It's a fact. The St. Louis area gets crazy weather. We happen to live right smack-dab in the middle of Tornado Alley. I don't like it, but that's just the way it is.
This year has been especially brutal in the tornado department. Usually we have a few months to rest easy and not worry about tornados. Not so much this year. The tornado that hit nearby on Good Friday was a little too close for comfort.
Yesterday we had more severe weather. We knew it was coming, even down to the specific hour...3 pm. At about 2:30, I started dragging stuff down to the basement to prepare for our camp out. [On a related note, I have made it a priority to make & keep an emergency kit in the basement so that I don't have to drag so much stuff down in the future. It's just smart.] We headed down at about 3:15-ish.
**Another side note -- the excessive rain following the Good Friday tornado caused extreme hydrostatic pressure to build up under our house and resulted in wetness in our basement. We contracted with a waterproofing company to install a drain system around the perimeter of our basement to prevent this from happening again. The work started on Friday and was completed on this Monday. As a result, our basement is kind of a wreck. There is concrete dust over everything, and the carpet is pulled up where they did the work...and the concrete they poured isn't completely dry yet.**
Amelia had a blast playing downstairs, as expected. The basement had been off-limits to her for about a month and it was killing her. Julian did fine. He didn't get his nap in while he was down there (combination of Amelia playing with noisy toys & running around like a Banshee, and the computer streaming Fox 2 weather report loudly), so he was a little cranky.
Fortunately the storm wasn't really that severe. We stayed in the basement until about 5:30, mostly because Amelia was having so much fun playing AND because I didn't want to drag everything upstairs only to have to drag it back down if the weather got severe again.
I'm sick of this severe weather, but extremely thankful for the finished basement we have.
Guess who found the BeBe Pod and still fits in it
Mr. Julian needs a nap
Sleeping Beauty, I mean Amelia
Diaper change in the basement
Amelia and her train table
The current state of our finished basement
Our drain tile, drying concrete
"Geez, mom. Not another picture. This is embarassing."
Check out little man's neck control! :)
Lake Pontus [AKA our backyard when it rains hard] 
