WIND STORM

We had some really rough weather hit Bountiful before Christmas.  We had a bad wind storm come through that took out trees, power lines, roofs, parts of homes, it was crazy. In our neighborhood block of 7 homes, we lost 24 large pine trees.  Allen and I were awake all night listening to the wind howl and wondering what was happening to our yard an house.  I got up around 3 and our trampoline was still up and so were all the trees.  We got back up at 5:40 when we heard a bang.... the tramp had slammed into our house between our sliding glass doors and the porch off our bedroom.  At 6:00, we heard more noises and looked outside again, the tramp had moved and was now sitting on the back porch and banging against the double doors in our bathroom.  We went outside to try and strap it down so it didn't go over our house.  This is when we noticed that 2 of our neighbors large pine trees were now in our back yard and one had crushed the swing set.  We got the 4-wheeler and strapped the tramp down to the winch to keep it in place, but the tramp enclosure was destroyed.  We also noticed that half the fence along the back had blown down or away and the fence between us and our neighbors the Brimleys' had fallen over.  This made us wonder and worry about our family in the neighborhood. We decided to go and check it out and to go downtown to see if we could get a chainsaw.  By this time Jayson was up too, so we all loaded in the car to head out.  As we got out front, we saw that our huge Colorado Blue Spruce in the front yard was down and had bend the black wrought iron fence that runs along it.  We then started noticing that the transformers through the neighborhood, and across the street were popping and exploding.... this was interesting.  We were able to get downtown, albeit strategically through downed power lines and trees. we were able to get a chainsaw and head back up to our house. By the time we got home, our power was out.  We spent the rest of the day driving around, or inside without power, we did go and get a generator in case we needed it.  It was so cold that we couldn't start working outside at all.  The next few days some amazing things happened.  First was the support and help we got from our neighbors the Auld's.  They were so wonderful to come and help clean up our yard and I am so grateful to them for this.  I think this also helped to build our friendship with them.   Next was our neighbors, Cameron Wright and his construction company, they came in with all of their big equipment and helped to clean up our neighborhood for several days. It was so amazing.  The team organized and assembled outside our home everyday and we got to see and be part of them as they went their separate ways and then would come and park their equipment.  They worked so hard and tirelessly and entirely voluntarily! They brought their big equipment in and took out all of the stumps around our yard and then went through the neighborhood doing the same.  They did this for not only their ward boundaries, but ours.  We were so blessed to have them and I hope that they received many blessings for helping. We will be getting a new roof in the spring as our shingles off the back blew off and a new swing set, tramp, and new fences.   Our yard is still in disarray with limbs and debris, but hopefully the spring will bring new energy that we can get it taken care of.  We still have a ton of work ahead!