What the...Hail?

Every once in a while, you have one of those experiences that yanks you out of the day-to-day norm and makes you realize that fresh, new, exciting things can happen unexpectedly.
You know, those life-changing moments.
For us, one of those moments came a few weeks ago.
I was sitting at the kitchen table, planning my lesson for Sunday, JC was at work, Bethany was at school going about her day, and the boys were resting perfectly well downstairs (This is where the sarcasm stops...they actually were resting quietly, both probably minutes away from falling asleep. This never happens.)
The weather was gorgeous...overcast and lovely. Getting windy and temperamental.
Then the noise started.
Scared the crap out of me.
It only took me a few seconds to figure out what was happening but I was about ready to call someone and report myself in need of mental examination because...hail? In Gilbert? I don't know if this has happened before but I'm pretty sure not while I have lived here and certainly not that I remember.
I got the front door open, watched it come down for a bit, then realized it may not last very long and ran downstairs to yank the boys out of their peaceful rest time. I decided that, considering I didn't remember this happening ever before, I should probably get them in on the experience!
(Yes, I realize I am making this into a huge deal. And I will continue to.)

Check it out. Caught some.

The boys and I stood on our porch and watched this happen.
(Those are not water spots on my camera. That is the actual hail.)

We couldn't even see across the street! It was wicked.
That tree you see on the right side of the picture is our year-old Sissoo Tree bending horizontally.
Oh how I prayed for my Sissoo for those few moments!

Then...it ended.
We ventured out.


The yard looked like this:

And the sky looked like this:

Pure schizophrenia is what it is.

We gathered up some pieces to put in the freezer to show Bethany when she got home from school since she probably didn't get to see any of it.
I know those aren't huge pieces of hail, considering.
But, for Gilbert, AZ, I think it's pretty impressive!

Good thing our neighbor drives a smart car.
If that thing was of a respectable size it would have born the weight of a good chunk of my other neighbors' tree.
I don't know why, but I found this hilarious.

I discovered that the boys were wandering the yard, eating the hail.
Awesome.

Things stayed calm for a bit and then, right as the bell rang for Bethany to get out of school, it rallied back up. No more hail but a really awesome downpour. It was insane. I loved it...except for the part where I wasn't exactly sure where Bethany was since they weren't letting the kids come out to where I normally pick her up due to flooding. That part was a little crazy. I looked like a maniac. A really wet one.
But, I did love it.

After we were home and it let up again, we ventured over to look at the fallen branch. Smart car guy moved it out of the way so he could smartly venture off somewhere.

James had witnessed him move it and decided that he was qualified to do the same.
I like this picture.
STRAINING!!!

Cute Bethany loved the rain as much as I did.
Even though, less than an hour before, she and I were separated during a mega-flurry.
All is well and good once we get to spend some time playing in puddles.

See?

As you can see, we moved to the backyard while it occasionally sprinkled on us while we did some splashing and swinging.

Our yard was soaked. My feet were happy.

Our trees were happy.
(All of them. The Sissoo made it!)

The only unhappy little thing around was this guy.
A caterpillar stranded on a blade of grass.

I left him there while I summoned everyone to have a look.

Then we rescued him, of course.
I think he would have done the same for us.

We got his friend too.
Actually, I don't know if they were friends are not.

But if they weren't before, they quickly got to be that way.

"Hello, friend."

The kids had a blast playing while I made dinner.
With puddles like those, we could play for hours!

Even though such a storm felt kind of surreal, since we're regular rain worshipers around here,
we soaked it all up! Who knows when we'll see a big rain like that, let alone hail, but we enjoy
whatever we can get!