Vacation and Sandy...

Ed and I went to San Francisco and Napa Valley for 5 great days.  Mimi and Grammy Gwen stayed with the kids.

We drank great wine and ate at some very yummy places in both San Francisco and Napa.  A much needed break from parenting.  We got back home late Thursday night and had to head out to Lancaster Friday night for family pictures on Saturday.  We returned back home Saturday night and needed to start preparing for the 'super storm' of the century that was predicted to hit Monday into Tuesday.  Ed and I were tired from traveling, the kids were out of their normal routine for over a week, not the best timing for a disruptive hurricane to hit!

School was cancelled Monday, Oct 29th.  The storm got worse as the day went on and by Monday night it was scary.  The wind gusts were maybe 70-80 mph.  The kids finally fell asleep around 10:00 p.m. in Cameron's room after much crying every time the power dropped.  Ava was a mess; anxious, wild, hyper, and impossible to settle.  The wind blew so hard Ed and I got up from the sofa several times and moved into the center of the house for fear of a tree or something else hitting the windows or house.  We checked the backyard and saw one of our big trees on the hill uprooted and another tree beside it snapped in half.

If the wind would have been blowing in the other direction, this tree would have landed on the house.  We got Ava out of her bed which is in the back of the house and her and I camped out on the playroom floor for the rest of the night.  Ed and Cam slept in his bed which in the front of the house and not in the path of any large trees.

We never lost power for more than a few seconds but 1/3 of the neighborhood lost power for 6 days.  Our house became the neighbors 2nd home.  They ate here, showered here, fired up their coffee pot here every morning.  We were just so lucky to keep power, so many friends lost power for days and with temps in the 40s at night, it was cold.  Ava had the next 2 days off from school and finally went back on Thursday.

The disruption in Ava's routine, along with the stress and anxiety over the situation and the crazy media coverage of the storm (that I should have not watched with the kids around) really took her for a wild ride. Hopefully this week we will return to our 'normal' routine (even though daddy just left on a trip).  I'm starting to think there is no normal anymore.