North Carolina

Our Home after Hurricane Irene

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.

Hurricane Irene 2011

 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...

Going Crabbing!!!

Ryan took the kids crabbing while I had a little me time. They had so much fun learning this new skill. Ryan bought a net, rope, chicken, and a good old stick. Raiyah said she wanted to help  so she held out the net for the crab to be dumped into it. She was very brave until the crab actually was about to get in. She threw the net down, and ran as fast as she could telling Malakai to run too because there was a crab. Ryan was proud of his brave little princess. :) Once the crabs were dead both kids loved holding them.

 Male Blue Crabs have the "Washington Monument" on them.

 Four crabs were caught but two had to be let free so they could grow more. This was Ryan's first  trip so I won't despair. I know my brave hunter can gather more food next time.

 For all those that have not witnessed the 180 of a four year old and their attitude, here you go. One minute bright smiles, the next furrowed brow, and frown. What a great rollercoaster to hitch a ride on.

 One of our great crabbing men showing off the stick they used.

Ryan watched a video on Youtube telling him how to cook a crab. I was not about to help in this endeavor. I will cook anything, but I couldn't even gut the frog in high school biology. He did great yanking the shell off the suffering live crab. (youtube says they cannot feel you taking their shell off. How do they know if a crab can feel might I ask?)

Busch Gardens, Willimasburg Virginia

 Busch Gardens was a lot of fun for the kids. We weren't going to go since we wouldn't be able to ride any rides, just the kids would be able to go and we would be paying a lot of money. But we found out that military gets in for free once a year. We took advantage of Ryan's veteran status and visited the park. I won't be taking any kids to a theme park again until they can ride all the rides but this was a great opportunity.
The kids rode every ride that they could except one (ladybugs were closed) in the entire theme park. I think that is pretty impressive.

Right after we got our tickets and walked through the gate they announced that all the rides were temporarilly shut down due to the earthquake that just happened. We laughed because when we got out of our vehicle in the parking lot all the cars were swaying, I thought for sure our van was going to roll away. Ryan suggested maybe it was an earthquake and I said maybe the rides were just really powerful here. :) Yes, we had just experienced our first earthquake. 

Since the rides were closed for an hour we were told to take the kids in to see the 3D Pirate show, that they would love it. Raiyah did love it. She laughed hyseterically when the bees came flying at us, the pirate spit on us, and the cannon shot us. Malakai on the other hand was terrified and screaming at the top of his lungs. Unitl we took off his glasses he really didn't understand it was pretend. It was a little intense. Note to self: Don't trust the ticket lady when she says the two year old will be just fine in the priate movie. 

 As with anywhere we go, Malakai's favorite thing was riding the train.

 The bumper cars were very funny. When all the other kids started running into Malakai he stopped trying to drive and just started pointing to all of them telling them to "Stop!" He was not happy that they were hitting his car.

 Once Raiyah got the hang of it she loved being a big girl, driving her own car.

 We found out they do a parent swap. We only rode one ride, the Lachnese? Monster, but it was fun. While I rode Ryan waited in the exit, as soon as I was done he jumped in my seat. I think it's a great idea for parents with young kids at the park.

Kayaking Chesapeake Bay

Our bishop has several kayaks, and has a dock in his backyard. He was great to let us borrow his stuff to have a wonderful family excursion through the bay. Everyone loved the ride, and the scenery. Wish we knew if we would be staying, we want to buy kayaks for sure but hard to know what we will be doing next.