Hurricane Evacuation/Vacation

Our family ended up with quite the hurricane adventure this fall.  Growing up in NC we have had our fair share of storms but this one ended up being in a category of its own.  The week/days leading up to the hurricane I spent a good bit of time trying to prepare in any way possible for being stuck in the house, with young kids, and no power.  I mean just the amount of food we go through in 24 hours is staggering (not to mention the laundry we do each day) so as I was running through scenarios I was not excited about all the possibilities. 

About two days before the storm things suddenly shifted.  The forecast track showed a hard hit on our town and Ryan's office closed for the remainder of the week (which is virtually unheard of) except for those on call at the hospital.  Even crazier our entire county got put under a mandatory evacuation which to my knowledge has never happened before.  Right before the evacuation I texted my bible study girls and said, "I am getting freaked out about this storm. Please pray that if we need to leave it is completely obvious."  An hour later they issued the evacuation and I got a text from Ryan that said "start packing."  Definitely a quick answer to that prayer!  I'm not going to lie I went into somewhat of a panic freak out mode.  The kids were already home from school which was closed in preparation for the storm (which means my chance of being productive is basically gone bc every time you blink someone needs a snack, help in the bathroom, or someone took their toy) Ryan was on call that night until the following morning and we were needing to find a place to evacuate, pack up everyone, and leave around 7:30 the next morning to beat traffic.   To further complicate things we didn't want to go to our parents' houses bc it looked like the storm could hit there too and obviously we weren't going to the beach.  Lots of places had no vacancies because so many people were evacuating and a family of six doesn't fit anywhere!  Well my brother and his family were evacuating to the mountains where Greer's family lives and after a quick discussion we decided we would take an impromptu "hurrication" there. 

It was a miracle but we left on time the next morning. I wish I had videoed the kids' reaction. They were SO excited about going to the mountains!

I strategically put the loud screamers in the third row and my quiet travelers closer. 

Ryan and I decided our motto for this hurricane evacuation vacation would be "go with the Flo" as we tried to escape Hurricane Florence.  These next few weeks ended up being a great way for me to practice being more flexible and less type A! We ended up only driving 30 minutes before our first stop. It was almost comical how long it took us to get there, I think around 9 hours of which no one slept more than 15 minutes  BUT with the exception of a few screams from Kate the kids did great!

We knew the kids would need a chance to run around so we made a super fast stop at Shannon's house. She picked up lunch for us and the kids got to run around for a bit. 

Thumbs up we made it!  I also designated these our travel shirts because they are easy to keep up with and count kids quickly :) 

The kids' reaction to seeing the mountains was priceless. They went crazy! "I see a mountain! I see a mountain!"  Andrew and Kate kept calling it "the mountain" which we thought was funny.  We realized we had not been to the mountains since David and Greer's wedding when James was the twins' age and Harrison was 3 months old!

I have to put it in writing that Ryan was AMAZING through all of this hurricane insanity.  He found us a great place to stay that he knew would work for our family and he had the best attitude through some not so easy circumstances. 

The kids also loved the mountain house.  Even now weeks later they will randomly say "Can we go back to the mountain house?" It was a huge condo with plenty of space for us to spread out and it had the most amazing view. 

There was even an extra room for the playroom 

Everybody got a good night's sleep and then we got to go feel the chilly mountain air that morning. It was a great break from the heat and humidity back east!

We met up with David, Greer and the girls and drove to do some hiking and on the way we saw two bears! The kids went wild! (and honestly so did the adults) 

"2 Bears!" 

Time to hike!

Andrew turned around and saw how high he was and started to melt down. Poor buddy isn't used to heights!

I had low expectations for this hike.  It was almost lunch time and nap time by the time we started. The kids surprised me again- everyone hiked the whole time and they loved it! 

Sweet Kate loves to "saunter" as we say.  She and Ryan brought up the rear for most of the hike. 

She just likes to move through life at a leisurely pace. 

The kids loved this "cave" that they found

It was a team effort to get everyone to the top. 

We made it to the top and the fog had come in so we couldn't see anything but we were still thrilled!

Hiking buddies 

As I was packing I threw in a couple of birthday surprises that I ended up handing out early.  These two loved their boogie boards!

Playing on top of the "bumping beds" as Kate called them was also big entertainment 

Later that afternoon we met up at a park where Kate gave us all a heart attack when she fell backwards off the top. Praise Jesus she was ok but my nerves (and I think every other adult at the playground) were shot!

Pizza for dinner!

Somehow the dads ended up with their own table. 

We loved having extra time with our cousins 

Best way to end the day- ice cream!

In keeping with our "Go with the Flo" mentality we then started getting notifications that the hurricane had turned and was coming towards the mountains in a few days, giving us the possibility of land slides, flash floods etc. We couldn't believe it!

Nothing could make this day not great though

I had a hard time sleeping that night. I knew that New Bern was feeling the hurricane effects and my heart was heavy for everyone there. I ended up waking super early and checking my phone and seeing frantic, scary posts from so many back home.  New Bern was also on the national news and I began receiving texts from friends wanting to make sure we were ok. By the end of the storm over 500 people had to be water rescued in our small town alone and many people flooded.  We purposely kept the news off with the kids around but the destruction we were seeing was hard to even comprehend. 

That day we had a low key morning at the condo.  Ryan brought our wii that we had "borrowed" (none of the kids know we have actually had a wii for years that we keep hidden from them!) and we had a blast all playing Mario Cart together. 

Andrew thought he was big stuff getting to play 

Then we walked over to our condo's playground 

Play dough kept everyone busy 

While Daddy cooked hamburgers and hot dogs. I knew we were going to lose everything in our freezer so I brought some things we could eat while out of town. 

Evacuation or not the work always continues for this guy

Harrison REALLY wanted a picture of this before he erased it

That afternoon we had to prioritize because we knew our mountain trip was going to be cut short as we tried to dodge the hurricane once again. So what did we do? Gem mining of course!

James finally got his wish to gem mine in the mountains!

The people who owned this place were super friendly and kind

They even gave Andrew and Kate a free bucket to share

This girl wouldn't put down her bag of treasures for anything

All four kids happy and content!

Afterwards we explored a bit 

Throwing rocks

To end our day we stopped at a McDonalds with a huge play place 

It was a trip that we didn't plan for or even know we needed but it was so good for the six of us.  

Bright and early the next morning we were on the road again.  Ryan mapped out our route and somehow managed for us to skirt around the worst of the hurricane (that basically covered our state at this point) so we could make it to our families and get out of the mountains before the weather went downhill. 

Pit stop at Chick fil a!

We walked in the door at Nana and Pops and I almost immediately left because the next morning was two special kids' birthdays and I needed some presents!  I made it to Target only to hear them announcing that they were closing in 10 minutes because of the storm. I have never shopped so fast!

Soon we found out that even if we wanted to get home we couldn't

Thankfully our parents' town had only minor damage so we set the kids to work helping clean up. 

It was a crazy few days of "Going with the Flo".  Little did we know that it would be WEEKS before we were back into our normal routine again. Hurrication to be continued...