Recovering in Louisiana After Ike

Sunday after Ike we decided to go to Louisiana until our power was restored. We stayed with my parents from Sunday until the following Monday. The kids were thrilled to go to Honey's house for some extra spoiling. Our week filled up fast... Brandon got in two rounds of golf, we had a trip to the zoo, the aquarium, and the beach twice. On Tuesday, we met Brad, Bethany, and Harrison at Cafe du Monde and then we went to the zoo.

Harrison loves the powered sugar more than the "donuts."

Cole and Harrison playing with their balloon airplanes.

Buddies Sam and Harrison in Jackson Square.

The kids really enjoyed the rope bridge, but we were all frightened by the monkey in the orange shirt behind the kids.



Of course a highlight was the carousel.

On Wednesday, Mom and I wanted to go shopping in Ocean Springs. The kids were so good that we decided to treat them to some play time on the beach. Of course I did not bring swim suits. They certainly didn't care.... they had a blast!


It is amazing how much fun you can have with a couple of cups, plastic spoons, sand, and water.

Big Daddy teaching Samantha how to play the guitar.

Samantha and Cole love the beach. On Sunday, we went back to the beach... still no swim suits, but this time Big Daddy went. The kids loved playing in the sand and water.

Cole's diaper was loaded from all the water. So he took off his diaper and buried his junk in the sand.

Thanks Momma and Daddy for taking us in for a week. We had a wonderful time hanging with you. Samantha is thrilled to be back in school. The night before we left Mom and Dad's to head home Samantha asked me if her fever was gone because she was ready to go back to school. Bless her heart she didn't realize that we were at Honey's so long because we didn't have power.

Hurricane Ike

Ike came ashore on September 12th. That Friday the girls were out of school so we decided to go to the park since we would be stuck at the house for the following 24 hours due to Ike's arrival. We had a wonderful time. The weather was great... during the day.

Here are the girls feeding the ducks at Northshore park.

Harrison was helping feed them, but everytime the ducks got a little food from him he would take off running. And Cole was only interested in swinging. He did not want anything to do with the ducks. He asked for some bread and ate it himself.

It was pretty watching the outer bands make their way to us. As the sun was setting bans of clouds started rolling in. Brandon and I talked about Pop (Les) and how much he would have loved being there watching this storm roll in. He loved to watch "weather." All the of neighbors were out watching the clouds and socializing. And all the kids in the cul-du-sac had a blast running around playing flashlight tag. We all knew what was in store for us but the beginning was beautiful.
After the sun set the clouds came faster and faster. We came inside around 9:30 and gave the kids a good bath (they were sooooo dirty.) About 30 minutes after we put them to bed (in our room) the winds really started to pick up. Cole and Brandon slept through the night as if nothing were happening. Samantha and I on the other hand didn't get much sleep. The lights went out around 1:30am and the wind whipped and howled for 15 hours. The eye wall passed over around 7:00am. By that time Cole and Brandon were up and that is when Samantha and I finally got a little sleep.
We were very lucky.... no damage. After Brandon spent the day at the house he was going stir crazy so we went to check on Brad and Bethany around 6pm. We found them safe and sound in their house with no damage too.

Cole Starts Pre-School

Cole finally started school September 8th. He went for one week... then Ike hit and he has been out the last two weeks. Hopefully the church will get power this weekend so Cole can start back on Monday. He did great the 2 days he got to go. When I picked him up both days he was racked out. I managed to pick him up, put him in the car, get out of the car, and in his bed without waking him up. The little man was exhausted! Above is a picture from his first day of school. Mrs. Debbie saved my life by allowing Cole to bring Jack (the monkey) to school on the first day.