Hurricane Ian Birthday boy Raffi!!

The past 2-3 weeks have been affected by the expected hurricane Ian as we first prepared for it, then went through it and then cleaned up after it. Thankfully we had no severe damages on the house just a lot of debris to clean up after. Our ping pong table was totally destroyed from even though it has made it through many storms before. 

Pictures of stormed can never give the real picture. 

Notice the rainfall

❤️❤️


While we were listening to the wind outside and still having electricity we canned the last olives. 


Ian passed and we left the house to look around the island. The bridge was blocked for inspection but opened the next day. Ormond beach was not as bad as Port Orange for example where many many houses flooded and people now live in hotels etc. 


Notice the street light that is hanging. 


The blocked bridge 


David got sick the same night Ian made its appearance here. Alex got it a couple of days later. 




Finally got a chance to use my candles as we did not have electricity back yet. 


This is our very appreciated friend during hurricanes (the generator). When we lost power through our first hurricane/storm here we had a very nice neighbor who let us hook up to his generator. This time it was our chance to help our neighbors by offering them to connect to ours :-) It is very interesting how much more neighbors talk to each other’s during and after hurricanes to make sure they are all okay. We have wonderful neighbors!! 

Still not feeling good…


Look how sweet he is holding David’s food :-)


No stove - no problem, when you have Marlee. 


Not sure why he is wearing a helmet, but maybe he just wants to be ready for the bike…


❤️❤️


Still sick :-(


After a week at home to recover, I got sick a little, too, we all went out to check on our land in de Leon springs. Except for the lake water being a little higher than normal you could actually not even see any signs of the storm!

The last kid birthday of the year - GABRIEL!!! Turning 8 already! 😩 He is the only morning person in this family and wanted breakfast in bed at 6:30. Since we had a few of us not feeling great and needed our sleep we agreed on 8:30. Of course he was up early, got dressed, but stayed in his room :-)


Noah made a little quiz/treasure hunt for Gabriel for his birthday present so he had to go look for clues :-)


All gifts were open and it was time for breakfast. He had requested donut and things to decorate it with 😂


Since we were not all feeling well we could not go ice skating which was what Gabriel wanted to do for his birthday so we did the best we could when staying home. Ice skating we have saved for another day, as soon as we are all well and have a day at home together.  


Hurricanes means lots of yard debris. The boys quickly made jumps with things the neighbors throw away. Despite sicknesses they were out every day to use it. Since there is so much trash and debris after hurricanes it took a long time for the county to come pick it up so the boys could enjoy it for a long time. Actually they did not even take it all when they came so we still have enough for fun ramps :-)














Apparently it was FEMA who handles the cleaning up of yard debris…


When he wants to do school work, too 😄❤️


Some of our tadpoles survived the storm and look at this one that looks almost like a frog now, but with a little tail. Sometimes I think I am more excited about these little creatures than the kids 😂

Tomorrow we have coop again for the first time since the storm. Time to wake up early again!