As I mentioned last week, minutes after we came across a weather alert that a storm was on its way, we were struck by a “super derecho” of thunderstorms. We lost power before the storm even hit our house. The gusts of wind were stronger than those of the hurricanes that have hit us in recent years. Once the storm passed and we started to survey the damage in the dark, I called my mom from our cheap-o cell phone, standing on a piece of furniture to get a signal. “I think we need to drive home tomorrow,” I told her. It had been nearly two years since our last visit. It’s a long haul to Georgia.
Temperatures had been over 100 degrees the day the storm hit, and without power, our house was a hot muggy mess that night. Windows open, we listened as chainsaws roared into the early morning hours. The next day was sweltering as temperatures climbed again. We’ve been without power for as much as a week before, and we are good at it. But this time, it was just too hot.
Jonny cleared branches from our van and I packed for the trip. We packed in laundry baskets, one per person, because most of our clothes needed washing. I learned that packing in laundry baskets (we have square plastic ones with handles) is actually pretty great, and saves time on the unpacking end of things.
Our back porch isn’t shaded by a pergola anymore!
We arrived at my parents’ house at about five a.m. on Sunday. Later that day, my sister Abby arrived with her family.
Abby’s son Benjamin is so like Beatrix.
My mom laughing with Bea
My mom’s swamp, full of ducks, herons, snapping turtles, and lots of mud.
Later in the week, at Jonny’s parents’ house…
Jonny’s dad with Bea and our little niece.
Back to my mom’s house, Jonny’s sister Rachel visited with her husband and girls.
We think that Lola, in red, looks just like Keats.
Now we’re at my sister Abby’s house. Keats is letting his cousin Micah try his violin.
My mom holding Silas and my sister Angie’s daughter Peyton. Peyton wasn’t thrilled to share Grandmommy with Silas.
My niece and nephew after being told they had to finish their dinner.
Laughing with my sisters: Angie, and Abby.
We spent an evening with our best friends, Summer and Thomas, from our college days in Athens, Georgia.
We knew each other before babies arrived, and now there are ten kids between our two families.
Back to my parents house again, Grandaddy with the girls.
My mom and sister Abby. Abby asked if she would make my blog if she did a craft. Ha.
My Aunt Sue visited. Seth shared his coin collection.
And the grand finale: On our way home, we met up with friends in North Carolina. What a huge gift. (remember the teaching children how to knit post with my friend Elizabeth?)
Elizabeth was only two days post chemo, but she amazed us as always with her joyful presence.
Gabe, Seth, and Elizabeth’s son, Danny. We adore Danny to the moon and back.
Larkspur had her hat with her, the hat she’s been working on for over a year now. She was pleased to show it to her knitting friend. The yarn was a gift from Elizabeth (you can read about the way Larkspur dyed the yarn in this post.)
Home again, with lots of clean up ahead of us, we’re so grateful for the week we shared with our family and friends.
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My son was at cub scout camp in western VA when that storm hit…they had to run through it to the mess hall…he said it was the only time he cried all week he was so scared…power went out all over the DC, NOVA, MD area too (not sure how close you are), but here on base, we never lost power at all, must be generators, because we went out the gate and the light right outside the gate was out…this storm was by far worse than Sandy was to this area…
Ginny, So sorry about all the storm damage. However, what a great excuse to visit family (not that ones needs)!!! Your pictures, as always are amazing, & it looks like you all had such fun & made some great memories with you children. Good luck with the clean up, at least you will have lots of wonderful wood for fires this coming winter. God bless you & your family in the coming weeks as you clean. We are coming up for the Mary’s Shelter dinner & I hope we’ll get to see you all!!!
Oh, I just saw this…so so sorry for all the damage at your homestead. But it looks like some beauty came out of it and I just love that you were able to meet up with Elizabeth!! So beautiful. And you have sisters! Love to see more of your family 🙂 God bless and hope the recovery goes smoothly…
ginny i’m so sorry for all the damage happened to your home and property, my gosh. i’ve been thinking so much about you these last few weeks (and had an uneasy feeling) and found this. i don’t know if you were already planning to visit your mom and family anyway, but what a blessing (in a way) this storm brought. i looked at all these photos and it brought tears to my eyes. every one is so sweet and so filled with family love (i miss my mom so much and all my kids too). i love the photo of you and jonny on the front porch. he loves you so much, it’s easy to see.
congratulations larkspur on her hat, that is awesome.
love, lori
p.s. i love everysinglething your wearing. are you and larkspur sharing the same necklace?
Larkspur and I do have the same necklace, but really Larkspur claimed Beatrix’s….I bought the set for Bea and I when she was a baby. Larkspur somehow ended up putting it on months ago and never takes it off!
So wonderful. it was fun to see how much the cousins resemble each other min your family.
I live in Oregon and my family is in Wisconsin unfortunately it is just too far to drive and too expensive to fly our whole family out so it has been a long time since I have seen my brothers and nephews. I hope my son Solomon gets a chance to play with his cousins while they are still young. My sister in law had a baby just 8 days after I had my daughter this March and it would be fun to get them together too. It is hard to live so far from extended family.
It looks like you made a ton of great memories on your trip!
Nice to see you all are safe and well. You are such a beautiful family. So much love shines through in these photos. Have fun (fun?) with the clean up. Glad you had so relatively little damage.
Our best friends from college and before babies are like family to us too– and we have 12 kids between us! Our kids love each other like cousins.
We have the same van–just gold!
