LIghtening Strikes

Last Friday night there was a thunderstorm out towards the south hills. Taylor came home and said, it's super nice lets go out and watch the storm. The girls were afraid of the loud thunder so we wanted to show them that the thunder and lightening was far away and that they didn't have to worry about anything. We all went outside and were enjoying the nice spring thunderstorm that was coming closer. Kaitlyn was nervous and didn't really like being out so she would go in and then come out or just stand in the doorway. Alexis was more than content just sitting with us on the swing.

Before we knew it, lightening struck a tree that was only 75 yards away from us. (For those of you that have been too our house, it was the trees over where the pig was kept, and by our garden). I am surprised it didn't make me go into labor!! It was crazy to experience something like that. The lightening struck the tree and basically split it. You can see where the electricity entered the ground. The entire area around the tree is covered in splinters and leaves that came off of the tree when the lightening hit. There are huge splinters that are taller than Taylor that flew and are sticking out of the ground. There was even a piece of wood that flew halfway from the tree to us and landed in Taylor's alfalfa. It was pretty crazy. We were lucky it wasn't a tree that was only 20 ft away from us.

Needless to say...our plan of teaching the girls that a thunderstorm is far away and that you don't need to be so afraid of them...backfired! They were freaked out and I don't think they will enjoy another thunderstorm again.

Here are some videos Taylor took of the tree and the ground surrounding it. In the first video you can see the ground is covered in tree splinters and the two huge splinters sticking out of the ground. The second one shows more of the actual split up the tree.

The splinter that flew halfway between us and the tree.
One of the splinters sticking out of the ground
The rainbow after the storm