We have kept busy since Irma left us and the hot weather is back, so we are back inside ;-) And back on the beach!!
Hurricane bbq, cooking what could be saved from the freezer when the power left us
A few days after Irma we went to one of Alex's aunts to visit and help out a little with cleaning up after the hurricane.
We are chilling inside while Alex, Marlee and Noah are moving branches outside :-)
And then.. mormor and morfar arrived. The boys were thrilled! The plane was really late and I ended up picking them up at 3am in Orlando, but it was all good. I am a night owl, I just don't like the morning after... Good mormor and morfar like morning and can take the boys and make them breakfast. Lol!
Good night story time with mormor!
Gabriel got a beanie made by Aunt Linn and he doesn't care that it is HOT outside :-D Note the ant lions on on the hat!
- Morfar, do you wanna play with cars!?
We still have to do school work, even if mormor and morfar are here. Farmor, do you see that Marlee is using the fraction pies you gave him?
My little rapper is doing cursive here
On the way to take a morning swim
Coming back from the beach :-)
Relaxing afternoon
Making a magnifying glass with water at the CC coop
Pizza lunch at the coop
In the nursery
Last Friday mormor turned 70 so it was breakfast in bed and then off to our Friday coop.
Happy birthday mormor!!!
Nice dinner out to celebrate mormor
Mormor and morfar with the four boys
And then it was Rafael's turn! He turned ONE September 23!!! Happy birthday sweet boy!!!
Rafael was not too interested in opening the presents so it was good that he has three older brothers to help!
Celebrating the birthday at the beach, which is black since the hurricane
Yesterday we dropped off mormor and morfar in Port Canaveral for a cruise they are taking. The cruise ship was enormous!!! Gabriel was really sad that he couldn't go, too.
Today it has mostly been school work and then farmor and farfar got here by dinner time! We are spoiled with family right now. :-)
So last week we realized that Irma would make its way through Florida, and possibly do it rather roughly. Alex had an important trip to Utah planned and did not feel like leaving at all. He planed to be back Saturday night. Irma was supposed to pass us early Monday morning. We were supposed to drive to our getaway, Aunt Jackie's house together when he got back. However, the traffic was starting to get really bad on the roads and we could not be completely sure that Alex would get back in time so me and the kids decided to leave Friday and Alex would do his best to come Saturday. By the time we left, Irma had already started to head further west and was not going towards the East coast and Ormond Beach anymore.
The Irma forecast, going through the middle of Florida and not the east coast,,,
So, Alex was supposed to leave Utah on Saturday, however, his flight was cancelled due to Orlando airport closing because of Irma. Bad news! He finally managed to get a flight very late Friday so he would arrive to Orlando Saturday morning. He went by our house quickly to repack and then arrived to Aunt Jackie around dinner time on Saturday. We were finally all together again!
"Be nice Irma we're in here 6 people 4 pets"
Sunday - getting some fresh air before the storm...
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Lost power... and played Scrabble :-)
Monday morning - a poor baby squirrel is hiding in a shoe
Lego building in the dark
Looking over the damage Irma made around Aunt Jackie's house...
Her 30 year old Pecan tree unfortunately did not make it through the storm...
A large oak branch fell over the power line and needs to be taken off in order to get the power back
We left Monday afternoon to go back home - 2 adults, 4 kids, 1 chicken
and 1 dog (we borrowed Aunt Cindy's and Uncle Danny's dog Toby who is a
great calm and friendly dog!).
On the way home we passed a lot of flooded houses
We did not make it far before we got a flat tire on the pickup... which embarrassingly did not have a spare tire... We ended up having to tow it back to Aunt Jackie and leave it there. So we repacked and managed to get most of our belongings in the Toyota in addition to people and animals :-)
Well back in Ormond me and Marlee took a walk down to the beach to watch the waves. There were lots of surfers down there as well as some people we know so Marlee went down to say hi and take a quick dip while I waited with Toby and Rafael by the parking lot.
I guess I should add that out house did really good and only minor damage to roof and chimney. Water but no power. Luckily we could get a cable from our neighbor's generator the day after we got home and we could start to see what food we could save.
Marlee with his friend
Great big waves!
Walking Toby
This guy is so charming!!
Trying to stay cool with no AC
With no AC the humidity kicks in and makes paper "bubbly". My school corner is "falling down". Lol!
Good morning!
During the day today we drove over to Aunt Peggy in Deland to see her and see if we could help out a little. Marlee and Noah helped Alex in the yard and I stayed inside with Gabriel and Rafael in the AC :-)
Today we barbecued so much food and had some friends over to help us eat. We will probably do it tomorrow again. And... we got power back right before the kids went to bed!!!!!! Yey!!! Now I so ready to go to bed and sleep in the cold AC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rafael is so eager to walk and he has already walked a few steps several times. It has been hard to get in video but we got some of these sweet little steps recorded. He still does not walk around but takes a few steps every here and there :-)
So Rafael is not the only excitement lately. The other day we went to the beach with some friends and in the middle of the swimming and the fun a shark decides to join us. Or rather, one of my friends saw it about 10feet from her so we all got all the kids out of the water. The surfers, however, did not care much. We did not swim more that they, except in the shallow water by the shore... But we came back the next day for a great day at the beach!
Staying by the shore watching the shark chasing fish...
It is exhausting to watch sharks...
So Saturday we had a great day at the beach and Marlee, Noah and Alex got to surf. I even tried but did not do that great..
Marlee
Noah made it!!!
Our Classical Conversation coop started last week so we have started for real at home. The home school "corner" is ready for the new year!
Did a fun math game with Marlee on the calculator where you were supposed to add to numbers and end up with exactly 100
As most of you probably know Hurricane Irma is n the way towards Florida and we are getting ready to evacuate. We have also enjoyed the big waves at the beach. Last night when we went down there were a lot of surfer, more than I have ever seen there. Today there were none, because the waves were simply too big.
