The Baker Circus: A Hail of a Hike

As is our habit this time of year we invited our friends the "T's" over for a cookout and hike last Friday. As far as anyone knew the weather was forcasted to be nice. So nice that we had been wearing shorts that day. After dinner we headed out for the woods. We could hear thunder, but thought the storm was passing to the south. Being unable to see the clouds very well through the trees we hiked to the beach to get a better view of the sky. Once we got there we thought we just might have enough time to build a fire and make the s'mores we brought. Then Chad pointed down river. While where we were at was nice and calm we could see the wind coming up the river and picking up the sand from the sandbars. We quickly started packing when the wind slammed into us. I do mean slammed! It was like being sand blasted! We ran for the woods picking up backpacks and kids on the way. Even though the wind had picked up rain didn't seem too threatening, but we headed home anyway. About a quarter of mile from home the hail started. Our group was spread out and I didn't know if we should head back into the trees for sprint the rest of the way home in the open. The group in front clearly was headed for home as fast as they could, so we picked up the pace as best as we could hauling backpacks and little kids. The hail wasn't too bad, it was spread out enough that no one was complaining about being hurt. When we reach our back gate the big stuff started to fall. Once we were under cover on the porch the kids started pointing out the biggest hail stones they could see and then running out and bringing them back. Here are some of them.

Ok, now watch Tim in the following pictures (Nathaniel's face is pretty funny too).

The following pictures take place before the one above. In order to get the one above I asked the kids to hold their hail stones in their hands. So, keep that in mind as what Tim has just heard...