Unforgetable Birthday

Megan's birthday was on Sunday, September 14th, and I don't think that anyone living here will forget her birthday, not because it was her birthday but because it was the "Big storm of 2008." Things that we won't forget about Megan's birthday this year!
- She made her own birthday cake (with only a little help)
- We had family here to celebrate with us, & Megan got to meet cousin Ava.
- She got the sleeping beauty dress up that she wanted Santa to bring her last year.
- She also got the jump rope that she wanted.
- We got to hold all of our church meetings in the dark since the power was out.
- Megan got to say the prayer in primary and prayed that everyone would have a good day for her birthday!
- On the drive home from church we saw a trampoline on the side of the freeway, not to mention all the fallen trees, tree branches, missing siding & shingles & more mangled trampolines.
- We also arrived home just in time for our power to come back on to be able to continue celebrating Megan's birthday.

Apparently our weather forecast was off a little from the day before. They forecasted winds to be around 25-30 mph (from hurricane Ike) but we ended up having winds from 70-80 mph. Let's just say it has been a very interesting few days. We went on a walk before eating Megan's birthday cake and one of our neighbors had a tree fall on their home from the storm (picture below) We really lucked out and didn't have anything more then leaves and twigs in our yard that we ended up cleaning up the next day, and Mike cleaned out our gutters (thank Mike!) we then helped our neighbors take down their broken trampoline and rake leaves.
As we have been driving around these last couple of days we have been assessing the damage that has happened. There are A LOT of trees that have fallen on cars, houses, power lines & the streets. I wish that I could have taken pictures of everything, but there really would be too many pictures to share. We drove by the Louisville Temple to show Mike & Christy and we saw this damage there... this is the tree that split into thirds, 1 side still standing, 1 side fell to the street and the other side... Fell on the temple gate.

It didn't look like there was any damage to the temple just the gate. Really we lucked out without having anything more then our phone and Internet out for a couple of days. (sorry if we missed your call) There are still people, 4 days later, that don't even have power. Gas prices are going up, stores are throwing out frozen foods that have perished along with residents that have their food that has gone bad. It really has been an eye opening experience. Schools have been closed since Sunday, which has been nice since we have family in town. But please pray for those that are working hard to cut trees, clear power lines, restore power, and also for those without power. This really will be a birthday that no one will ever forget here!