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: