You know what I've said about the best laid plans, and life not being fair...case and point this weekend. My parents, brother and his family and my family were going to rondez-vous for a weekend together and fireworks on the lake. We have been together for the fireworks for the last eight years, ever since my parents bought the house. This year the fireworks were scheduled for the Saturday before the 4th.
My husband, son and I loaded up the car after work and hit the road at 6, at about 6:20 our son threw up in the back seat. Feeling ever so ill-prepared I couldn't find the paper towels or wipes. I did my best to clean him up and fortunately there wasn't too much. Starting back up we blasted the AC and he was okay for the rest of the trip. We stopped at Chick-fil-a and got the DVD player out. My husband, Ted did not want to use it for the short, 1.5 hour trip but I said "Why not? It keeps everyone happy?" Hudson proceeded to watch Ratatouille for the third time in four days.
We arrive at the lake at about 8:30, my brother and his family were there, so we let Hudson visit and play, and within half an hour, my parents also arrived. Feeling lazy, and not wanting to pull Hudson from his beloved Pop Pop and Grandma Sue, he played on well past his normal 7:30 bedtime. At about 9:40 I pulled myself up and started the bed routine, he was off in dreamland by 10.
I went back upstairs, and a few minutes later my dad said, "Can I have your keys, there's a big storm coming and we want to move cars into the garage?" Right after that I checked my phone and it said a 30% chance of a storm. I thought they were being overly cautious and just then I heard the trees rustling, snapping and the wind gusts. We looked outside and it was scary, just then the power went out. It was pitch black but we felt our way to the candles and flashlights, I was helping my mom get the lighting going, while Ted went to attend to a screaming Hudson. I couldn't help but have flashbacks from the Hurricane which was the most scary afterwards when everyone said, "I'm so glad everyone is safe." After we had lighting I wanted to check on my Dad and brother, hoping they were not outside still. They were standing in the open garage watching the trees move and trying to locate the snaps. My brother bought a new car last week, so after a few minutes he unhitched his boat to at least move his car to safety! The winds were about 60 MPH and lasted about 30 minutes. It was more scary than the hurricane, I don't know if that's because we weren't expecting it, it was dark or since the hurricane experience I'm more scared of wind.
We kept Hudson distracted with making shadows on the wall and eventually got him to sleep. We were not too hot since the storm brought the humidity down, and we are now sleeping in the basement which is about 20 degrees cooler than the second floor!
The next morning Hudson went upstairs and announced "I'm awake" at 6:30. Why oh why was he awake that early when he usually gets at least 10 hours of sleep a night? Oh well we must carry on, but wait, no power means no coffee!!!! EEKKK this is not going to be pretty!! When Hudson wakes up well before warranted, coffee is my salvation. Dad was already on it, boiling water on the grill to pour manually through the coffee pot. At least the caffeine headache will be kept at bay for now!
Ted left at about 8:30 to help his parents in Fredericksburg for the day. At about 8:45 I realized I didn't get the car seat out of the car. I called Ted and he was willing to come back and meet me halfway so I could get the seat. I got to ride in Mike's new car, and on the outing we picked up ice and water so at least our food would be kept cool and we would stay hydrated on this 100+ degree day.
By about 9:30 I was ready to get Hudson out of the house and doing something--cabin fever sets in early for a tired three year old! Mom wanted to go a craft fair at a local church, and that sounded great to me. Hudson was quite a trooper through the outing, it was a welcome distraction and I even got some great deals! By 11:30 we were hot, and done! We went to the grocery store for some cold cuts, and hand sanitizer (good to have when you can't use the water!).
We were all anxious to hear if we had power at home, and were worried about our food and homes. Fortunately I was able to text with my neighbor who did took a walk around the house she said everything looked fine. At 11 AM, we learned that power was back on at home! At about this time, my brother and his family packed up to go home and check on their own house. At least we had a few hours to be together this weekend.
After a restorative lunch at home mom had the brilliant idea for she and dad to take Hudson and I back to our house, and they could rest and relax in our air conditioning and possibly spend the night. I said that sounded great to me! It's not like we were relaxing at the lake anyway. We packed up and were out by about 2:30.
A note about well water toilets. Here's some fun facts I did not know; when you have well water, such as at the lake, you need electricity to pump the sewage out so try to avoid flushing. Also the worse toilet to flush is in the basement because it will back up and overflow into the basement floor! This factor contributed to us wanting to leave because who wants to be smelling that, especially in 100 degrees?! Yuck!
We arrived at our house around 4 and Ted got home a little after 5. The cool was so welcomed that Dad promptly napped on the couch even with Hudson playing nearby. Mom and I organized the food and enjoyed some late afternoon coffee. Another element to the weekend was my dad had stopped at Omaha Steaks on Friday and picked up some yummy/expensive food that was now at risk of spoiling. I fired up the grill and did my best to not ruin everything even though I had never cooked steaks and could not google it since our internet and my cell phone were not working.
