Hurricane Irene was quite the experience for us. We count our blessings it was only a category 1 and that all went well. The night before it landed police were driving up and down our street with their loud speakers announcing the mandatory evacuation by six in the morning. It felt like one of those end of the world movies. We were pretty nervous. A wonderful new couple in our ward, Garth and Jenny Brooks offered to let us stay in their home for the night, and more if needed. They are more inland and didn't have to evacuate. We told them we would go to a hotel, but when I called to book a hotel more inland there was not one room available anywhere. So we ended up staying with them. We were a lot more lucky than most in our ward. Some people had power out for days, one mans boat that he lives on was destroyed, a lot of people had severe damage to homes. The Brooks home we stayed in only lost power for about one hour. We were blessed.
At about 2:00am we were still in our home sleeping. Ryan and I both woke up because the wind was so terrible. We hurried and packed up all of our stuff ready to head to our friends home and evacuate. But when we got on the news we realized it was still just a really bad storm and nothing was going to hit for a while. We went back to sleep laughing at how nervous we were.
This is Chesapeake Bay, at the pier right by our home. The waves were crashing over the pier at some points. The waves were brutal. But it was pretty funny to see so many cars in the parking lot. We stayed watching the bay until about 11:00am. When the rains started getting too bad we decided to head to our friends' home. Streets were starting to flood, and limbs were starting to cover the roads.
You can't see it in the picture but there was a sail boat right off to the side of Ryan. We were thinking how dumb someone must have been to just leave their boat anchored hoping it would survive a hurricane. We didn't think anything more of the boat that we literally saw plunging on it's side into the ocean. Later that night we saw on the news a couple being rescued from that boat. They had gotten caught in the storm and were nervous to sail anymore. I still feel bad we hadn't helped but how were we supposed to know there was a couple on the boat? I can't imagine how terrified they were.
We were pretty nervous to head home after the hurricane but knew it had to be done. We first headed to the pier to check out the bay. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The only thing out of the ordinary was how many people were at the beach on a Sunday morning.
Have I ever menioned that anytime my kids ar near water they can't help but get wet. Malakai was fully dressed and decided to just hop into the water. Such is life living at the beach, pretty rough. :)
We rested on the balcony of the Oceanview Pier. What a gorgeous view. And these tables are amazing! The benches, table, and canopy all are on one rocker. The whole thing swings back and forth. It was wonderful.
Family shadows!
Our Home after the hurricane...
Okay so we were a little worried when we pulled up to the house. I think if we weren't renting I would have cried. I think overall the house was in better shape than we thought. The garage flooded up to about three feet; but we had put everything in the house so nothing was ruined. You could see the water mark up to our front door. Only one room of electricity worked in the basement, so the electrician had to come in and re-wire all of that. But everything else was in great shape. The front fence snapped in the middle from the wind but that was the only other major damage. Once again grateful for the Lord' protection and that all turned out okay. 
