Hurrican Irene

At the end of August the East Coast was hit by Hurricane Irene. For many this sucked. John and his friends had to be evacuated from the Outer Banks for the 2nd year in a row. (I luckily had my long weekend there before the bad weather). Others got flooded, damaged, ect. And while I'm sad for them, my weekend was awesome!

A very sad John came home Thursday night and I tried to be sad for him, but I was mostly just glad he was safe from harm. We did a lot of nothing after work Friday, but Saturday morning we headed to his parents' house before the weather got bad.

The whole family came together and we ate a boatload of crabs. Love crabs! The power did go off for a bit while we were eating, but it came back within an hour. Then, as it continued to pour down rain and blow tree branches all over the yard, we just had good family time. Caroline proved herself adorable. John and I stayed up late with his sister and her boyfriend playing Cranium and cards, part of the time by flashlight. The weather was crazy, but really nothing more than a 14 hour thunderstorm. Sure we lost power on and off, but we had an amazing time being trapped indoors.

The next day was beautiful. I started the day with a 2 year old yelling "Lissa! Apple Jack!" (her favorite My Little Pony) which was followed promptly by coffee. Then we wandered around to see what kind of damage there was. There were leaves/branches everywhere...a very green yard. A few bigger trees feel behind Uncle Glen's house, and some minor trees were across the road. Luckily everyone has tractors so the road was quickly cleared. Some leaf raking happened later in the day.


John and I decided to go fishing at the pond behind his grandparents' house. Caroline ended up there with us. She was pretty excited. Until the first fish John caught flapped around wildly when she tried to pet it. Scared the life out of her! She ran away screaming. I'm yelling at John (who had wandered to get more worms) because I think the fish actually jumped out of the bucket and was flapping on the ground (it was safe in the bucket). It was a mess. Caroline was terrified of fish from then on and hide behind me every time we caught one. Of course, she was thrilled when Mom came home with a kiddie fishing pool...which she then pretend fished with in her kiddie pool all night long.

And somewhere in there Caroline bashed her face in by jumping off a pile of couch cushions. I'm pretty sure John and I will be allowed to babysit again, but seriously, I would be worried if I came home and my kid was afraid of fish and had a gash on her forehead. I think Shannan forgave us.

So, I'm pretty sure I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I love John's family, they're happy I'm back in the picture, and there's nothing more amazing watching John with Caroline. Well, except maybe for crabs. They're really good. There was an insane amount of love in that house that weekend and I felt amazing for days afterwards. Who knew a hurricane could be some calming and feel so great.

Apple picking - Hartland Orchard

Today John and I went apple picking on a complete whim. It was a beautiful day to be outside and it was something different. We found 2 places near one another, and thank goodness we did because the first place was closed when we got there. So we drove 10 minutes down the road to orchard #2. So glad it worked out this way!

This orchard had every kind of apple you could possibly want. And the price was excellent. Free admission and I paid $10 for a TON of apples. We just wandered around, filling our bag with all different kinds of apples, taste-tested a few, and genuinely enjoyed just being outside together. It was kind of ridiculously cheesy. Especially talking about bringing our kids there someday...if we're living in Virginia still.

Also, these same people have pumpkins in October, Christmas trees in December, and peaches/cherries/and more throughout the year. So I'm sure we'll be back.

Birdsboro, PA Rock Climbing

Back in August we drove up to Pennsylvania to meet 2 of John's friends for some rock climbing. I was designated trip planner, chef, and photographer.

John and I made drove up to the campsite at French Creek State Park and set up our tent. Kevin and Lorna for a bit behind us so we decided to meet at the rocks, at an old quarry about 10-15 minutes away. We had a bit of trouble finding the path because we were going off weird directions, but we made it! We wandered down the road a ways and found a real quarry - probably not the place you should rock climb.

It started to drizzle while we were waiting on Kevin and Lorna, but it stopped after a few minutes. Kevin, Lorna, and John climbed 2 really easy climbs so that Lorna could have some good practice at lead climbing. Then we hiked to a different area to try some harder stuff.

And then there was thunder. And the sky started to darken. And it was clear it was going to start pouring. But someone had to finish a climb.

And really, it was a good hike back to the car so at some point we realized we were going to get wet no matter what. So John climbed until the rain started. And when it did, we were instantly wet. We hiked back up some rock stairs to the main path, and took the long wet trudge to the cars. Everyone was soaked to the bone. So much rain!

When we got back to the campsite we somehow managed to get a fire going. We burned one of John's old computer science books, 10 years outdated, with little twigs. That burned enough to dry out some bigger logs. I was quite proud of that fire.

Also, John did an anti-rain dance while wearing the world's cheapest poncho. This is why I love him.

We manged to have enough of a break in the rain to eat, but soon we all ended up in the tents. It kept raining so there was no climbing, hiking, or canoeing (the park had nice lakes) the next day, as we had wanted.

But we're going back next weekend to try again!