Hurricane Matthew

This past week was probably contained the scariest and most stressful day of my life. On Monday May 3rd, we started to hear a little news about a Hurricane that was in the Caribbean which might end up coming near the US. Hurricane Matthew was in the warm waters to the south of Florida and it became more and more powerful, eventually going over Haiti where it killed hundreds of people as it strengthened to a category 4 hurricane. As the days went by, the projected path started to show that it was probably going to come up the East Coast and would potentially come near Jacksonville. By Tuesday we were starting to freak out and by Wednesday evacuation zones A and B were ordered to leave, which included our home.

Andrea and I had always kind of expected a hurricane to come near Jacksonville some day, but we never really knew how to prepare for it. School was canceled Thursday and Friday and on Wednesday we started to prepare the home, moving valuables upstairs in case we flooded, and moving outside furniture and pots around so they wouldn't blow away. Grandpa Rick came over to help me move things as best we could and we took food, supplies, and a few of our most valuable things over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We stayed the night there Wednesday night and I went back to our house with Andrea and Grandpa Rick on Thursday morning to do some last minute storm prep. We moved a few additional things upstairs, talked to the neighbors, and even taped up the bottom of the exterior doors to possibly help keep out any rising flood waters. On Thursday afternoon, before we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house we ate at Cantina Laredo. The restaurant was closing early for the storm and we wanted one last meal out before the city shut down.

At Grandma and Grandpa's, we tried to enjoy our time. We made some preparations for the storm in case power went out. We put food in a cooler, filled a bladder with water in the bathtub, and got flashlights and other supplies ready. The kids were thrilled to be there and played with the puppies and played games with everyone.

Thursday night was a difficult night and I didn't sleep much at all. I kept thinking about all the things I could have done and should have done, kept thinking about the brand new front doors we just had installed on Tuesday, the renovations which we'd just completed, the hurricane insurance deductible, the flood insurance, whether I should have gotten sandbags or other supplies. I researched the gulf stream, the jet stream, the hurricane tracks and the hurricane behavior. I only slept a couple hours.

I woke up early on Friday and checked the hurricane's progress and was crestfallen to see that it was still coming right towards Jacksonville. The hurricane tracker showed that we were still within the "Cone of Concern" and that it would possibly pass to the East of us.

Waiting for it was agony. All day Friday we watched the news as it slowly crept towards us, flooding and destroying the coastal cities it passed by. We watched videos from Old St. Augustine of the storm surge sweeping in to the historic downtown. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion.

As it neared Jacksonville, it changed course slightly to the East and we hoped that it would pass far enough off shore that it wouldn't affect us too much.

Finally it arrived. The eye was 25-30 miles off coast, and the strongest winds were out to sea, but we still had some very strong gusts. Grandpa Rick took some videos outside and we hoped the house would hold together. We were more worried about the coastal communities and our house. The hurricane was passing at high tide and the storm surge at one time was projected to be 7-11 feet high. That would have been disastrous for us. Unrelated to the storm, we'd had lots of rain before the hurricane arrived and by the time it passed Jacksonville we had over 10" of rain.

Once the hurricane passed, things got a bit calmer. Most of the rain was to the north end of the storm and that evening it cleared up quite a bit and stopped raining for the first time in days.

I tried to look on the bright side. I'd brought some sparkling cider with us and I'd told the kids that after we survived the storm, we'd crack it open and would celebrate, so that's what we did. I was thankful that we were all healthy and safe, but I was worried sick about the house.

Andrea and I stayed up late in to the night. It was an absolute rollercoaster of emotions while we tried to learn how our neighborhood was doing. One minute I'd feel happy that the storm passed us well out to sea. Then I'd see a video on the news of storm surge water pouring through Jacksonville Beach coastal areas and I'd feel despair. Then, I'd realize that they were only focusing on the worst flooding in the area and that overall there wasn't that much flooding. Then, we'd find news from some locals that stayed in their homes and they'd tell us that the flooding wasn't very bad. Then, we'd hear from another local that heard second hand that our whole neighborhood was under water. Then, we'd find some pictures showing just a few inches of water on a few streets and we'd feel some hope. Then, we found a picture showing a house down the street from us with a sheet of water covering the entire street and up near their garage and we'd start freaking out and wondering if that was as bad as it got, or if that was just the beginning. Then we found a video of some neighbor boys splashing around their cul-de-sac which was flooded.

It was terrible not knowing. We had watched our cameras on our phones for a little while, but around 2pm when the storm arrived, the power went out at our house and we couldn't log in to see anything. We obsessed over the few pictures we found. We would track down where they were in the neighborhood, what their elevation was using Google Earth, how they were positioned relative to the marsh, etc.

We went to bed that night, unsure of what we'd find in the morning. On Saturday morning, we heard news that they were going to open the bridges to the beaches around noon. Andrea and I packed up some of our things and got in the car and we drove out and waited in line behind everyone. At first, it was unclear if they'd let people from Ponte Vedra Beach in as well, because just the Jacksonville beach people were told that they could go home.

A little afternoon, we heard that another bridge had opened and shortly after that, the line of cars started to move. They let everyone through without checking ID's or anything which was a relief. We crossed the bridge and turned in to our neighborhood. We had to be careful of the downed trees, but I hurried to our house. We were thrilled when we saw it. There were leaves and branches everywhere, but the house looked fine. We pulled in to the driveway and ran to the front door and peeked inside. We were so excited and relieved to see that everything looked dry. The water had clearly come through our yard and at one point had come within a few feet of the front door, but it didn't get inside.

