Monday, September 22, 2008

Our Hurricane Ike Story

We helped Johnna's dad board up the house. We had all decided to stay since we were up in Kingwood, decidedly safe from flood and the worst of the winds.
Tanner was trying to set a good example for everyone with a safety first attitude.
This process would have taken no-telling how long without the help of Tanner and Tatum. (Actually, it would have taken about a third of the time, but always let your kids help!)
All finished, try to get in now pine trees and looters!
(And don't say 'I'll just use the front door' because we covered it eventually too!)
Well, the Thomson crew eventually did decide to leave on one of the Continental airplanes that Troy flies. They were taking about eleven of them to Abilene, TX. Since Johnna's family has a lakehouse very near Abilene, we decided that there is no reason to go without water and electricity with two 19 mo. olds if we didn't have to.
Here are Johnna and the babies waiting at the Maintenance Hanger for one of the Aircraft to arrive.
Well, guess what, every pilot's dream came true. "We don't have a Captain who can evacuate this aircraft, is there anyone who can fly this plane?" A brave soul from the croud speaks up, "Why yes, I can fly this airplane." "Oh thank God, it's Captain Thomson" someone yells from the back.
O.K. I made all that up! But they did ask Troy if he would be willing to fly one of the airplanes out. He of course agreed and we actually had the whole airplane to ourselves. So Johnna and the babies sat in the last row of the aircraft with not even a flight attendant on board. They watched movies...
And came and visited Daddy in the cockpit...excuse me, flight deck.
This is somewhere over Austin, TX.
The company rented us a car and we went and stayed with Johnna's grandparents at the lakehouse and rode the golf carts around and played and had a good time. The company wanted to be up and running on Monday after the storm so we returned the aircraft to Houston and this time had a plane full of other employees and their families. 
Unfortunately, one of those employees came back to find his car like this...
We came back to find our neighborhood like this...
Gas station line for gas cans
This tree missed the plywood over the windows of our neighbor's house
We are very thankful that our families are safe and that the loss of life of our fellow Texans was minimal compared to other past storms. We prayed for our families and friends loss of property and possesions, dusted off our jeans, gathered up the lemons that came our way and made lemonade. Well...Iced tea. Thats what Texans do.

Thank goodness for the cool weather while the electricity was out because this is what we did all day everyday!! The kids really got used to spending all of their time outdoors! 

We really got to know all of the neighbor kids really well this week!
To celebrate the electricity coming back on we decided to have a block party and celebrate a few birthdays while we were at it!
And this is what Tanner has in his hands from the time he wakes up till the time he goes to sleep!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very cool...this reminds me of our neighborhood so much!! We have block parties all the time..so much fun! PS: We just found out were pregnant with #2!