Hurricane Party

August 26-28
Wavy 10 said Hurricane Irene was headed our way!  We, as well as the rest of the East Coast, stocked up on the important things in case of power outage:

1. H2O

2. D Batteries

3. Milk

4. Bread

5. Ice

6. Beer

7. Something to mix with vodka

8. Chocolate

9. Candy

10. Glow sticks

11. Propane

12. Candles

You know the bare necessities.  Right?  Isn't that about what your hurricane kit looked like??  We were ready.  Sullivan had 9 flashlights strategically placed including one that attached to your head.  The weather started looking wet and windy Friday.  Ann and the kids came over for dinner but decided to sleep at home Friday night because the brunt was not to come through until Saturday.  Christina came out Friday and spent the night in case of flooding in Norfolk or tunnel closures.  After a good night sleep we woke to a messy Saturday.  Ann and kids came over for breakfast and not long after we finished cleaning up and getting ready to cook for the evening, we lost power.  I think it was about 11:15 am.  Earlier than we expected.  Bets were made in advance:

Mike - we would not lose power

Me - We would lose it for 1-2 days

Ann - power our for 3-5 days

And the HURRICANE PARTY began!!!

The kids got bored at times, but we didn't.  We ended up having all the right ingredients for 2 pitchers of Hurricanes!  Yum!  We played Doggy Doo with the kids and some old time college drinking games with the adults.  Ok, well there was only 4 of us and 1 is pregnant.  She was our dealer.  What a good sport she was!  We sure made the best of it!  Cooked spaghetti, spinach dip, hamburgers, chicken wings, etc...  It was like a large camping slumber party in my house!  It was awesome!  We were thankful when our power came on around 10pm Sunday night but the end of the party is never fun.  However...AC is always a good thing and I won the bet.

We did not have much damage at all.  A few crepe myrtle limbs down and 1 piece of vinyl siding lose but that was the extent of it.  We are grateful for that as well as for the friends we have to huddle together during the storm and weather it together.  We actually had fun!    Sorry, Irene, you may have rained on our house but you did not rain on our parade.

 Doggy Doo - every kid needs this game!

 Mason loves Bella

 No power means no makeup. 

 Outside during the storm - not too bad.

 AFTER

Neighborhood pool??
Why yes, we DID experience a hurrican and earthquake in the same week!  Crazy world we live in.