Storms

We were prepared for Irene.  We had a week's notice to "batten down the hatches," so to speak.  We were ready, and the storm really wasn't that bad, but bad enough to leave us without power for 5 days.  Sunday--day one--was an exciting adventure, filled with lots of board games and family together time.  After that, it kind of went down hill, but the days were pleasant and mild, and we survived.  Dennis spent his birthday in the dark, but the day we fed the missionaries, our power returned mid-meal.  They seem to be good luck!

The Nor'Easter on October 28th was another matter.  We were not prepared.  In the years we've lived here, we've found that people tend to get worked up over oncoming snowstorms, and we have never bought into this philosophy.  However, it would have served us well this time!  Chiara had a Portfolio Day in West Hartford so she and I spent all day there, and drove home in a blizzard.  Dennis and the other kids spent the day getting ready for our ward's Trunk or Treat so no one worried about getting prepared for the storm.  Who Knew?! Thirty minutes after Chi and I arrived home the  power went out and stayed out for 9 more days!  It was a marathon of no power, no water.  Sheesh!  Cardon and I both spent our birthdays in the dark, (I did get a generator as a gift--the best present ever!)and our power came back on while we were cooking a meal for the missionaries!  Always invite the missionaries to dinner while you are in the middle of a days' long power outage.

This is our only (really bad) photo from Irene.  This is Sunday when we were having fun!

We awoke the morning after the Nor'Easter to trees down all around us.  We felt very blessed because there was a perfect circle of destruction around the house, but everything broke and fell straight down, bent in half, or fell away from the house.

We always judge a snow storm by how much snow is on the deck railing and grill.  

This was a crazy October storm! Can you say climate change?

The first day was fun.  After that, not so much.
Notice the power line hanging near the kids' heads!

We drove under this tree for 7 days!

Having a well is just ridiculous without power.  We had a 55 gallon barrel of water in the garage, and our kiddie swimming pool under the deck was full of rain water.  Chiara and Cardon got the honor of filling pitchers of water from the swimming pool to flush the toilets.  Yummy!
Hint:  Stock up on Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer and plastic utensils/paper plates. 
Heating water to wash and clean gets to be a big pain really quickly.

We spent a lot of time in front of the big front window. We are all better chess players, and I don't want to play Uno Attack again any time soon!On the plus side, we did grow closer together as a family--how can you not when you all sleep together in the same room to be near the fire?! We read our scriptures every day without fail--what was our excuse?! And we learned that you can do hard things!