Last night was our first major bona fide monsoon storm since moving to Phoenix. Check out this link for some incredible time lapse photography of the giant storm! We’ve heard a lot about these monster dust storms, but never experienced one up close. We didn’t really get to see much of it, since it occurred in the dark of last night, but we did peek outside at the lightning and the trees and dust swirling wildly.

This past Sunday was a milder introduction to monsoon season here in the valley. On our way to church we couldn’t see any mountains–not the Estrellas and not even the White Tanks! Usually  mountains are the silent backdrop on the horizon in any direction we look.

Sunday afternoon Stephen spotted a dust storm in the Estrella mountains (a couple miles south of our house), and we hopped in the car to go take a look. Maybe that sounds a little crazy, but we wanted to see the storm up close and personal. It really wasn’t like I had expected. Windy, yes, but easy to drive through and see the surroundings in the foreground.

It should be an interesting season if these storms are any indication of what’s to come.