Tresure Hunt With My Pirates

Hurricane Sandy gave Ava and Christian two days off school.  This was fantastic for us since we didn't get home from Hilton Head until really late Sunday night.  Pappy spent the night Sunday into Monday which was exciting in itself but then he had to go home and make sure Grandma Hunsberger was taken care of, so we spent the rest of Monday hanging out as a family and just cleaning up and unpacking after the mini vacation from Andy and Michele's Wedding.

So, needless to say, the kids had lots of energy and playing outside wasn't the greatest option at the time.  We decided to play pirates and make up our very own piratey adventure.  We started by making a flag for our ship (Christian's bed was our ship) and by making a Treasure Map.  We even burnt the edges and corners a bit of the map to make it look cooler and more realistic.

 

 

We started off in the BOAT and our goal was to find the Treasure!  There was a pirate after us, a Mean one and his name was Pirate Petey.  While we were out on the water, we came across a message in a bottle.  The message in a bottle lead us to a clue in the tub, "mossy alligator swamp" and there we found a clue that took us to the Pirate Snack Shack where we had golden NUGGETS (tator tots) Ava read all the clues and Christian helped us figure them out.  Finally, the last clue was behind one of the deer heads hanging in Christian's room, (the enchanted forest) and as it read, it lead us to God's Word which was daddy's Bible. 

The kids knew right where daddy kept his Bible so they ran in and there was the final part.   A bag of Treasure and a piece of paper that is pictured below.  There were some golden coined candies and some mints and other piratey treasures.  Then as the kids were eating their hard earned treasure, we read the verse about storing our treasures and talked about where God wants us to store our treasures.  This was such a fun activity and as you can see, the kids were most def. in character. :)  We had so much fun.  After dinner that evening, the kids performed a small dinner theater as they walked Grandma, Pappy and Daddy through the adventure and lead them to the treasure. Every clue we found, Christian would try and read out loud like Ava had earlier but he kept saying in a loud voice, "and now find daddy's bible!"  This made Ava so mad cause he was "ruining" it for her.  So funny.   At the very end we asked them what they were thinking, if they wanted treasure on Heaven or Earth, Ava wanted treasure in Heaven, but Christian said he still wanted candy for now!!!!  We did have so much fun though. 

 

 

Hurricane Sandy - Frankenstorm

We have never had a storm that has hit so hard as the storm that hit this year, October 2012.  The name she went by was Hurricane Sandy (some called her Frankenstorm) and she was said to be 800 miles WIDE!  She was a raging storm and we had days to prepare, not knowing what exactly we were preparing for but knowing it was going to hit hard.  The predictions were so huge that the schools across a rather large region closed on Monday and Tuesday of that week.  We were away for Andy and Michele Burge's wedding in Hilton Head, South Carolina when we first were warned of the crazy approaching storm.  We considered staying an extra day because we were afraid we were going to be traveling through the storm to get home.  However, we decided to leave on Sunday and take our chances.  The weather was rather nice for the first 10 hours of the trip and then we did manage to run into some rain but nothing more than we have driven through on a regular stormy day.  The one thing that we were told by numerous people was to grab some extra jugs of water and non perishable food.  They were calling for power to be possibly out for days, so while we were traveling we stopped in Virginia to get some water at a local Wal-Mart.  The water aisle was bare. . .  .leaving only a few seltzer waters on the shelf.  It was a little alarming to see that but then we were told the local Rutter's up the road form our house had water still. 

We got home at 11:30ish that Sunday evening and immediately started to prepare.  We all bathed and got all clean so we could be clean to start our week without power. ;)  Then we filled the bath tub full of hot water so we could have water to flush toilets in case the power went out.  I filled a bunch of plastic containers with water and put them all in the freezer so they would freeze and then help pack them around the meat in the freezer so they would hopefully prolong the meat if we were out of power for awhile.  Then we tried to make sure we had flash lights and candles near and off to bed we went.  The next day we watched the news as the storm was rapidly approaching.  We kept waiting to lose power.  Christian finally got tired of waiting with us and went to bed.  Around 9:30 Monday evening we lost power.  The wind was howling around outside and it was making quite the ruckus.  The darkness was so dark and took us awhile to get the candles and flashlights, but then it was fine. 

Micah heard something downstairs so we went over to check it out. I walked around the corner and there he stood at the top of the stairs and he was scared.  He kept hollering, "Hello?" and then I started panicking.  He said, "the garage door is open" and sure enough, the door that went from the downstairs room into the garage was wide open!!!  I grabbed two LARGE knives and down the stairs we started, candles in one hand and knives in the other.  We went through the entire basement and then once we realized there was no intruders, we investigated the door.  Seems the pressure from the outside wind on the house had knocked the not so latched door open.  Made some sense but still rather scary.  After this, we prayed through the house and then went to bed. 

