Ike is ICKY!!!!!

We were at the beach this past week. We were supposed to be there for the ENTIRE week, BUT Ike had a little different plan for us. First let me say that this trip was by far the BEST we have had except for the ending. The girls were AMAZING and were sooo easy. Brian and I actually got to sit and enjoy the beach some this year.

We go to Fort Morgan Alabama.... Which if you look on this map is the very bottom far left...that penisula that shoots out. That VERY THIN penisula....

Well we stay almost at the VERY end of this tip...so our condo is pretty much the very far left bottom.
I borrowed this pic from a website...this is what our condo normally looks like, and we stay in the line that goes back from the beach.


At 3:30 AM on Thursday morning I heard a HUGE THUD....... I thought Abigail had fallen out of the big bed so I asked Brian to go check on her. He came back and told me that I must be hearing things bc they were both sound asleep. He crawled back in bed and then jumps back out saying he is hearing someone screaming. He runs out and this is what he is greeted by......

Mind you Ike is THREE HUNDRED MILES AWAY FROM US AT THIS POINT!!!!!!

SCARY!!!!!!! Can I tell you how scared I was???

Those are our steps and this is where we normally park! I asked Brian to move our car the night before just in case. He thought I was CRAZY...thank god we did, bc we wouldn't have gotten it out of the sand. The surge was rushing up sooooo much sand and just leaving it behind. The ladies next to us the car was sinking by the second. I had to go wake up some friends we had made to let them know that they needed to move their car too! Nice wake up call at 3:30 in the morning. (most of these pics are well after day break and I woke up enough to think about documenting this experience)

This is the boardwalk for the condo next to us...there is usually a TON of beach before the water.

It was CRAZY-- the surge would come RUSHING in up to our knees at times and then there would be nothing...except the getting higher sand. That swing is sitting on the sand. Definitely not where it was the day before.

This is what the surges would look like...it was so scary and at times if you were off of the steps you had to hold onto something it was so rough. This is up to our third step. It was sooooooo loud too!

These were our chairs..that stayed...we couldn't get them out!

This is under our condo...the water was just rushing under it......

The front condos at many times were surronded completely by water. There were two couples staying in one of these and they lost there ladder. The fire department had to come get them out.

This was the dogs in all the excitement....


After things calmed some I got a little brave and went out to get this pic..that is pieces of concrete piled up..it was the parking slab!!!
Did I tell you that the hurricane was 300 miles away and NOONE knew or warned us that this was even a posssibility!!!!

Part of the boardwalk that is no longer there!

Brian caught this pic... YIKES!! I would have been running!
This was on the back side of our condo..nice lake hunh?

The waves were scary looking....that is the end of the boardwalk on the far left.

This is what originally woke me up! Nice...it was BANGING into our condo!

This is next to our condo..this is usually just sand and sea grass.

This was inbetween the front two sections.

This is how much sand was drug in.....
It was up to our third step.

So to tell you more about why we were still there. WE decided VERY early on we wanted OUT! So you remember that penisula? WEll there is only one way out ......and there was THREE feet of water on the road. So no such luck for a mini van.

I was maintaining compsure pretty good until we lost power..... AND WATER! Then I was a wreck. We were told that trucks with trailers were coming to get us..pack up your car imediately. We were flying packing things up....mind you Brian had to walk to where our car was moved up on the hill....It was terrible!

Then we were told that NOONE was coming to get us. I was DEVASTATED!! What was I to do with 2 kids, and 2 dogs with no power and now no water? It's pretty secluded out there and many people had left with big trucks. Our new friends down the way went and checked it out in their big truck! They came back and told us they would lead the way. One of them had a huge truck and then one had a four runner so we all followed each other. It was SCARY... All I could do is hold my breath.

This is while we were drving.

The water was pretty deep in places.... We drove through FOUR miles of flooded road.

A silly pic...to end the trip. Many more fun pics from the trip later. Video also to come!

I can now say I think these people are NUTS who ride out the storms who live on the beach ! Ike was no where near us and was causing this craziness. We were so scared we wern't going to get out on Thursday.

Tonight my prayers are with those who were directly hit by Ike. Our experience I am sure was NOTHING compared to there's!

My dear friend Hope who moved to Houston recently..."hope" you are all ok!

Gustav...

Well we had to evacuate from Gustav. Originally we were going to a B&B in Natchez, MS. I got nervous that the weather was going to be bad there while watching the track that it was supposed to go. I didn't want to be caught in tornadoes and no electricity with 4 year olds. I don't want them freaking out every time there is a rain storm.

We then decided to head to my wonderful Aunt and Uncles house outside of Tuscaloosa on their farm. It took us 9 hours when it really should have taken more like 5! I was pretty much having a complete meltdown by the time we got there. I didn't sleep at all the night before, and we got up at 3 AM to beat the traffic. The route we were taken they had screwed up the controflow so we ended up in MS and backtracking. This is all in bumper to bumper traffic going 5 mph. We pretty much were bumper to bumper moving VERY slowly all the way to Meridian. THEN our DVD player DIED!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's when I think I really lost it. Did I say that the girls were ANGELS through all of this. They were WONDERFUL in the car....I've never done so well in the car for hours on end especially when it's stop and go like that.

We finally made it to the farm and it beacme one HUGE party for the girls. My cousins kiddos came down and played, my aunt fed us wonderful meals, and the cows were TONS of entertainment!

We visited the Childrens Museum and a mall! It truly for the girls was nust a big party for them!

We are so fortunate to have come home to a house with no damage, and electricity.

We hope you all made it through it with little or no damage too!

While we were there I had to take a mini shoot of the girls in my uncles cow fields. I definitely need one of these around here to take pics....

This was our ride around the farm.. It's a Kabota... which Amelia will now tell you that she is an EXPERT driver! (we have no idea where that came from!)

Thanks Aunt Amy and Uncle Will --- We had a ton of fun, and made a stressful situation oblivious to our children! Thanks for taking us and our dogs in!!

Preview of our Evacuation...

We are home with electricity and water. HOORAY!!!!! The best part is we came home to NO damage! Super Hooray!!! I'll update tomm, but here is a quick preview... and yes those are cows in the background!!!!

Julia and Rachels Party

Julia and Rachel had a fun swimming party this year. The girls had a ton of fun and so did all the other kids.

My two bathing beauties.

Rachel one of the Brithday girls. (Julia is on the left)

Julia the other birthday girl. Look at that smile!

Chrissy made their cakes! How cute are they?

Elle-- check out the icing on the side of her face.

Swimming time!

Lilly Kate.