the storm -any storm- and soothe the worried heart.

The night it happened...
It was Wednesday night, Isabelle was sleeping and Richard was at mutual; I was talking to Loni (who is in Cali) on the phone, folding laundry and what not. (Ironically,) I told her how much I love living in Manhattan and told her she simply must move out here and teach. Richard came home, we got ready for bed. It was around 10:30. I was writing in my journal and he was reading the scriptures. The tornado alarms went off. I moaned. "Oh great, don't tell me we're going to have to wake Isabelle up. Maybe it's just a little practice run or maybe somebody set them off on accident and they'll stop in a second." I was hopeful. It was deja vu because just the previous week we got a tornado warning (the Brooksby's first).

Richard and I slumped off to the living room radio to hear what was going on with the weather. A warning for a severe thunderstorm heading straight for Manhattan was given; the storm was said to be capable of producing a tornado, so a "tornado watch" was issued for our area.

By now, we expected our friends to come down to our apartment because we live on a bottom floor and they live on the second and third floors. Also, our apartment is a bit more safe because it is right against a hill. We called the Boyles and no one answered- they were already on their way over. Later the Haggeys came down also.

It hadn't even really looked stormy. About 20 or 30 minutes after the tornado sirens had gone off it started to rain. I have always loved rain, but I think this was the most ominous rain I've ever experienced. It was the diluvial precursor of doom.

After saying a prayer, we three families listened to the stream of weather information on the radio and watched the weather mapped on the internet and could see the storm approaching. We were ready to pile into our bathroom (the safest place in our house) when and if the need arose. (Some of us kind of hung out in the bathroom the whole time anyway.) We had lots of blankets in the bathroom, brought in the radio with batteries, water, the computer. Conveniently, Rich and I had mattresses in our hallway from our old bed that we had recently replaced. (Mattresses are suppose to be good tornado protection.)

The radio reported that a tornado had formed and hit the city of Chapman, causing damage. (Chapman is about 30 miles southwest of Manhattan.) When the storm that had passed through Chapman was definitely going to hit Manhattan, the "tornado warning" was issued. We got Isabelle up and brought her into the bathroom where everyone gathered. Ah, yes, another party in our bathroom: six adults and five kids. Good times. We then heard that a tornado touched down on the southwest corner of Manhattan, heading northeast, straight for us. Then the tornado was reported to be on Kansas State University campus. (We live right next to campus!) Further, it was said to be on the northeast side of campus. WE LIVE ON THE NORTHEAST SIDE OF CAMPUS! As helpful as the information on the radio was, it was still sketchy; we didn't know how destructive it was or exactly where it was....

Next thing we knew, the tornado was gone- the warning cancelled. Exhale. (Richard wants me to add, "We all quickly left the bathroom because it must have been a hundred degrees in there.")

We were instructed to stay indoors because of lightning, heavy rains and winds, downed power lines, etc. By this time, it was really raining hard transforming the parking lot into a river. I don't think I've ever seen in rain so hard in the states. There was tons of lightning- it looked like a huge strobe light across the sky. I was thankful the tornado (and chance of tornado) had passed and I didn't think we'd be threatened again that night.

The next day, we heard about the damage on the radio. In the evening, Richard and I went around town and took some pictures.

Around KSU campus:

A fraternity (above) with part of it's roof across the street (below).

Some local businesses:

All the windows are blown out (above).

This is the Midas where we took our car to get the alternator fixed. All the garage doors were sucked out (above).

Near our apartment:

This building is missing part of it's roof and is only 0.35 miles from our house (above).

Same with this sign and debris, 0.35 miles away (above).

The tree branch had fallen on this truck (above).

The hard-hit southwest side of town:

The garbage can was impaled on the tree (above).

Right behind the car is a foundation of a house that is no longer there (above).

In the background are houses in rubble, and if you look closely, you can see the path the tornado took (above).