Irene Evacuation

I'm going to add that I am writing this on two hours of sleep - so if it seems out of whack - it just might be :)

Reese had a great birthday yesterday, which I'm sure I will blog about tomorrow (or maybe when we get power back home!), but I wanted to give an update about our Irene Evacuation!

Yesterday Brian decided that he would really feel more comfortable if we left home, instead of waiting out the storm.  He called me and asked me if I could please do a little research about places to stay in case we decided that leaving was best. During nap time I made Reese's cake, loaded our back yard and front yard belongings into the garage, and found us a hotel.

 The kids checked out their room assignments for this year while I took flower pots inside!

I booked reservations for us about an hour and a half away from home, even though they were still going to be under a tropical storm watch.  Last night after Reese's birthday dinner and cake and ice cream, Brian went back to the park to shut it down (never a fun job) and I got started getting the 5 of us ready to go!  I was up until 4:30 this morning, woke up at 6:30, and then started loading the van!  I am sooo exhausted, but part of the problem was getting us packed (so much stuff.  And I didn't want to leave some of my food behind), and the other issue was cleaning.  I just do not want to go home to a dirty house with no power!

 So happy that Reese got her Mobigo and case for her birthday!  She has been playing non stop since we got on the road!

 All of the local Navy ships were sent out to sea, but we passed this caravan while we were on our way to Raleigh this morning!  We decided that we'd rather go a little more inland to get away from the storm and cancelled our other reservations!

 Best street name ever!

Everyone getting settled into our hotel room. 

 Here is the Raleigh sky tonight.  There is an outer band that is hitting us right now (some strong winds, but nothing too terrible), and the clouds were awesome.  The storm should pass through our neck of the woods tomorrow afternoon and into the evening, so please keep us in your thoughts!  I'm getting updates from my parents and my neighbors who stayed behind.  I just couldn't ride out this storm and let it terrify the kids.  The weather channel just reported that it is weakening slightly, but then went back to covering the storm hitting New York.  Which irritates me because New York isn't the only place that is going to get hit.  But whatever, we're fine here and we're looking forward to getting back home on Sunday!