Boating after Lee...

Tropical Storm Lee that is... Last week it POURED rain for 4.5 straight days. Roads were washed away, sinkholes opened up, more trees fell. In northern MD, they had to open most of the floodgates of the Conowingo Dam for the first time in almost 40 years. This led to a lot of flooding there, and a lot of "stuff" swept out into the bay.

Last weekend we took the boat out of Annapolis. We went up the Severn River, and the water was chocolate brown and pretty chilly from all the rain.
After having lunch, we headed further up the bay and saw something unbelievable - there was debris everywhere... logs, whole trees, 55 gallon drums... everywhere. It was like navigating a racecourse trying to get through. We quickly decided it wasn't worth it to keep going, and turned around. This pic doesn't really do the mess justice...
We did stop at Sandy Point State Park for a little beach playing...

Football's back!

Last weekend the Ravens opened their season with a home game versus the Steelers - their biggest rivals... And they kicked butt big time! Gooooooooo Ravens :)

Look how happy cheerleaders Lottie & Summer were...

Labor Day

We spent Labor Day weekend at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach. Saturday, we logged almost 20 miles on the bikes... Pulled the kids to the boardwalk... restaurant, shops, playground, etc. Sunday, Lottie was sick all day so we hung out at the campsite and I held her. Lucas rode his bike ALL day. By Sunday night, Lucas was sick too... So, we made our way home on Labor Day and had a pretty chill day at home.
How delicious does Tony's campfire pizza look???

Back to School

After missing the first 2 days of school, we eventually had to go back :( Lucas took this pic of me when I got home, so forgive the bluriness!
I can tell I'm getting more experienced (or I just don't care anymore?) because instead of staying home worrying about lesson plans after my first day, we went out on Mike & Brenda's boat for the evening...
There was a guy playing guitar/singing at the Hard Yacht Cafe where we were... He was pretty good and Lucas kept going up to give him tips. Out of it all, he earned an autographed copy of "Muleman's" cd :)
My first week a a half back, Lucas and Charlotte spent blissful days at Ms. Dineyli's and all was well. After labor day, their preschool opened. Here was them their first morning...
Poor Charlotte has done a lot of crying, but finally after a week and a half seems to be getting more used to it. Lucas is thrilled that he finally gets to wear his alien light-up shoes. They've been in the closet since April waiting for him!

Weekend with Irene...

Hurricane Irene that is... 3 weeks ago, we had our first hurricane since Isabel in 2003 came up to MD to visit us! In the days before, it's all everyone talked about - at work, on the news, at the stores... I think we were just all remembering Isabel and how terrible the flooding, power outages, etc. were. It was projected to hit Saturday 8/27 in the early evening. Thursday, I hit the grocery store and Tony did any yard preparation necessary. Friday was our last
"teacher workday" before school started on Monday. We went out for Mexican that night, just like we did before Isabel hit. Mom and dad were out of town, so Saturday I took care of a few things at their house. By lunchtime we were ready and expecting to be ravaged by the storm... Except it really wasn't that bad! We were lucky in that we never lost power - some people were without for almost a week... School was closed for the first 2 days because of so many people without power. We hung out in the carport a little, and watched a lot out the front window. After the kids were in bed, the neighbors came over for a hurricane party - some drinks and games!

Overnight, there were some pretty strong wind gusts and of course heavy rain... But it wasn't as bad as many were expecting - thank goodness!

Just a few pics from the hurricane fun:

As the rain began to fall - running around and getting a bath:
Cupcake balls, but we called them "eyes of the hurricane":
Tony about to siphon the huge puddle out to the road:
The day after, a hike in the park: