Our town is slowly moving towards normalcy after being trashed by the flood. The schools were closed for 5 days and reopened on Thursday. The middle school was severely damaged by the flood and might not open again. Right now those kids are spread out amongst the elementary schools and everyone is adjusting. Lilly and Jack have been spending a lot of quality time together now that our house has half the living space it once had.
On Wednesday I decided I needed a break from the flood and my ruined basement. I took my children over the hills and through the woods to Penns Cave. It is "America's only all-water cavern."
The only way to see the cavern is by boat. Before the tour of the cave Lilly convinced me to pan for gold. It was actually very fun.
During the boat tour they talked extensively about flooding and how no one can live in the cave because it floods and people would die. Not exactly the break from flooding I was hoping for....
I thought Lilly and Jack would love it, but they were scared out of their minds. My super active toddler who will not sit still for anything was frozen on my lap with his finger in his mouth. Lilly curled up in a ball and got as close to me as she could and didn't move. The tour lasted 52 minutes and those children didn't move a muscle. Lilly made a few comments about the stalactites and stalagmites and mostly about how scary it was.
Can you see the fear on their faces waiting to get on the boat??
The tour guide talked about how the water was 38 degrees and if you fell in you, your body would go into shock and you would die very quickly. Thanks tour guide for that new fear you instilled in my children.
Lilly is back in school and Jack and I are once again trying to get back to normal.
p.s. I am SO ready for this summer to be over. Next Friday is the official first day of Autumn. Hurray!
Lilly singing our unofficial flood theme song. It became our theme song because she wouldn't stop singing it and then we couldn't get it out of our heads!
Even amidst the flooding of our town and our home life marches on. Lilly lost her second tooth on Saturday. She was thrilled. The tooth fairy was scrambling to find a dollar amidst all the flood destruction. but was successful in the end!
One day last week I fed Lilly pop-tarts for breakfast and she said "Mom, I really don't think this has enough protein for us." I laughed and laughed. Although, she did make a good point.
She also asked me if Wolverine was real in the 80s. Not sure how she knows what either of those things are. She keeps me laughing.
We have seen a tremendous amount of love and support this past week from friends and family, especially our local friends who have helped us out immensely. We are very grateful!
We went to visit my mom last weekend. We went to the temple, shopped, and a had a good time.
Jim and I were also able to visit the new Martin Luther King memorial in DC. It is quite impressive. The memorials were very crowded. More so than the normal holiday crowds.
We didn't think to bring our cameras...but here is a picture of the memorial.
We are cleaning up in our small little town. Cleaning up from the major flooding that you might have seen on the news.
Jack (this morning) at the soccer fields. The water levels are slowly going down.
Lilly and Jack at the soccer fields. I would like to pretend that Lilly is grumpy because she can't play soccer for a few weeks...but that's not the case. She was pouting about something and I can't remember what...
Below is the Susquehanna on Thursday. The rain slowed down and we could get some pictures. I don't know if you can tell but at this point the river is already out of it's banks.
Here is the river on Friday. The river came right up and into the houses that lined the street. You can see the trees are the same in each picture, only we couldn't get close on Friday because of the water levels.
Here is the view from our friends front porch. Their basement filled with water but it miraculously did not reach their first level. On an even better note the water levels have gone down this morning and they are able to start cleaning up.
Jim caught some video of Chris kayaking over to his neighbors house to try and shut the door for them. (You can hear Jack saying "Go go!")
We checked out a couple of the flood spots this morning and the water is starting to slowly recede.
Jack is checking out the view of the flooded middle school and CVS. The middle school was under a lot of water and it is unsure when they will be able to return to school. The school district closed early Wednesday and remained closed Thursday and Friday.
Here is a picture I got from facebook. It is an aerial shot of the middle school.
This is another photo from facebook. A picture looking into our town. The flood gates are keeping all that water from getting further into town.
The water levels are coming down and the sun is shining.
Lilly lost her first tooth yesterday. I think this growing up thing is happening too fast. First kindergarten, now a tooth! What is happening to my baby?
She lost it on the bus ride home from school. Her friend, Cara, came screaming off the bus saying "Liz, Liz, Lilly lost her tooth!"
Lilly then climbed off the bus holding her bloody tooth in her hand (gross).
She showed it to me and then dropped it on the road. Her friend picked up the tooth and put it back in Lilly's hand (double gross - why do kids think it's ok to touch bloody teeth?).
We went home and promptly put it under the pillow for a tooth fairy (wrapped in a paper towel). Lilly was very upset that she didn't have any tissues in her backpack. She insisted that we go to the store and buy her an individual pack of kleenex to keep in her bag for the next time she looses a tooth on the bus.
The tooth fairy came last night and left one dollar under her pillow.
On a whim, I joined Jim at Penn State last Friday. He is only on campus for three hours on Fridays and I decided to tag along with Jack.
Jack and I toured campus while Jim had class. It was very surreal to walk around campus with my son. The campus is filled with memories. Some things have changed, but most things are still the same.
I took Jack to the Nittany Lion and to other landmarks on campus.
We had a great time.
Now that Jim is working towards his PhD at Penn State we might have more opportunities to visit.
I think it must be very strange for Jim to go back to the same school 8 years later.
