September 17th - The wreckage

We took a drive around today to see some of the damage. We drove around Clear Lake starting from the Hilton, which was shown quite a bit on TV during the storm. It was sad to see all of the ruined boats. By the way, I'm posting this on Saturday, September 20th and Centerpoint Energy has finally hit the halfway point for people getting their power back. We really were so lucky to get ours back on Monday.

September 15th - So fortunate

We are really so fortunate. Things could be so much worse. In the end, the eye of the storm ended up travelling just east of us, putting us on the "clean" side of the storm. Still, you see the effects of the storm EVERYWHERE. Lots of stop lights are missing, or hanging by a cable, or knocked down. Even those on poles are often bent around 45 degrees, so they are no longer facing the right direction.

At our house, part of our front gutter system fell down, branches and leaves were down, sections of our fence are down, and our play house was ripped apart and found in a ditch way back behind our house. Part of the roof of the playhouse is missing. Who knows where it ended up.

September 14th - Hurrivacation Day 3

This was our last morning at the Baccus-Hope house in Austin, Texas and the kids made the most of it - playing with their cousins. Charlie had woken up throughout the night throwing up, so we were pretty exhausted. Charlie was completely recovered by morning, though. He ran around with the rest of the kids like nothing was wrong.

We really can't thank Daniel and Leslie enough for letting us take over half of their house for three days. We had such a great time!

So it was time to head back in the direction of Houston, but we knew that our house didn't have power yet, so we spent the night at Nana and Papa's house - halfway between Austin and Houston. Nana and Jack even made some banana bread, which was quite good.

September 13th - Hurrivacation Day 2

Charlie was happy to learn today that Daniel was going to spend the entire day with us. Charlie was all about Daniel. The first morning after we woke up at their house, the first thing Charlie said when he emerged from the bedroom is, "Where Daniel?" Luckily, we got to see Daniel for a couple of minutes before he headed off to work. Then Charlie would sadly say, "Daniel work." Today no one worked. We went to the Austin zoo, which was fun because you could feed some of the animals.

After the zoo, we went to a place called the Grove, which is a big playground surrounded by different eateries. We had a quick dinner and then watched the kids run around and climb all over the place. Leslie caught some great shots of Charlie in concentration mode - with his tongue hanging out. Too funny!

The evening ended with a big group bath and then wet kids running around the house making animal noises.

September 12th - Hurrivacation Day 1

On the first day of our hurri-vacation, we tried to go to the botanical gardens to see a cool dinosaur display, but it was closed, so instead we went to a nearby playground. It was pretty hot, though, so after a bit we packed it in and went to dinner. We went to a great burger place called Phils, which was right next to an Amy's ice cream place with an adjoining playground.

By the time we got home that night, the storm surge had already begun.

September 5-7 - Little Brown Bear

Jack was the kid of the week for the first week of school which meant that he got to be the line leader all week. It also meant that Jack got to bring home Little Brown Bear for the weekend. He was supposed to return with the bear the next week and talk about where they went and what they did together. I made a little picture book so Jack could tell his class about the weekend. Unfortunately, Jack was sick on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday was a very busy day, and then Thursday we evacuated from the hurricane.