We had some wind damage where a piece of the roofline got torn off. We lost some shingles as well.

A few of the screen pieces in our enclosure were completely gone and some pieces were hanging and blowing in the wind.

Overall though, we were overjoyed. We checked on some neighbor houses and then drove around the neighborhood. There were trees down everywhere and some of the houses didn't do so well. We heard that a few houses got water in their garages and a few got water inside the homes. Not a lot, but we felt terrible for those people, I was sure that's what we'd come home to. I wish we could have seen the water that was on our street. From the washed up debris, it's clear that some flowed through our yard at one point, but it wasn't clear how much or where it came from.

We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning up. There was plenty to do. The rest of the day Saturday, I put the house back together and repaired what I could from the storm damage. Most of it was minor, but it took quite a bit of time.

On Sunday we went and picked the kids up. They were out for a walk with Grandma when we arrived.

We loaded up the rest of the things we'd brought to their house and then went home. With everyone's help, we picked up all the broken branches, washed up mulch, and everything else that was in the yard and got the house all cleaned up.

It was a busy weekend and a stressful time for us. I will admit I struggled terribly with it. I'm thankful for Andrea, who helped keep me positive and hopeful when I was down in the dumps. I'm thankful that we had such a comfortable and cozy safe place to stay with Grandma and Grandpa, and glad that they welcomed us in to their home and helped so much with everything. I'm thankful for the kids for being so happy and easy while we were cooped up for days indoors. Lastly, I suppose I'm thankful to Hurricane Matthew for sparing our home. There are a lot of people that had much sadder endings after this storm and I hope this is something I don't have to live through again any time soon.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party - 5th year! 2016

On Friday we went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party for our 5th year in a row. The price has gone up this year and it's definitely less of a "secret" than it used to be. We haven't been doing as much this year and we realized we hadn't been to Orlando in a long time and hadn't been to Disney since the Christmas party. It was good to eat at Uno's and we did see our favorite waitress and she still remembered us.

We checked in to the Beach Club Villas and changed in to our Disney outfits and then took the bus to the park. Connor and Mommy got matching shirts this year and Connor wanted to pretend that Mommy was his big sister. Andrea got Paige a very cute coordinating Halloween dress. While we didn't get all dressed up in costumes, it was fun to dress up together for the day.

After getting in to the park, we went in to one of the shops and Paige picked out a souvenir immediately.

We typically take a right turn after entering the park and go to Tommorrowland, but this time we decided we should go left and see how that would work. We started on the Aladdin ride and then rode the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean and then Splash Mountain. The lines were a bit long and we waited 25 minutes for some of the rides until the regular visitors got kicked out of the park.

Once it got a little later, it wasn't quite so busy. We got the kids 2016 Halloween Party trick-or-treat bags and did quite a bit of trick or treating and got a bunch of candy.

The kids played "Pin the Boo on the Ghost" in one of the shops, and it was a good spot to get lots of candy in the trick or treat lines.

Connor and I rode at the front of the Barnstormer and we decided to go on it a second time around 10:30. Right as we got to the line, it started to pour rain. We found a little bit of shelter under some small decorative circle covers in the line, but we were still getting pretty wet. We stood out there for at least 15 minutes until the rain died down a little, then we ran over to the rest rooms where Paige and Andrea were waiting. We decided to call it a night, and covered the stroller with a poncho, opened up some umbrellas and started the trek back to the front of the park. Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for the bus, but we had to stand on the way back to the hotel.

We all were very tired by the time we got back to the hotel and fell asleep quickly. The next morning I was surprised we slept in pretty late and went to an early lunch at Uno's. After lunch, we put on our swimming things and explored the resort area.

Connor did a little shopping, but he didn't find anything for his souvenir.

We swam in the pool for quite a while in the afternoon. Andrea snapped a pic of me with the kids before we all got wet.

There was a pirate ship with a slide on it, which ended in a sandy pool. I took the kids up and Andrea took a video as we all came down. Unfortunately, Paige changed her mind at the last minute and went back down the stairs. Andrea was expecting her to follow me, and she didn't. You can see me hurrying out of the pool to go find her. She eventually did go down the slide and Andrea did too.

The pool also had a lazy river, and we all had fun swimming around and playing together in the pool. The deeper parts of the pool had nice white sand at the bottom, and it was one of the nicer hotel pools.

After swimming, we walked to the Boardwalk for dinner. While we ate, Connor spotted a basketball game in a carnival-type area. We watched a few kids try it and fail, and asked the worker which game was the easiest to win. The water spraying game guaranteed a prize, so Connor decided to give it a try.

Andrea and Connor played the water game first and Andrea got on target quickly and was the winner.

Connor had all weekend to shop for his souvenir, but at the end of the day the thing he wanted most was a chance to win another blue monkey. I played against him and didn't pull the trigger properly and got off to a terrible start. I bumped him a little to get him off target, but he still beat me!

Connor was happy to win the first Monkey with Mommy and was even more excited that he found an abandoned monkey at the Boardwalk and then won another monkey. Just what we needed, lots of new stuffed animals!

We slept in a little on Sunday, ate at Uno's and then drove home. It was a fun weekend and I'm thankful that we finally made it down to Orlando this year.