a storm and a celebration

Yesterday I threw Colin a little graduation picnic.  We planned on spending the afternoon at a small, super cute neighborhood park right near our apartment playing lawn games and snacking.  What we didn't plan on was having to quickly vacate the park while narrowly missing an immense downpour complete with wind, thunder, and lightning.

All week we kept checking the weather after hearing about a storm that was supposed to come in right smack dab in the middle of our picnic.  Of course, when you pick a date a month in advance you can't really plan on the weather, but our summer has been so sunny and hot that we figured we'd be ok.

I wish I had been able to photo-document all of us scrambling to pack up everything.  We went to the park, set the food up, and started on a game of washer toss.  About 45 minutes in, it started to sprinkle, which was also when a lot of people started coming.  So there we were, simultaneously welcoming people and sending them back to their cars!  We went back and forth a few times about whether it was going to pass quickly and lightly or get worse.  Hearing thunder in the distance, we decided we were probably safest to move the party to our apartment.  Thankfully, we made it just in time.  While parking and unloading everything again into our apartment, the skies opened up.

The wind made it difficult to eat out on the porch, but we had a good time nonetheless.  Sadly the lawn games had to be forsaken, but it was still a fun afternoon of family, friends, and food (the three best f's).  And it was a little like life: storms will always try to ruin our celebrations, but why not just keep on celebrating in the rain anyway?  Thank you to everyone who braved the storm and came out to celebrate with Col!

That evening, after the food was put away and the last of our soggy guests had left, we were able to spend a quiet evening out on our porch and take a long walk around our neighborhood.  We explored a new place which was absolutely beautiful and back-in-time-ish (yeah, couldn't think of the perfect word to describe it).  On the way home we got caught in another downpour, but this time we kept walking through the raindrops while the sun shone down.