Trip to the States: Hurricane Irma Edition

I commit to things sometimes before I have fully thought them through.  That may have been the case this time.  Back at Christmastime, I agreed to go to Texas in March for a month without Brian and then to our family beach trip in September with Brian for a quicker trip.  The actual beach trip is only a week long and I thought if I went a little early and came home right away everything would be fine.  I thought I could travel cheaply straight to the Carolinas via Space Available with the kids and Brian could come commercially right before the beach part and travel back with us Space A to help us get out easier since he'd bump our priority up.  I thought this seemed easy peasy compared to going all the way to Texas or Florida or something like that.

As the date approached, Space A seemed more complicated.  They said they don't fly often to that area anymore.  I'd have to fly into the DC area and drive ten hours south for the beach trip.  Bleh!  Commercial tickets were too costly to do again in the same year for all eight of us.  I got nervous that "a little early" with Space A wouldn't cut it and so decided to go a week early and stay with friends in the DC area (which made my children super happy and also saved on a hotel room for the extra days.)  It was just very difficult.

We got on the first flight we signed up for and it was delayed only seven hours.  It left about 11pm that night, so everyone was tired by then and slept on the plane.  (It was a long day at the airport, but the kids just watched movies in the family room most of the time.)  The flight didn't even fill up and so several of the kids were able to lay down on two seats.  Genevieve, Judah, and Bobby have a greater need to stretch out and so they naturally took the extra seats.  Hannah, Isaac, and Drew can all sleep in a reclining chair easily.  Drew can actually sleep bent over at the waist which looks super uncomfortable, but that's how he does on long car rides too.

Bobby was a rock star on the plane that left at 11:00pm local time.  He fell asleep within an hour and slept the whole time.  His siblings followed suit shortly after him, Judah being the last one to crash.

After landing, we had to go through passport control, baggage claim, and customs before catching a shuttle to the rental car facility.  We rented a van and got the car seat and boosters all installed and made the 45 minute drive to our old house, where one of the best families we know lives.  We didn't get to our friend's house until 4am Eastern.  I got everyone settled at 5am, only to be awoken with a flashlight in my face about an hour later.  Judah was shining it in my face and said that he had never gone to sleep.  He'd been roaming the house looking at stuff.  I pulled him in bed and told him to lay still for just a few minutes and he was out in less then two.  We all slept until 10am.  The house was empty because our friends were out of town for one more day.  More friends were able to stop by that afternoon and play.  That evening we drove to my Uncle's house for Chinese takeout.  It was a full day after such a crazy night and Judah fell asleep at my Uncle's.  I dressed him for bed, put him in the car, drove 45 mins back "home" and moved him into his sleeping bag and he slept through it all.  That's never happened before!

Our hosts arrived home the next day after we had breakfast with our (past neighbor) friends.  The kids and I had such a wonderful visit with everyone, but the girls being reunited with their best friend was definitely a highlight of our first week in the states.  It really was worth all the work to get there!  The kids started sleeping at night pretty easily and everything was going smoothly...at least that's how I fondly remember it now, over a month later.  :)

Judah wrote his whole name for the first time all by himself.

He also was drawing lovely pictures of people.  This was Daddy.

On Sunday, we went to the 7:30am service and then popped over to a neighbor's house for breakfast.  While we were there, Bobby back away from their dog and fell down the stairs.  Thankfully, they were carpeted and only about 5 of them to the next level.  He was okay, but quite upset.  

Our accident streak began when the kids were all running around the cul-de-sac playing capture the flag.  Bobby and Judah really wanted to go play.  I told the girls to keep an eye on them, but that I'd watch them from the door while I visited.  First I see all the kids looking the other way, involved deeply in their game while Bobby runs toward the end of the cul-de-sac where the busy neighborhood street is.  I come out yelling for them to grab him.  Then when a car turned into the cul-de-sac all the kids run to the side of the street, but Judah runs to the opposite side of the street.  Genna is yelling for him to stay there, but, of course, he bolts across right in front of the car.  I made the little ones come in closer to me at that point.  

Not very long until two kids, Isaac and another girl his age, are quickly walking towards me with a panicked look yelling that someone is hurt, but I couldn't really hear what they said.  I am looking over the girl and see nothing wrong with her.  When I look Isaac over, I see his knees are both gushing blood.  He had fallen during the game and taken a thick layer of skin off both knee caps.

And finally, I got stung by a bee/wasp or something outside because it landed on my cup and I didn't see it when I grabbed it.  Let me  tell you, that hurt like something else.  I was young the last time I was stung, but this hurt for so long.  I don't remember it being that long of an ordeal.  I put toothpaste and Benedryl cream on it, plus I iced it for about 5 hours all together.  Finally, I took Benedryl as well, but that made me so sleepy, I can't even tell you.  Crazy!  I'll remember to be more sympathetic next time one of the children get stung.  My finger was stiff the whole next day as well.

A side story is that Drew got a stinger from a dead bee stuck in his hand not too long before we left on this trip.  He was really brave about it, probably because he was at school when it happened and he put on a brave face.  He told me it was still hurting on and off several days later, and it's not until this happened that I really believe him.

Monday we went swimming at the old pool that we missed so much this summer.  It's not so much the pool that we missed, but the excellent company.

Tuesday we had a "Not Back to School" park day (an old tradition of ours with our home-school buddies) where we saw close friends and even friends that we don't keep in touch with as well.  

At a "Not Back to School" park day with almost all the old crew we brought Chick-fil-A sandwiches to make all their dreams come true.  :)

Don't forget the amazing sauce!

Wednesday was a day for playing and picking up Daddy from the airport.  In the morning, I got a phone call from my mom saying that Hilton Head was being evacuated early in case hurricane Irma hit it (as was currently the new thought) and they were cancelling our reservations for Friday.  Whoa!  That was a blow I was really not expecting.  My sister, sister-in-law, and I started scrambling to find somewhere else that we could all meet instead.  They were trying to get their plane tickets changed also.  I wanted it to be somewhere still not too far of a drive.  We'd already been planning a 10 hour drive and that was about all I thought I could handle after the long flight and the jet lag.  We talked about Great Wolf Lodge, Dollywood, or just a cabin in the mountains of eastern Tennessee, but people kept changing their minds.  Then they find a place in Gulf Shores, Alabama directly on the beach.  It fit us all and they wanted to know if we were willing to drive that far. 

Part of this was when Brian was in the air over the Atlantic Ocean and I was not wanting to make any decisions without him.  Luckily, it worked out fine in the end and Brian, who doesn't mind long drives at all told me we should just go to Alabama.  My parents, who had already driven halfway to Hilton Head and were still on the road, also tried to sweeten the deal so we'd all just decide on something and volunteered to pay for the whole house rental for the week.  We are so thankful for their generosity!  All was ettled and we were all truly happy to still be having a "beach trip" instead of just a "trip."  To be continued...