Irma

After having to deal with hurricanes Matthew and Hermine last year, I was hoping that we would get a reprieve this year.  But, that was not to be.  Hurricane Irma made landfall on the gulf coast of Florida in early September, and even though that is quite far away, it was so big that we felt the effects here in our hometown.  The worst part of the storm came through on Sunday night / Monday morning.  I sat out on the carport for a good part Monday watching the wind and rain.  I actually saw one of the pine trees across the road fall to the ground, and I was reminded of how happy I was that Brian had cut down the trees in our front yard last year.  We actually had numerous trees down in our neighborhood- 5 of them knocking out power lines.  There were wide-spread power outages in our county, so it took awhile to get everything back to normal.  Our house was without power from Sunday night until Wednesday afternoon.  I guess you never really appreciate a thing like electricity until it's gone.  We spent three days living in darkness, taking cold showers, and charging our phones at McDonalds.  My parents, grandparents, sisters, cousins, and aunts/uncles also lost power.  Some of them had generators, so we were able to move last year's corn to their freezers.  The rest of the items in our freezer ended up having to be tossed.

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The damage from the storm was so bad, that school was canceled for the entire week.  The kids got to stay home and get a feel for what life was like in the olden days (before electricity).  It was probably good for them to be reminded of all of the things they could do without electricity.  Of course, we did spend a bit of time cleaning our yard and helping some of the neighbors with their yards, but we also made time for things like playing basketball and soccer outside. We played a lot of board games and had more rounds of chess than I can ever remember playing at one time.  Once the electricity was restored, we cleaned up our house (which had begun to look like a campsite), and tried to get back into our normal routine.  We were quite sad to learn that the pier at Amelia-by-the-Sea had been knocked down again.  It was knocked down by Matthew last year, and they rebuilt it.  I doubt that they will do so again.  I don't know what this means for our beach vacation next summer.  I guess we will have to wait and see.

Getting Through the Dog Days

We are in the dog days of summer and are trying our hardest to squeeze the last amount of fun out of the hot weather.  The first thing on the list was to visit Splash Island Water Park one last time.  When we visited earlier in the summer, we weren't able to ride any of the slides because it was too crowded.  We decided to give it a try again over the Labor Day weekend.  We arrived right as the water park opened, and were surprised by how light the crowd was.  We were able to ride all of the slides multiple times.  The kids' favorite was the Wahee Cyclone (the toilet bowl ride).  We rode it four times in a row with no waiting.

In August, Olivia and I attended an outdoor screening of the movie "Moana" in City Park.  I love when our town sponsors movies in the park, and I hope that they do more of these in the fall.

The kids have been playing outdoors in the evenings (when it's not too hot).  They have re-discovered their love of sidewalk chalk.

I am working on extended day (no planning period) this semester, and have been super busy.  There came a point in August when I was in dire need of  a day at the beach.  I asked Brian and the kids if they wanted to go and NO ONE wanted to.  I couldn't believe it.  The beach?  No takers?  Seriously?  Fortunately, I have two friends who are always at the beach.  I called and sure enough, they were already planning to be there on the day that I wanted to go.  

Brian has also been making the most of the warm weather.  He and his friends held their annual "guys weekend".  They rented a boat, played golf, watched football, and all of the other things that they like to do.  

Even though these few weeks have been nice, I am definitely looking forward to the fall and cooler weather.

Zoo Atlanta

We made a detour to Zoo Atlanta on our way to my sister's house last weekend.  Owen's favorite animal in the world is the giant panda, and Zoo Atlanta is one of four zoos in the country that has those.  Prior to our trip, we checked out the Zoo Atlanta DVD from our public library, and this entitled us to free admission.

As anticipated, the giant pandas were the highlight for Owen.  This cub was only a year old and was so cute!

Zoo Atlanta is small, but has a good variety of animals.

 There were several interactive exhibits that the kids really liked.

For some reason we always spend a lot of time in the reptile house, and it was no different on this day.

There were many babies at the zoo, but the baby gorilla was my favorite.  He was just precious.  He would hang on around his mother's legs as she tried to walk.  This reminded me of how my own kids acted when they were younger.  Later the baby climbed on his mother's back and she carried him around.  We arrived at the gorilla habitat at feeding time, so all of the gorillas were up front by the viewing window.  I counted ten at once. I did not realize that Zoo Atlanta had that many gorillas.


There was also a baby orangutan who came over and tugged on his mother so that she would come up on the deck and snuggle with him.  He also stole my heart...

...as did the red panda- such a cutie.  

 We haven't been to this zoo since Owen was six months old, but I remembered that there was a pretty decent playground on the way out. I told the kids that we would stop at the playground before leaving, but when we got there we learned that the kids were too big for the equipment. However, they had a new ropes course in the same area, and they were tall enough to do that.  So I paid the extra fee for them to do this activity, and I did not mind doing so at all since we had gotten into the zoo for free.

 Olivia is so weird about ropes courses.  I mean, rock climbing- fine, zip-lining- no problem, but get her on a ropes course and she gets real uneasy.  I told her that if she went on this ropes course, she couldn't freak out because no one would be up there with her.  She stuck to the "sturdier" obstacles, went right to the zip-line, zipped down it once, and then came down off the ropes.  She did it by herself, though, so this is progress.

 Owen, on the other hand, loves a ropes course.  He was darting around all over the place.  He would have stayed on it for hours if I would have let him.

 After finishing up at the ropes course, we returned stopped to get some ice cream and then headed to the car.  We sure did enjoy our visit to the zoo.

Solar Eclipse

 We were excited to view a partial (92%) solar eclipse in mid-August.  After weeks of hype, the big day arrived.  Our school system had an early release day so that kids could go home and experience the eclipse with their families.  When the hour came, we went outside with our eclipse glasses and watched as the moon passed between the Earth and the sun.  It had been cloudy all day, but it cleared out enough that we could see the action. We are not suppose to have another eclipse in our part of the country for many years, so I'm glad we were able to see this one.

Nephew News

I have seriously got the sweetest, cutest, smartest, and most precious nephews in the world.  And, I am happy to say that Brian and I have a new sweet, precious, smart nephew to brag about.  In early August, Brian's brother and his wife gave birth to Gavin Matthew.   We are hoping that we'll get to meet him when we travel to Delaware early next year.  I know that everyone is over the moon for him (especially his sister).













In other nephew news, the kids and I went to Canton this past weekend to see John Daniel get baptized.  It has been a month since we've seen James and John Daniel, and they have both grown so much.  James is saying all kind of words, and John Daniel is rolling around.

I'll gladly brag on my nephews any day of the week, but I don't want to leave out the fact that I also have four precious nieces, and I'm about to have a fifth!  God has truly blessed our family.

 

Ovo

The kids, Granny Mel, and I saw Ovo by Cirque du Soleil this weekend, and we loved it.  The costumes, music, set, and performances were all amazing.  The performers were dressed to resemble insects, and the acts were also insect-themed. We were blown away by the talent that we saw.  I'm pretty sure there will be additional Cirque performances in our future.   

The School Year Begins

The kids are back in school, and they both had a great first day.  Olivia began fifth grade, and this will be her last year in elementary.  Her big news for the day was that the math teacher let the class choose their own seats, and so she ended up in a group with three of her buddies.  I know at least one of these buddies to be as chatty as Olivia, so this seating arrangement may be short-lived.  

Owen began fourth grade, and he has the same teachers that Olivia had last year.  This is great because we already have a idea about the amount and type of work that will be assigned.  He is excited that most of his buddies are in his class again this year.  I'm so glad that the first day back was a success.