A Stormy Father's Day Weekend

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This Father's Day weekend here in North Dakota started off a little rough with a major storm that swept across the state on Friday night. Faith and I were home alone when it reached Bismarck around 9:00 p.m. Rob was still at the office working and I was on the computer finishing up a few articles.

I decided to check Facebook and the first thing I saw was a picture my aunt in Arnegard (8 miles west of Watford City) had posted. Her garage had just gotten demolished in a storm that had passed through. The storm was quickly heading east towards Bismarck. One weather warning I saw stated a possibility of wind gusts up to 80 mph.

This tree went down a block from our office in downtown Bismarck

It's hard to see but this is a traffic light that also went down

I figured Rob wasn't paying attention to the weather, so I called him at the office to warn him. I'm thankful he didn't try to come home because the storm hit very quickly. One minute it was still light outside, and then the next it had gone completely black with torrential rains pouring down from the sky. 

The trees around our apartment building were bent over like I had never seen before. I could even feel our apartment shaking from the intensity of the wind. Faith was completely oblivious until our power started blinking on and off and the show she had been watching was interrupted by a black television screen.

Rob didn't get home until close to midnight because he wanted to wait for the water on the streets to recede before setting out. (We had gotten a couple of inches of rain in a matter of minutes causing flash flooding.) He said the drive home was a bit scary because all the streetlights were out, none of the traffic lights worked, and trees were down everywhere blocking both lanes of some streets. There was a firetruck on one street which was completely blocked off due to downed power lines.

The next day was beautiful and peaceful, so Faith and I went to the library, and then to the park where tree branches were scattered everywhere. The park we went to no longer had its wheelchair swing, so I decided to try something different. I took Faith out of her chair and set her next to me on one of the bench swings in the park. She loved it! She laughed and giggled and kept saying, "Faster mommy!"

Faith having fun swinging with me

Faith swinging with daddy!

Today, on Father's Day, the three of us went to church. After a brunch of French toast and bacon, Faith wanted to take her dad to the park to show him the swing. We made a pit stop on the way at Tutti Frutti where dads received a free treat! After gobbling up our frozen yogurt topped with fruit and candy, we headed to the park so Faith could swing with her daddy.

We had a wonderful Father's Day! I just hope the weather forecast for tonight is wrong and that we won't be getting another severe storm!

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