Storms

Hello!!!!

We are enjoying the cooler weather this week. It was about 113 degrees with intense humidity when we first came to Iowa at the beginning of August, and got to see the awful drought that is hitting the Midwest full force. It was so sad to see the corn all brown and dried up. Iowa is normally a beautiful landscape of different shades of verdant green, but this year's weather has hit it hard.

Luckily, we had a series of thunderstorms last week that helped bring it back to life a bit. There was a particularly big storm one day that set off the Tornado Sirens three times in two hours and was accompanied by a huge torrential downpour. They started a new policy in Polk County that the sirens will be sounded if there are winds over 70 mph. When we lived here before, the sirens would only go off if there was an actual tornado warning in the area, but I guess there were enough dumb people going outside during high winds and getting hurt from non-tornadic debris that they felt they needed to modify the policy. :) Iowa storms are fun to watch as long as you are in a safe, secure place.

The clouds look like angry hands reaching out to shake something!

We finally got to celebrate Lindsey's graduation with the family. We joined the Haddens at Biaggi's which is our favorite Italian restaurant. It's a swanky place that has scrumptious Gluten-Free options like our favorite Chicken Piccante Pizza (which has capers and feta cheese on it!). The waiter charmed us all and even surprised me with a gourmet dessert with a "congrats '12" message that was penned in chocolate syrup, garnished with a strawberry "rose". It was so much fun! 

Westley continues to enjoy playing with his uncles. Chris enjoys playing with them too. : D Every night after work he comes to the Hadden's to pick Westley and me up, he ends up playing football or taking the boys to the park it seems. They are tireless in keeping him busy. Here is a picture of a well-matched arm wrestle between Chris and Joshua. 

Chris was probably a little annoyed that his wife was voting for his opponent. :D

They put us to work at church already too! Chris and I were asked to be Nursery Leaders together (I've always wanted to be one!). This means that every Sunday we get to help out with the toddlers' Sunday School time for two hours. It's the coolest calling... we get to play with toys, have singing time and a really-super-short lesson, have Snack Time, and play some more! We started last week and thoroughly enjoyed it. Westley was the attraction of the day. The little kids (who range from 18-24 months old) swarmed around him, squealing and wanting to rub his cute little semi-bald head. They were surprisingly very gentle with him and made me smile. We talked about how Jesus loves our families and that every person in our family is important. The kids were better behaved that I expected, but I'm sure we will have a few interesting experiences in the future. ;)

That's about it this week. Happy Birthday to Chris's little sister, Sarah! She's 23 this week. Hooray! 

Love, 

The Wymans

P.S. - One more thing. Westley laughed for the first time this week! It was adorable! Chris was changing his diaper and clothes for the day and tickled him. Westley smiled really big and started chuckling in a deep baby laugh. We caught another one on video: