Rain Rain Go Away

On Monday, it started to rain.

On Tuesday, it was still raining

On Wednesday, it was STILL RAINING

On Thursday, it WAS STILL RAINING and we were glued to the news reports with images of roads washing away and people in devastation.

If you don't live in Colorado and maybe you live in my home state of Washington, you may think that a week of rain is no big deal.

If you live in Colorado where we might get a sprinkle of rain here and there and you think that if it rains for an hour or two solid, that's a good down pour.

Colorado is not built for mighty rains that fall an inch an hour for days on end.

The Ham Fam was very fortunate to live where we do as we did not have any devastation like our neighbors and friends to the north in Boulder, Longmont and Estes.  We are sad to hear of the loss that people are experiencing in everything from property to loved ones.  It is sad to see the photos and videos on Facebook of our friends who are mucking out basements that were completely engulfed in water, watching rivers that you could never see from their home come right up to the front porch and say hello while threatening to come inside and hearing of friends who are trapped in their homes in Estes because the roads are washed out.  It's hard to see, hard to hear and very hard to comprehend while we watch our trees and grass turn bright green with delight of the rain.

It's hard to comprehend such devastation in a state that is known for all of it's sunshine, fantastic weather and calm living conditions.  The news said that if this was snow, it would have been over 100".  I dare to say that we would have fared better with 100" of snow rather than rain that wouldn't stop.  We are built for snow of epic proportion.

On Thursday, the news was all over the storm and rain damage.  While at work, we could watch on the break room TV the reports of roads washing out and common routes shutting down down in anticipation of structural damage.

We were fortunate that we didn't have any major closures on our routes to and from our desired destinations.  I did manage to get this quick snap of the road that that we take to pick up the boys from school.  We could still travel through but it was a slow go as we waded our way across a common route.

This isn't a normal place for standing water.  After the water went down we discovered that there was a small run off creek/ditch to the far right of this photo.  On this day, the water was across the road like a lake.  There were many places like this on our travels to and from, but this was minor comparison to what so many others were facing.

By Friday, we finally pulled out the rain jackets.  I guess on day five of rain, it's officially rain jacket weather.  Before we took the boys to school, they snuck out to test out their rain jackets.  Survey says... they worked like a dream!  Thank-you Costco $17 London Fog jackets.

When they first went out in the driveway, they were standing and it reminded me of when Oliver got his first rain jacket for our trip to Oregon and he wore it at the end of our driveway

Oliver 2009

Oliver and Kellan 2013

Boys love rain, puddles and rivers that run down the sidewalk.

When I asked the boys what they were doing they said "We are watching the river go by".

Fortunately, this was as big as our river ever got.  It never tried to knock on the door and force it's way in.  We were SO thankful.

We took the boys to school on Friday and the weather report was for clearing skies later in the day.

Sure enough, the sun poked out once or twice in the afternoon, but the rain wasn't done as it returned for the evening.  

Come Saturday morning, we were awakened by the shining sun.

"Hello Mr Sun, we sure did miss you!"

During this week, we heard from our friends in Conifer that they had moved to Evergreen in August.

WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!

We hopped in the car for a morning drive in the sun to Evergreen to say hello and see their new place.

Driving up I-70, my favorite view of the continental divide greeted us as we crested Genessee.

I LOVE this view.  It was the view at our wedding and we were SO happy to see it on Saturday.  This view meant that the rain was letting up and the sun was coming out to warm up and dry out Colorado. 

What a crazy week we had.  Our thoughts and hearts still go out to our friends who have yet to see the end of the storm even though the sun is shining.  As well as to those that we don't know who have a long road ahead to recovery.