An Unanticipated Slumber Party

Last night at 1:00AM we were awakened to the sound of the tornado siren going off right behind our house. Mike and I went downstairs to check the TV and saw a radar screen unlike any we could remember ever seeing before. The thunder and lightning was intense and we could hear wind whipping through the trees outside. A funnel cloud had been spotted and was heading for GR. We went upstairs and woke the kids up and took them to the basement. Waking them up proved to be quite an adventure. Annika was so sound asleep that I couldn't get her to open her eyes. Even once she sat up in bed she just kept starring at me blankly as I told her she needed to grab her pillow and head for the basement. Abby woke up scared and crying. We had to drag her into the basement at which time she told us she had to go to the bathroom and that it was an emergency. She was terrified to be left alone in the bathroom and Mike and I were trying to hurry to get Jake and Zach downstairs. So, as Abby cried in the bathroom Mike threw sleeping bags down the basement and I got Zach. Mike then went up for Jake who was actually quite excited about the tomato and kept asking to see it. Once we were all in the basement Mike tried to get reception on our TV downstairs with no success. We did get a radio signal to come in. All three kids ended up wide awake and quite hyper as they discussed what a tornado was and what would happen if one actually came into our neighborhood. The girls also had great fun listening to Jake continue to say tomato rather than tornado and they thought it was hilarious that he didn't seem to be able to tell that he was saying it wrong. After 45 minutes the warning was over. We knew the kids wouldn't want to sleep alone in their rooms as there was still plenty of thunder and lightening so Mike set up camp in the family room with the kids while Zach and I returned upstairs to go to bed. When I got up to feed Zach a couple hours later I checked on everyone to see how they were doing. The picture above shows 4 very sleepy people who didn't even stir as I took several flash photographs! The girls think we should sleep like this again tonight. Mike and I are personally looking forward to sleeping in our own bed, hopefully, the whole night through!