Putting a damper on things

Cameron totally shocked me this year by taking us on vacation to Mexico with some of his co-workers. We spent at least three months planning, buying swim gear and planning and freezing meals. Two days before we were planning on leaving Cameron went out to lock the garage door at night and just happened to look down the stairwell and notice the cardboard at the bottom was wet and wondered what the kids had spilled down there. He went down to investigate and upon stepping on the cardboard discovered the "spill" was in fact several inches of water. About this time it's shortly after 11 pm and we're both exhausted, but when he mentioned water in the basement I was awake. I ran through the house and right at the edge of the carpet there was water. In fact the entire basement floor looks like a melted skating rink and was just as slippery.

I grabbed some towels and quickly realized that we had a much bigger problem on our hands than we first thought. Cameron quickly assessed there were no broken pipes or hoses left on outside or in the house and so he started to vacuum up the water over near the floor drain at the bottom of the basement stairs (thankfully in the garage and not outside). That was going well until we realized water was gushing up through that drain and we were getting no where. He plugged the hole as best he could and we started in on the long haul. Our awesome friend Mike Carter happened to be awake at that crazy hour and brought his shop-vac over to help. He left around 1:30 and Cameron stayed up till about three moving things around and trying to make sure we were safe for at least the time being. I got up at 5 to make sure there wasn't any more water.

The next morning I wearily called my mom to see if she could come and help. I still had all the packing left to do and Cameron was too busy trying to install a sump-pump in the floor drain. They were awesome and helped remove the carpet and set it out to dry on the the back drive-way. They also helped pack up all the cardboard that Cameron had been saving and was now a soggy mess and throw it away. They couldn't stay all day, but it was a lifesaver having them for a few hours so I could pull myself together.

Am I grateful that my basement flooded two days before my vacation. Yes. If it had happened while we were gone we would have had some major troubles to deal with when we got home. The ground levels are really high this year do to all the flooding along the river and a farmer had watered behind us and let it back up. The water basically had no where to go so it came up, and through our basement floor. We estimated it to have come up at least 7 feet since the spring of '09. Our awesome ward found out the neighbor and us had flooded and we had people coming from everywhere making sure we were okay. The Duffin's even took my kids so I could get some more stuff done. I am so grateful that I am watched over daily and that my needs are always met even in the most unexpected ways. Cameron's surprise.

Jack hammering a hole around the drain to insert the pump.

Hauling up the rock in the drain.

Mr. Awesomeness himself with all of his gadgets to make the basement safe. Thanks to Nyle who came and checked on the pump every morning and night while we were away and Brother Anderson for the sweet deal on the pump.