The Big Storm

Perth apparently doesn't get a lot of thunderstorms. Ironically, I was just wondering about this yesterday morning because I saw that the forecast called for some showers and wondering if I'd ever see a true downpour and storm. We haven't had any recordable rain here since early December and the rain we did see last winter was usually light and blowing sideways in the wind, so I've been missing a nice rainy day and a thunderstorm to shake things up. Let's just say I got my wish yesterday afternoon! You can read the official story about Perth's biggest storm in decades here.

We'd gone to a friend's house about 30 minutes away and left around 4pm. It was obviously raining to the east but the skies were clear in the west looking toward our house so we headed home. Maybe 5 minutes away, the skies were suddenly dark and a torrential rain started. Then this monster hail started falling, pretty close to golfball size.

It sounded like bombs hitting the car and the volume made my ears ring.

Alex was silent and wide-eyed in the backseat. Ben started getting nervous then I explained it was ice falling from the sky and the car was getting a good wash (which it needed!) and he was pretty excited. He sang and talked the whole way home while I drove white-knuckled through flooded roads and the hailstorm. I was not in a place to turn around to my friend's house and couldn't find anywhere protected to stop, except under a lightning rod tree so we kept going towards our own dry garage.

Perth is NOT built to handle large amounts of rain. Many roads flooded seriously, there was a small landslide into an apartment complex, and roofs collapsed at the airport, hospitals, and schools. Lots of friends reported leaks in their houses and power outages. It made for quite an exciting afternoon and turned into a beautiful evening once the sun broke through the rain right at sunset.

Matt missed out on all the action because he's in London for work this week. Turned out to be fortunate because at least one of our cars was protected in the garage and now doesn't have dents all over it. I've been keeping busy with the kids to pass the time. We had a great Sunday brunch with Kim (whose husband is also in London) at Indiana in Cottesloe. What a great venue!

Hard to beat hearing the waves while we enjoyed our food.

The kids are both still going to gymnastics each week and loving it. I attend with Alex but Ben is old enough to go by himself and I can watch from the side or upstairs cafe. To find Ben in this picture, just look for the one kid doing something completely different from every else in the gym warming up.
We're not supposed to take pictures or else I'd have a lot more of Ben's antics. He's much better at listening now and waiting for his turn when they break up into small groups to do their activities on all the apparatus, but for weeks he'd be the one kid running around or chasing butterflies off on his own. He's completely in love with the instructor Andre on the left and always does his best to sit right next to him or hold his hand...so sweet. It's a great way to burn off some of that little boy energy!