Our trip to Mississippi...and Tornado weather!

Delia walking to the Lake with Grandpa.



Delia getting ready to get in the water...you can clearly see there is a storm coming!



look at that beautiful face!




Braving the cold water....

Then the strom hits us like a ton of bricks...

not just any strom..a tornado! Well luckily it didn't hit us directly, in a town about 2miles away. Wheww. but it was much darker than the pictures are showing.

Still baring down on us...

continues....

Wil it ever stop?

Safe with Grandpa.

The storm hit faster than I have ever experienced! The wind was blowing 60 mph. Trees were falling down. The rain was blowing sideways, so we were all drenched. We were right in the middle of a fish fry and three pans had boiling oil in them. You could harly see anything right in front of you because the wind was blowing so hard. Nobody expected this. Apparently this part of MS doesn't get weather this severe. It was so scary, but exhilerating at the same time.

The Delia Generation

This is a picture of Delia with her great, great Aunt Carolyn, and her daughter, Delia...who was also named after her grandmother which is my Delia's great, great grandmother. Hope that made sense. So Delia is the thrid generation of Delia in the family..kind of neat. What is also weird is that all the boy and girl names that I like for our future children are also family names..hmmm ;) It was nice to be able to see people we hadn't the last time we went and learn a little more about the whole family lineup and where everyone fits. George, my father-in-law, has done SO much geneology work and was able to share all that he found, plus some old pictures of family members and get some more information to continue his work. It was so much better than last time. We first went to the Anderson family reunion we were first in dental school, about 5 years ago, and both of us went into it blindly...we had really never met anybody. Since we had met these people before it was easier to be comfortable around them. We had a blast.

Vicksburg, MS Military Park



Delia in front of a smaller cannon.

With daddy in front of the cannons.

Delia attempting to pick up an object....

...not realizing it is a 12 lb. cannon shot, is trying to pick it up...too funny!

Delia with the Confederate boys!

Christian and Delia wearing confederate army hats!

Delia in an old Coca-Cola barrel at the Coca-Cola Museum where it was first bottled!

Delia striking a pose!

The seige at Vicksburg, MS was one of the biggest and quite possibly the deciding battle for the end of the civil war! Because it is on the river, President Lincoln thought it was the best chance to hinder the south and it's Confederate Army. For six weeks it raged on in hot and extremely humid conditions. We were able to hear a cannon shot and it was so loud the shock wave literally knocked the wind out of everyone and all we could do was drop our jaws in awe. that was one of there smallest Cannons, weighing only 2000 lbs total and they went up to a whopping 25, 000 lbs. Incredible I couldn't believe it...then the actors told us to imagine 100 of those going off at once! I'm sure it was awful to have to be subjected to all that! Throughout the park, they have a bunch of memorials of all the infintries that faught in the siege..mainly the states of Illinois and Indiana. 16 miles of land were the fighting took place. All of the Union soldiers are barried inside the park..and of course the Conderates, outside the park. Interesting. It was so much fun!