The most inconvenient part was that without power, our noise makers didn't work, so we had no white noise to sleep to. . . .making the wind sound so much worse, as we were falling asleep.  However, the next morning, 13 hours later, the power came back on.  We lost nothing food wise from freezer or fridge and we were so grateful for our power to be back.  We were blessed to also have no damage, but there were many that around us that did and we continue to think of them and try to rebuild.  Crazy when you think that the storms always seem to hit elsewhere and then all at once, they seem to be hitting us here more and more frequently. Grateful God kept us all safe. :)

Aunty One-L Ties the Knot - Finale

When the Limo dropped us off at the church, we had to sneak in the side entrance so Andrew wouldn't be able to see Michele.  They snuck us in, and that is when the little glitch happened.  The one that almost did it.  Michele had been working with her florist for months trying to come up with what they wanted as the bouquets and the centerpieces on the tables.  The flowers were one of her most important details she was worried about.  The florist called her and said she had it figured out and she would drop the flowers off at the church Sunday morning.  The moment I walked around the corner to where the flowers were awaiting us, I knew and so did Melissa.  They were not right and they were NOT what Michele was envisioning.  She was pretty upset and she was emotionally intense at that moment anyway, five minutes before the wedding started.  Gary came back and had a pep talk to with her and then I had my chance. I reminded her that even if the flowers were ugly, and they were not, that it still wouldn't change what was about to happen.  She was about to walk down that aisle to marry her best friend and vow to spend the rest of her life with him and making a life with him.  That was why she was there and that was why he was there and why the rest of us were there to witness it.  She had finally made it!  She was getting ready to see her dreams come true right that very moment and No one and Nothing could take that from her!  We both cried of course and then dabbed our tears and she got ready to walk down the aisle to marry the man she had been praying for and waiting for years!  I was so proud of her and her attitude!  Everything was perfect!

 

 

 

Waiting to walk down the aisle. . minutes before our processional music starts.  Even captured the pep talk from Melissa, Gary and Tyler. :)  Oh, and Andy PRETENDING he was trying to get away. hahah

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew BURGE!!!!!

 

 On our way to the reception. . but wedding picture first.  The ceremony was a beautiful one and very well done.  There was crying, laughing and all the typical wedding stuff.  Then they were announced as man and wife after a long ROMANTICAL Kiss and then off to see them to the limo with their streamers. :)  Everyone else headed to the reception for cocktail hour as we headed off to face hurricane Sandy head on and get our bridal party shots! :)  So grateful for Micah, Brianna and Ryan who took the kiddos on to the reception and entertained them for the hour or so it took for us to get there. The photo shoot took awhile but was actually really fun and we all enjoyed the drama as we were trying to get clearances to get into the one part of the area we were suppose to get pictures done with.  Because of the extra crazy weather, we didn't get everything done we wanted, but we ended up getting some nice shots. :)

 

Then off to the reception!  Finally to eat and give our toasts.  I was really anxious cause Melissa had written her speech out and I had just thought about it a lot but not actually written it down. :)  I winged it but it was fun and I think Andy and Michele appreciated our speeches of how much we loved them and how much they meant to us.

 

What a Great Day October 27, 2012 was. . I saw One-Ls dreams come TRUE!  Yayy! Love ya girl!!!  Congrats to Mr and Mrs. Andrew Burge!

Last "Just Girls'" Night with Aunty One-L - Getting Ready!

After Rehearsal dinner, we went back and got the boys all situated in the condo and then Ava and I were on our way to head over to spend the night at the Honeymoon suite with the Bride-To-Be, her last night as an unmarried woman!  Of course we did not get wild and crazy because we were tired and we needed our sleep, but we did have a fun night of talking and anticipating the next BIG DAY that had finally arrived!  Melissa slept with Michele, While Ava and I crashed on the couch in the living room.  The view was amazing and the room was so very cool!  We had fun talking and then once Ava fell asleep, we snuck back and had a little more adult rated conversations. ;)  Andy had written Michele a letter and we all cried as she read it and we discussed how it had finally arrived and was finally really happening!  Very exciting.  Michele gave us each a beautiful pair of earrings and a bracelet and a wrist clutch from COACH!  It was so very nice and we were so excited! 

 

 

The Next morning was so much fun.  Between eating breakfast together in our HUGE suite, and getting ready, we all had a great time.  Michele was excited and relaxed which helped all of us too.  There was steaming of dresses, hair getting done by the hairstylist that came to our room, taking of pictures by the photographer that came to our room, and preparing of make-up.  Ava was a bit frustrated at one point, when the morning got a little long for a 7 year old girl, and she wanted to go get in the ocean that was just outside our window.  We went out to take some pictures of her and here right below us, out on the beach were the rest of our gang yelling and hollering like crazy trying to get our attention.  It was really funny and that made her feel a bit better that she got to see them! 

 

 

The Make-up / Hair artist did all of our hair and Michele's make-up.  :)  Her hair was amazing and it was really cool that she came and did it in the room we were in.  Michelle had a little Tiara for Ava's hair but it ended up being too heavy so we had to us a head band later on instead. :)  However, Ava did need help with getting her shoes buckled and Michele was the one that helped her and it made for  a sweet moment.   We joked a lot about the Hurricane coming. . .the weather was predicting it to be a big one!  Michele kept a good attitude though. :)  I really enjoyed her watching her come together as the beautiful bride she had dreamed of being.  She was so excited and shining so brightly with her beautiful smile as she was anticipating this moment we had been praying for for so many years.