Hurricane Sandy--as seen by a Wisconsinite!

I am usually a "people picture" type of gal, but when you plunk a Mid-western girl in the middle of a major weather event on the ocean, things shift gears =) These are just some pictures of the Atlantic doing its thing during our portion of Hurricane Sandy. On Monday the water found a way to get to us, without even coming up over the dunes and down the access road we used from the beach. And once it started coming, it came hard and ran fast!! You can see that the tire tracks stayed put during it all. Our house is about 3 rows back from the beach, so our yard/driveway never flooded, but the road right along the house did. That became a barrier to us being able to get out. Luckily we were able to tack a day on and the water went down enough for us to drive through it to get ourselves on the beach. Mother Nature is not someone to mess around with---especially water, it is a powerful force and I can understand how things (including people) get swept away in fast moving currents.

Our OBX Digs

Well, our time in the OBX is over, we're all back home after Hurricane Sandy and have lived to tell the tale. We all got lucky too, because with the way the storm tracked and the havoc that happened in the direction we all needed to go, it could have been a very different story!! We pushed back our departure by one day and had a wonderful day for driving back up the coast. These are just some pictures of the house we were "holed" up in for 6 days. We had wanted to spend some more time at the beach and walk through a nature preserve area, but the weather of course thwarted that plan. BUT, it was heavenly to just be able to lounge around in jammies, read our Nooks/Kindles, NAP, sip wine, watch movies, NAP and play games with no noses to wipe, snacks to make or fights to break up =) The outside of the house is the side that faces the ocean, my room was top floor, very right. So each morning, the ocean was my wakeup sight! Also a shot of my bedroom, the living room where we really lived--HA! The pool area was gorgeous, but of course unused by us this week. It is a wonderful home and we're so grateful that we had the use of it for a week--thanks to Mr and Mrs Golden!!!

Our Unitvited Guest...

Well, our long-awaited girls weekend at the beach for five has turned into a weather event for 6. Hurricane Sandy is indeed at the beach with us =( Our beach (North Cordova) has not been evacuated (not that we'd have to leave anyway as we are considered "owners" not "renters") so we are staying put! That means that we aren't able to do many of the things we'd planned to do, like hit the little shops and do lunch in town (Duck or Nags Head), but we all brought our Nooks/Kindles, we have laptops, lots of movies, food and oh yes, maybe a bit of liquid refreshments! We did venture down to the beach on Thursday night when we got here, but it was a little too dark to get good pictures =( We came across 2 fishermen who were happy to take our pictures of the 5 of us, but mine didn't take and Brigettes are very blurry, so we have none of the 5 of us =(

Greetings from the OBX!!

WooHoo!! I am on a 5 day get away with 4 of my very favorite people in the world. We've come together from Canada, PA and 2 from VA and then drove down to the family beach house of Brigette's parents. We are right on the ocean in Corolla, NC. WHICH, if you're following the news at all, you know that another female is trying to join our little group---Hurricane Sandy! We are watching the weather closely, but also enjoying our girl time =) These pictures are of the view that I have from the deck outside of my room. That's the Atlantic Ocean, Baby!!

Labor Day Camping

We had the opportunity to camp a few times this summer. I even purchased a tent and big fat air mattresses for our "comfort". Kurt has to work most weekends, so the boys and I just glom onto where my parents are camping. They (them and my cousin Courtney) have the bulk of the necessary supplies, so we're pretty lucky to get to horn in on their plans! These are pictures of the boys "celebrating" Labor Day in style--HA! Paxton is our little pyro--it is his personal mission to be in charge of burning all paper products in the campfire. In fact, Courtney will hoard some things and when he thinks he's out of material, she'll pull it out in exchange for an "I love you" out of him =)

A Wedding in the Family

We had a family wedding on this past Saturday night, my cousin Molly got married and we celebrated on her and Curt's behalf!! I took well over 100 pictures, but just picked a few of people who don't really have a say of whether or not they make an appearance on my blog--HA!! Kurt had to work, so Arielle was my date and Parker came out after he was done with his golf meet down in Iowa. A wedding is always a good reason for family to get together =)

Flashback Friday!

I mentioned to Arielle just this week how it's time to get Xmas card pictures done. Already! Man this year has whizzed by. In honor of that conversation, this weeks FF are some shots from our Xmas card taken 3 years ago. Look at how small the little boys look. You may also notice it is from this grouping that the photo for my blog heading came from--HA! That is on my to-do list, a blog makeover, to keep it fresh for my tens of readers =)