high winds v. the patio umbrella

On Monday afternoon, Brandon took the boys into the backyard to swim! I stayed inside for a little quiet time. The boys swam for most of the afternoon and then they moved to the deck to sit and eat popsicles! Before too long they were coming back into the house, changing out of their swimming trunks and playing video games or watching cartoons. Well, I never stepped foot outside that afternoon leaving everything to Brandon. The first time I ventured back onto the back deck was Tuesday morning. As I opened the door I was not-so-excited to find our patio set toppled over into the yard, the patio umbrella detached from it's base and all the ceramic tiles that make up the table top popped out of the table and shattered into a bunch of ceramic pieces across the yard. Yikes! I was shocked, upset and a little freaked out! Turns out that when the boys were eating popsicles they had put up the patio umbrella to sit in the shade while they ate. Unfortunately, NO ONE remembered to put down the umbrella (Brandon...) and overnight Monday night we had a storm. The high winds in the storm caught the umbrella and carried it into the yard along with the table and one patio chair, which is now trapped under the table! Thankfully, the table isn't broken and we're pretty sure the umbrella is OK but we will have to replace all of the tiles that cover the table top. Luckily those come pretty cheap. The most frustrating part of this whole ordeal, though, is that it was entirely our fault! Ugh! If only SOMEONE (Brandon...) had put down the umbrella...Ha!! (Just kidding...sorta...)