Irene Fun

Ok, so maybe Evelyn wasn't the only one going stir crazy with the storm. Maybe her parents were too. ;) Saturday morning we were going to go to breakfast with some of our friends. IHOPs power went out though right before we were supposed to go so we had everyone over here for pancakes and games instead. We forgot to take pics of the fun, so we had to snap a quick one right before everyone ran back to their homes.

Thanks Wrights, Karen and Melissa for coming to our hurricane party! :)


Sunday night we headed over to the Kiewiets to grill and hang out with friends by candle light. :) Evelyn was so excited that Ava was there. She followed her around all night. It was the first time I've really seen Evie be conscious of another little person and to try to follow them around and do everything with them. Ava was very patient. :)

During the storm Evie rediscovered her love for climbing stairs and tried desperately hard to keep up with Ava. :)

To her discruntlement, Ava is still much faster.

Ava also introduced Evie to Doritos on Sunday. :p I look over to see Ava breaking off tiny pieces of her chips and feeding them to Evelyn who was loving it! It cracked us up. :)

Our last hurricane fun came on Monday morning. This little Richmond refugee came with his Mommy to enjoy some AC and take advantage of our washer and dryer - all of which they were missing in their powerless house and smashed garage.

After a fun walk around CW,
we headed to Firehouse subs for lunch. Nathan and I had never been there and we loved it! (Oh yeah, Nathan's office didn't have power on Monday so he got to work from home. :) He took a little break to go to lunch with us!)
Thanks, Liz and Sam, for coming to Williamsburg to take refuge! :)

Hurricane Irene

The past week in Williamsburg has been quite exciting. First a 5.8 earthquake rocked the area and then a hurricane! Before any west coasters begin laughing at our "earthquake", I do have it from several west coasters that this was still the longest and the strongest earthquake they've felt. Evie and I were sitting outside in CW and I could feel and SEE the earth moving back and forth and up and down. It was quite the weird feeling! Thankfully there was no earthquake damage in Williamsburg.
The hurricane was the much more dramatic of the two. While the storm did slow down a bit before hitting us, there was still flooding and many trees down. Most, if not all of Williamsburg lost power and many people are still without it. Ours only went out from 8:30 pm Saturday to 11:00 am Sunday. It rained (mostly horizontal downpours) for almost 24 hours. We got over 9 inches of rain on Saturday! The wind at its peak was 78 mph sustained. I know 78 mph isn't as high as they originally thought it would be, but still, when you hear it whipping through the trees and around your house, it's pretty intense! Definitely the worst wind we've ever heard! Our apartment is up on a hill without many trees, so while we could hear trees snapping around us, none hit our building.
Many people have asked what Evie thought of the storm... she LOVED it. She was super stir-crazy all day and definitely missing her Aunt Emily and Aunt Caroline. The only thing that she really wanted to do was sit in front of the door and watch the rain and wind! Every time a gust would come up she would get we, but she loved it! It was actually pretty funny.
Can you see her wet face and hair?? :p

Sunday morning we went for a walk to survey the damage. This huge tree is right outside our apartment complex. The picture doesn't really show how big it is. Not sure if you can see it but there is a little house under that tree. :(
Colonial Williamsburg had a lot of trees and branches down, but only one house was really hit. They had lots of crews out working when we got there. Evie loved watching the man with the chain saw. :)
It may just look like Nathan is standing in front of bushes in the below picture, but it's really a massive tree. You can sort of get the feel for the size with how small Nathan and Evelyn are. I couldn't get the whole tree to fit in the picture!
I'm sad because this was one of my favorite trees!!

All the buildings in CW were shuttered up and all the signs and lanterns were tied town. You can sort of see the sign in the picture below.

Trying to get the tree off the house...

This tree is VERY significant as it is the tree I sat under during the earthquake. It split into thirds during the hurricane with only the middle part still standing. :(


Evie, oblivious of the destruction around her, was simply enjoying the beautiful day and NOT being cooped up inside any more!

We saw several of the horses out. They seemed a bit skittish but ok. I guess they leave them all in the pastures during storms because it is safer for them there with falling trees than in the barn.
We've been keeping an eye on Nathan's parents' house as well. Their house is fine but one neighbor had a tree fall on them and another had two massive trees fall. Thankfully they fell into the woods though and NOT on their house!
It seems that there are two extremes... either everything is fine for people or they had very dramatic experiences. We're grateful that everything is fine here at the Mortiers.

Guitar Hero(ine)

Evelyn loves Nathan's guitars, especially his electric one with the amp, speaker and peddles. :) When he's playing she'll just sit there watching and clapping, it's soooo adorable.


She gets very pleased when daddy lets her help play... 
When she gets this excited she just has to stand on her toes :) 
Look at me, Mom!!

Learning her cords...

"Dad, I think we're a little out of tune..."

And anything that she likes has to go in the mouth... :p

The other morning as soon as she was dressed she made a bee line for our room and the guitar. This is what we found. :)

Nathan of course is quite pleased with how much she loves music! While the guitar remains the fav, the piano and turkish drum are also big hits. :)

Uh oh...

Uh oh... I think I just threw all my food on the floor!

Goodbye, Calvin...

Our good friends of the past 3 years moved back to Texas on Sunday. :( :( We'll miss Luke, Stephanie and Calvin here in Williamsburg! I've never known anyone who had as many board games as Luke had! ;) We'll miss their stash of course, but mostly them to play them with! They also always had the latest and greatest video game/wii/kinnect(?) games to play on their projector screen. I'm usually dreadfully behind on these things and very bad at them, but I appreciated Luke keeping me up to speed. ;) As a crafting and couponing queen, Stephanie always inspired me her projects and how great they always turned out. I'll definitely miss her crafty tips and especially her help with Evie's bday! ;) Calvin's cowboy party was amazing. :) I'll miss having her at MOPS... and at home group... and at church... and at mom's morning in... and at the many other adventures that the Hargroves were always up for.
Thanks for being such good friends! Keep your blog updated so we can stay up on your life!! ;)
I carried my camera around for the last few weeks but I only remembered to take pics once! Last Sunday we hung out at their place. We wanted to have them over for dinner but we figured with Calvin and Evie their place might be easier. So we took dinner over there.
Here we are playing an intense board game (Catan variation of course :)). This was a very special Catan edition too... based on OHIO and Indiana! Thanks Luke for pulling it out for me! :D

Calvin wasn't as in to the game so he watched Cars. :)

Natalie's Visit

My good friend for forever, Emily, stopped by with her husband and adorable baby last week. They were in the process of driving from Michigan down to Florida (I think :)). Quite the trip! We were so glad they could stop and spend a few hours with us. Natalie is two months younger than Evie and too sweet.
It's very hard to get four people all smiling and looking the same way when two are babies, but here are our attempts at getting a picture together. (Notice how the girls outfits sort of coordinate! :))

Evie loved Emily...

And I loved Natalie... hopefully she loved me too. :)

And both girls adored Chas. They thought he was the greatest. :)
The girls had a great time playing together while Emily, Chas and I caught up. We can't wait for them to visit again in a few years and visit Williamsburg and all this area for real. :)
(this picture cracks me up)