This was Emily's 6th Birthday. We had a pirate party. I don't know if I was still feeling guilty over the Chuck-E-Cheese party last year or was still intimidated by the fact that my homeschooler was going to be "unsocial"; whatever it was, we had invited EVERYONE she knew. Anyway, we had decided on a pirate theme because she loved hunting for "treasure." So I had it all planned out, we would walk the plank, make eye patches and hook hands, and of course, we would hunt for treasure. I think we had about 16 kids coming. We had a huge backyard, it was going to be great. Well, another problem with being born in September is the fact that it is hurricane weather. The evening before, we had gone to my mom's for a family birthday gathering (nearly 1/2 my extended and personal family has a birthday in September). Now, my grandfather has been a fisherman and crabber on the NC coast for most of my life. He had come to his winter house for the weekend to celebrate birthdays. So, Saturday afternoon when they were calling for an evacuation of the coast, he decides he needs to GO there to properly secure his equipment, house, boat, etc. Now, my grandfather is a very intelligent man. However, for some reason he had/has zero trust and/or faith in weather men and refused to evacuate unless HE thought necessary. By this time, my grandfather was already in his early 70s and Hurricane Dennis was already there. So my uncle (who is two years older than myself - his frontal lobe is not quite as developed as it should be), his brother-in-law (who is Hispanic and at the time knew VERY little English) and Ryan volunteered to go tie everything down. So, they left the party and drove the 2 hr drive into the storm. If you didn't turn onto the driveway for my grandparent's house - you would run into the ocean. The guys parked the truck a ways down the road and walked the rest of the way. The water by the house was already chest high. They got into the house, put valuables (or what was left) in the attic, tied down tanks, etc. Then they decided they had better get back to the truck. The water had already come up to the grill. If Ryan was not a praying man, he became one that night. The truck was minutes from being washed away. It took them nearly 1 hour to get just a few miles to a friend's house more inland. Now, all this time I was at my mother's house waiting for updates. The last time we had heard from them was that the water was already chest high at the house. It was the longest night of my life. Fairly early Sunday morning, the storm was over there and moving toward us (just rain). So they went back to the house and some of the water had receded. Relieved, I went home to prepare for a pirate birthday party in the rain, with 16 kids! Ryan pulled in our driveway about 20 minutes before the party was to begin smelling of gas. I don't know why I remember that but I do. I can still smell it. Anyway, we improvised. We made patches and hooks in the living room, we walked the plank in the kitchen, we had a treasure hunt in the garage. In a moment of desperation, I filled a swimming pool with packing peanuts and put treasures in it. Overall, I think the party was a success despite the horrible rainy weather outside. There were many times after that where someone needed to go back down to the coast - it was never again Ryan. We have gone afterwards to help with the clean-up efforts, but never during. There are some things just not worth losing.
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