one scary night

Valentine's Day over the years has been quite uneventful.  Maybe some heart shaped pancakes and handmade valentines.  With Juan Pablo in Bolivia this year, I thought I'd splurge and get the older children a small gift card to Target, and Diego received a square box of classic legos.  I thought this would be the highlight of the weekend.

But we got an unexpected call from Uncle Shep and Aunt Beth that they would like to come down from DC and take us out to dinner.

I'm not sure we've ever taken Carmen out to dinner!  She's pretty unpredictable at that hour and often has ants in her pants like most toddlers.

(Can you tell she has a wild streak?)

We decided to try and eat out early to beat the crowds since it was Valentine's Day, not to mention it was a Saturday night.  The closest we could get to early was 6pm.

(Here's the little wiggle worm.)

 (Fighting over desert.)

The appetizer of chips took forever to come.  Dinner was even longer.  We didn't get out of there until just before 8pm.  Aunt Beth had been checking the weather and mentioned there might be wind gusts,   but who's ever scared of a little wind?  The children busted out of the restaurant doors laughing as the wind whipped their hair in all directions.


(Getting ready to hit the road.)

We headed home in a packed minivan with me at the wheel, less than a ten minute drive to the house.

Or so we thought.

The first hint of a problem was a traffic light that was completely out.  As we crossed the reservoir, the usual glow of lights from neighborhoods across the water were gone.  Pitch black.  We  knew what that meant...no power.

But as we reached our street corner, notorious for dangerous crashes and downed power lines, a barely visible woman was walking down the middle of the street with a tiny flashlight.  She was alerting the few cars that a tree had fallen across the street and it was impassable.

No problem, we'd just turn around and come from the other direction.  It's a fairly skinny road, but thanks to the car's back-up camera, I managed to turn around without running off the road.

As we recrossed the bridge over the water and turned at the broken light, the wind was picking up.  Every now and then, I'd drive straight through a mini tornado of leaves swirling upward in front of me.

Across the bridge, I immediately spotted flares and a fire engine.  But I must have been blind because everyone else could see the ACTUAL FIRE on the side of the road.  Another tree had fallen on power lines and sparked a large semi-circle of fire along the edge of the road....and I was being directed to drive right by it!  I think by now, I had a death grip on the steering wheel, and my heart was definitely beating faster.

We continued on, maybe five minutes from the house.  Did I mention it was windy?  At one point, I gently stated, "I think I see snowflakes."  Everyone disagreed, thinking it was just stuff blowing from the trees.  Then Aunt Beth began to see them.

And the next SECOND, we were in the worst blizzard of snow I've. ever. driven. in.

Pinpoints of snow were speeding horizontally toward the windshield, and my eyes were tricking me, focusing on the tiny shoots of white, then seeing the darkened road ahead.  All of a sudden, a giant branch came crashing out of the sky onto our windshield and roof of the car.  Isabela and I screamed as loud as we could and Joaquin blurted out a few bad words.  There was no time to correct him as I tried to steady my breathing and stop my legs from shaking.  Aunt Beth was calming, reassuring everybody that we were fine and Uncle Shep was the meteorologist, advising us that the temperature had dropped 10 degrees since we left the restaurant minutes ago.  Visibility was near zero, the wind was getting worse and the snow was getting heavier.  We were seconds from the house, but I started to doubt whether we should keep driving or just pull over.  We all agreed to push on, not wanting to be trapped on the side of the road for any amount of time.

We roared up the driveway.  I told everyone to run inside as fast as they could.  (Our yard is famous for throwing down branches in any storm.)

Inside we were safe, but yes, the power was out.

Aunt Beth and Uncle Shep were doing their best to calm my freaking out children.  We looked for candles and then remembered the headlamp!  What were the chances?  They had given one to Joaquin that afternoon for Valentine's Day, and we had finally figured out the secret door for the batteries just before dinner.  Isabela strapped it on for most of the night.

(Can you tell those kids are scared?)

We played charades, convinced Shep and Beth not to venture out, and set up beds for everyone.  As we were getting the kids settled in for the night, I saw the faint glow of my bedroom light.  The electricity was back!

(Reading by flashlight.  It's blurry, but I'm no good at night photography.)

Oh, what a night it was.  We went through hurricane winds, mini tornados, fire, and blinding blizzard snow in a simple ten minute drive.

But then, Valentine's Day has always been about making memories with the ones you love.  Mission accomplished.