I did the same thing during Hurricane Hugo in 89 I think it was. Somewhere around there. We lived in a trailer out in the country so at night it was sooooo dark with no electricity. And very hot. Pine trees down all around. It’s no fun. Glad you are all safe.
Sounds like an amazing time with family and friends.
Boy oh boy do you know how to make lemonade out of lemons! I too love the photo of you laughing with your sisters! What a blessing. I remember a few trips commenting that we ought to just pack the laundry in the baskets, I’d do it all before we left and put it in a suitcase to haul and bring home dirty. I applaud you, I never actually did it. When we ran from hurricane Ivan we stayed with my brother in law and his family. It was so bad they followed us home and helped with the clean up. Long hard days when you don’t have power. We have generators down here tho and keep our freezers cold, plug and unplug things as we need them. A wall unit to cool one room at night for sure! Hope everyone is safe during the clean up. That’s the most dangerous time. Hugs and prayers.
Did you meet Elizabeth at the Cracker Barrel on Hwy. 74? If so, we live 5 minutes from there… small world! I’ve never met E personally, but I have friends who do know her. What a wonderful week… sorry about the damage from the storm, though. +JMJ+
What a blessing in disguise. I pray you are able to restore your beautiful house and yard. We like to pack in laundry baskets, too. Much easier!
So nice to see YOU in some pictures!!!!!!!!!
A nasty storm! I hope there wasn’t to much serious damage.
And I love it how it turned into a blessing 🙂
BA! I absolutely get it. We dealt with that storm…My grandfather who is 80 and lived here all his life and through floods and hurricanes and snow and ice storms…has said he has never seen this much damage. Everyday is a sentence of hard labor.
hang in there… I am so glad you (like us) avoided any injury.
T
Oh my. Oh those poor trees. So glad there doesn’t seem to be much damage to your home(?). Are the chickens okay? That was the first thing my kids asked! (they loved the photos of your chickens up in the trees recently!)
The chickens are fine!
Life is an interesting thing. And I’m glad that you know how to enjoy it!
What a great week! It’s so great that Elizabeth is so joyful in this season of her life, and it is really inspiring. Good luck with the clean up! 🙂
I’m so glad you all are okay.
Ginny…oh my…I think this is my favorite post of yours ever! I can go over the photos again and again, and they make me smile so! Thank you for sharing this glimpse into your life and the people you love…
Great idea to high-tail it to family and friends’ instead of waiting it out in the dreadful heat without power. I did the same thing when we were without power for 4 days in winter, but we didn’t have nearly as much fun OR people to visit with. Glad you’re well!
Sorry to hear about all that damage, but glad you are all safe and sound! Do you mind if I ask what you did with your chickens while away? I’m always concerned that we’ll have to leave due to an emergency (we get crazy winds here, too), and we don’t really have a sound plan for what to do about all our animals.
-Jaime
We have a neighbor who feeds our cats and chickens when we are away.
Isn’t is just so wonderful to have great family and friends to run to when we need help? You have obviously been richly blessed in that way. Hope you are able to get your home and yard repaired and back to normal very soon. Have a good week.
Looks like a great week away. All the best with the clean up.
Oh, looks like you had a nice trip. That’s good. But we’re glad you are back in the ‘Burg!
Oh my – worse than our October storm – so scary! Good luck with your clean-up.
Wow…So thankful that you have such wonderful friends and family to help you out. I cannot believe the pictures of those trees. How scary that must have been to hear them cracking in the wind! Thankful that you and yours are safe!
Great week, beautiful moments, hope that you won’t have to fix too much at your house.
I’m glad to see you guys finally made it down to Georgia. It was a good excuse indeed. I hope your garden survived! Those trees really came down around your house!
Looks like the trip was filled to the brim with good little visits! Love the pictures!
Looks as though you all got a lot of joy and relaxation from your escape. I’m so sorry for the damage the storm caused, but so happy to see you all safe together. xx
Oh my! I guess there was great blessing despite the trial this past week. Glad that you were able to visit with all those friends and families (and that they had power too so you could stay cooler). Boy, Ginny, that one photo looks like the tree hit your house? Hope not. Hope your clean up goes well and that you can plant a new Pergola for your back deck for new shade. We’ve had temps in the 100s and high 90s, but thankfully no major storm. You should probably be dropping in temps this week (or soon) – we’re finally getting relief (a wee bit) from the heat this week.
What a wonderful way of making the most of a tough situation Ginny – great job!
Oh, Ginny! I knew you were traveling but I didn’t realize the circumstances. Sending blessings on the home-recovery that is to come. It looks like a big one to dig out from. We’re on a week away at my parent’s too, but what a contrast. There are no cousins, so it’s a quiet reinvention of our life at home with the addition of my folks. Love to you and your family, Rachel
It was a miserable week, I’m glad you escaped and went to visit friend and family….that makes everything better, I think!! The picture of you and your sisters laughing brought tears of joy to my eyes….what a gift to have loved ones to laugh with!! Hope your garden wasn’t destroyed!! How long were you all without power at home (or do you even know since you were gone?)?
Glad you made a wonderful time out of a terrible one. I hope no more damage was done to your place. Best wishes at your return! (I missed your posts!)
folks around us just got power back towards the end of last week, then with the heat, some had shorter outages. it has been so hot! really looking forward to this week, where the highs look to be almost 20 degrees less! hope you have a good week.
So glad you were able to make an escape. What a great excuse for some time with friends and family. Looks like it was a great decision.