Ice Storm of 2019

Missouri has it's share of strange weather but this past week has topped them all.   We had rain with severe thunderstorm warnings and thunder and lightening and went directly from that into an ice storm.   I had guests at The Lodge so spent the weekend next door in The Cabin in case there were problems.  Which there were.   We lost electricity with 18 degree temperatures and unfortunately the house is all electric.   Thankfully,  I had plenty of flashlights and lanterns and even though the electricity was out for about 8 hours the house did not get overly cold.   Ice storms are a pain but I will have to admit there is a beautiful side to them too.  Enjoy my pictures as we start 2019 off with an ice storm!

The ice on the trees was beautiful.  

When you run a retreat center it is important to be prepared for anything. Knowing there was a possibility we could lose power we brought up extra wood for the fireplace.  Even though the blowers wouldn't work without electricity we could open the doors and have some heat...

Thankfully I had stored up 5 bags of ice melt and it was a good thing cause the porch totally iced over.

My guests enjoyed the fireplace even though the ice storm probably messed up their plans.  Tonight will be another cold night with lows about 7 degrees.    Hopefully,  we won't lose electricity again and tomorrow life will begin to get back to normal.    Whatever normal is for this part of the country.   Spring please hurry and come to my world!  I miss you so!

Elephant Rock State Park

We have had the opportunity to visit a few of the Missouri State parks over the last several years and one of our favorites was Elephant Rock State Park. We took the boys there in the summer of 2014. It is one of those places that is hard to describe to other people and even showing pictures doesn't do it justice. It is a 134 acre park in southeast Missouri. It is filled with massive boulders made of granite. There are lots of picnic tables set up near the entrance and it has a paved walking trail and you can climb to the top for a beautiful view.

It's a little hard to tell how big these rocks actually are...

but here we are standing between them. The rock on the right is named Dumbo and is 27 feet tall, and 34 feet long. 

 The kids had fun climbing all over everything. They thought it was quite an adventure!

Koda found a big pile of rocks. He was impressed!

 I think he enjoyed this state park more than any of us. 

I spent most of my time trying to keep track of this little climber. 

This narrow path is called "Fat Man's Squeeze". 

Mark had to try climbing up everything the hard way. 

Kaden was pretty impressed with this one. 

There are two old rock quarries in the park and rock from the park was used in building the City Hall in St. Louis as well as various other buildings and structures around the city. 

View from the top. I hope to visit here again during the fall and see this view with all the trees changing colors. 

-Rachel