We gobbled it up and put Hudson to bed at about 8:30, still later that normal but at least he'd get more sleep than last night. At about 9 a loud thunderstorm started and Hudson screamed, I brought him downstairs only to hear hail over our heads, he was up for another hour while we watched 21 Jump Street, a foul-mouthed comedy. Oh well, we all laughed and we haven't heard any of the words repeated since.
Bed never felt so good, and hopefully Sunday will bring some relaxation, well aside from cleaning the grill that was left open to cool and now was rained and hailed on.
My husband, son and I loaded up the car after work and hit the road at 6, at about 6:20 our son threw up in the back seat. Feeling ever so ill-prepared I couldn't find the paper towels or wipes. I did my best to clean him up and fortunately there wasn't too much. Starting back up we blasted the AC and he was okay for the rest of the trip. We stopped at Chick-fil-a and got the DVD player out. My husband, Ted did not want to use it for the short, 1.5 hour trip but I said "Why not? It keeps everyone happy?" Hudson proceeded to watch Ratatouille for the third time in four days.
We arrive at the lake at about 8:30, my brother and his family were there, so we let Hudson visit and play, and within half an hour, my parents also arrived. Feeling lazy, and not wanting to pull Hudson from his beloved Pop Pop and Grandma Sue, he played on well past his normal 7:30 bedtime. At about 9:40 I pulled myself up and started the bed routine, he was off in dreamland by 10.
I went back upstairs, and a few minutes later my dad said, "Can I have your keys, there's a big storm coming and we want to move cars into the garage?" Right after that I checked my phone and it said a 30% chance of a storm. I thought they were being overly cautious and just then I heard the trees rustling, snapping and the wind gusts. We looked outside and it was scary, just then the power went out. It was pitch black but we felt our way to the candles and flashlights, I was helping my mom get the lighting going, while Ted went to attend to a screaming Hudson. I couldn't help but have flashbacks from the Hurricane which was the most scary afterwards when everyone said, "I'm so glad everyone is safe." After we had lighting I wanted to check on my Dad and brother, hoping they were not outside still. They were standing in the open garage watching the trees move and trying to locate the snaps. My brother bought a new car last week, so after a few minutes he unhitched his boat to at least move his car to safety! The winds were about 60 MPH and lasted about 30 minutes. It was more scary than the hurricane, I don't know if that's because we weren't expecting it, it was dark or since the hurricane experience I'm more scared of wind.
We kept Hudson distracted with making shadows on the wall and eventually got him to sleep. We were not too hot since the storm brought the humidity down, and we are now sleeping in the basement which is about 20 degrees cooler than the second floor!
The next morning Hudson went upstairs and announced "I'm awake" at 6:30. Why oh why was he awake that early when he usually gets at least 10 hours of sleep a night? Oh well we must carry on, but wait, no power means no coffee!!!! EEKKK this is not going to be pretty!! When Hudson wakes up well before warranted, coffee is my salvation. Dad was already on it, boiling water on the grill to pour manually through the coffee pot. At least the caffeine headache will be kept at bay for now!
 |
| Things could have been a lot worse with no coffee! |
By about 9:30 I was ready to get Hudson out of the house and doing something--cabin fever sets in early for a tired three year old! Mom wanted to go a craft fair at a local church, and that sounded great to me. Hudson was quite a trooper through the outing, it was a welcome distraction and I even got some great deals! By 11:30 we were hot, and done! We went to the grocery store for some cold cuts, and hand sanitizer (good to have when you can't use the water!).
 |
| Hudson enjoying a wagon ride at the craft fair. |
We were all anxious to hear if we had power at home, and were worried about our food and homes. Fortunately I was able to text with my neighbor who did took a walk around the house she said everything looked fine. At 11 AM, we learned that power was back on at home! At about this time, my brother and his family packed up to go home and check on their own house. At least we had a few hours to be together this weekend.
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| One of the vendors |
A note about well water toilets. Here's some fun facts I did not know; when you have well water, such as at the lake, you need electricity to pump the sewage out so try to avoid flushing. Also the worse toilet to flush is in the basement because it will back up and overflow into the basement floor! This factor contributed to us wanting to leave because who wants to be smelling that, especially in 100 degrees?! Yuck!
We arrived at our house around 4 and Ted got home a little after 5. The cool was so welcomed that Dad promptly napped on the couch even with Hudson playing nearby. Mom and I organized the food and enjoyed some late afternoon coffee. Another element to the weekend was my dad had stopped at Omaha Steaks on Friday and picked up some yummy/expensive food that was now at risk of spoiling. I fired up the grill and did my best to not ruin everything even though I had never cooked steaks and could not google it since our internet and my cell phone were not working.
We gobbled it up and put Hudson to bed at about 8:30, still later that normal but at least he'd get more sleep than last night. At about 9 a loud thunderstorm started and Hudson screamed, I brought him downstairs only to hear hail over our heads, he was up for another hour while we watched 21 Jump Street, a foul-mouthed comedy. Oh well, we all laughed and we haven't heard any of the words repeated since.
Bed never felt so good, and hopefully Sunday will bring some relaxation, well aside from cleaning the grill that was left open to cool and now was rained and hailed on.
I hope Sunday was relaxing!! Loved your post and the photos.
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