Jonny's first thunder storm and our first hail storm

We have been so thankful the last few days. The heat has dramatically been reduced, and the temperature has been hovering in the mid-90's the entire weekend. This morning, after church, we went for a lovely walk. The wind was blowing very gently, and the sun was covered by a light scattering of clouds so sunglasses weren't necessary. The cicadas were out chirruping and the grackles were feasting on butterflies and mosquitoes.

I had been tempted to not take the walk right away, hoping for a cooler evening, but I am glad that we decided on the walk because this evening brought a thunder storm. Jonathan was slightly skeptical when I told him that thunder storms are loud and big. Today, he learned what I meant. It started out as a distant rumble, and we thought about turning off the computers, but the air just didn't seem heavy enough to merit a big storm. After about five minutes of thunder without rain, a big cracking sound happened right over the house, and the rain started. We quickly turned off the computers and unplugged them. We also opened the windows since it seemed kind of silly to run an air conditioner when the entire sky was grayed out by the rain.

Still, Jonathan wasn't that impressed. I smiled inside, feeling a little evil, because I knew this was just the beginning. The wind hadn't started yet. Tanner had wisely only let us open the windows just a little bit. He unwisely wanted to take the girls outside. I don't know why he wanted to do this, but I put a very firm, loud foot down. He kept trying to explain that since there were big metal light poles the chances of the girls being struck by lightning were infinitesimal. I just shook my head. The girls stayed inside. It was a good thing, too because the wind kicked up and the storm moved right above us. There were flashes of lightning with simultaneous claps of thunder, the wind started to do its swirly thing and then big pellets of hail started to fall. Tanner got so excited because the hail was dime sized. He wanted to go out and grab one. Inside, I'm shaking my head. Are all men like this? Haven't they read the stories of people getting struck by lightning, struck by hail, struck by...???

And they wonder why we worry about them...