A summer weekend visit, a storm, and unplanned travel

In early August, we packed up and we made our way down to the Indianapolis area to visit my sister- and brother-in-law, Katelyn and Devin. They are expecting their first baby, and we wanted to squeeze in one* more visit before baby girl arrives!

Along the way, we stopped by Purdue University, our alma mater and where we met our freshman year. Our first stop was Greyhouse Coffee (where I worked as a barista in my college days) for a latte and an americano. We walked around campus with the boys after that, showing them the bell tower, the clapping circles, the big fountain, and various other sites. Campus looks very different than it did when we graduated 13(!) years ago, but some things still felt very nostalgic. It was fun to show the boys around! Then we got back in the car and finished out the drive.

Friday evening, we visited Katelyn and Devin's neighborhood pool, and then had burgers on sourdough buns. On Saturday, rain was forecasted all day long, so we had a cozy morning at their house with bacon and eggs and sourdough toast. The boys played with Devin's matchbox cars from his childhood, and we took our time getting ready. And then we headed over to the Indianapolis Children's Museum.

We had a great time! There is so much to see, so we didn't have time for all of it, but we hit many of the highlights. The boys loved the dinosaur exhibits and the lock and dam, and the ancient Egyptian exhibit, and I loved the glass exhibit. We were glad we packed lunches, since that was easy and more economical. We headed back to their house around 4pm, for showers and dinner at their house, which was taco bowls. That night, after the boys were finally asleep, the grown up played some euchre.

Sunday morning, we packed up and then headed to Patachou for breakfast, as has become our tradition each time we visit. The boys love the waffles and we love the omelettes. We hugged and said "See you soon when baby girl arrives." And then we drove home. What a sweet visit! But as it would turn out, it would not be the last time we would see them before our niece's arrival.

On August 11, Northwest Indiana experienced extremely severe storms with sustained winds as high as 100 mph in some areas, considered a "derecho" or land hurricane. We lost power, as did over 300,000 households in the region. Our street flooded, as it tends to when we get heavy rain and the storm culvert inevitably fills with debris. Nicholas was working in Chicago that day and his commute took him through neighboring communities that were absolutely devastated. From what he saw, power would likely take quite some time to be restored, probably days, was his guess. Since we have well water and depend on electricity for running water and use of all our plumbing, and also Nicholas needed reliable power and internet so he could work, we knew we needed to figure something out. My sister-in-law jokingly said, "Come on down!" But then we actually took her up on her invitation. With help from my father-in-law and his fiancée, Kate, we packed coolers with still-frozen and cold food and threw together duffle bags and toiletries in the dark. We finally got on the road late that night and after turning back for some important forgotten things, we finally made it to Indy after 2AM.

The next few days felt a little like a blur. This was an unplanned visit, so we didn't pack a lot for the boys to do, etc. And each day, we didn't know if we'd have power restored, in which case we would pack up and head home. But I did decide that I would make myself useful during this time, especially since we were crashing Katelyn and Devin mere days from her due date. I made a freezer meal and some snacks for postpartum, which I was really excited about, because it was something I wanted to do for them anyway. Because we live more than two hours away, bringing them a meal after baby girl's arrival wouldn't really be possible, but this unexpected visited gave us a little extra time for me to make something (this pulled pork recipe) for the freezer. I helped cook meals, and then I stress baked quite a bit. I made sourdough hamburger buns, sourdough cinnamon rolls, and sourdough brownies (I had to use up discard before feeding my starter, which came with us, of course).

We did a trip to Target, and a visit to the local farm store that K & D frequent. We watched Family Feud and played euchre. I made lattes in the afternoons with Katelyn's espresso machine. The boys did their own "Color by stickers" books and each of them played with a new hot wheels car. It rained almost the entire time, but we did manage a few neighborhood walks and visits to the neighborhood playground.

And then on Saturday morning, with still no power back at our house, we headed back to our hometown, this time to my father-in-law's house (who had power restored). We did the fridge and freezer shuffle and settled in a bit with an afternoon coffee. The boys busied themselves with play in the basement and here, there, and everywhere. On Sunday afternoon, we went over to check on our house and lo and behold, we had power! And thus began the huge task of transferring everything back into our home and unpacking, and yet another fridge and freezer shuffle.

All told, our house was without power for six days, which is nothing compared to some neighborhoods and areas that went nearly two weeks without power, relying on back-up generators and making-do. It was stressful to hurry up and leave in the middle of the night and not know when we could return, but that stress feels so minimal compared to the damage to and loss of property that so many people experienced.

Blessings I'm so thankful for:

Apart from some downed trees in our little "woods," and debris in our yard, we didn't have any damage to our house or property and most importantly, all five of us were safe.
Comfortable, welcoming homes of family members that had room for the five(!) of us
The ability to do laundry, cook meals, make a latte (I did feel some guilt about this), take a hot shower, relax in the A/C
The huge amount of work my Father-in-law, Bob and his fiancée, Kate, put into taking some of our fridge and freezer food to her house (she has a generator) so that we had minimal food waste, which was a huge blessing. And anything not salvageable, they cleaned out of our fridge and freezers so that we didn't come home to a huge amount of spoiled food.
The unexpected opportunity to offer practical help to my SIL with meal prep and baby anticipation. We had so much more time to chat about labor and postpartum and just life in general, because we had those extra days at their house.

All in all, it was an eventful start to August, that's for sure. Thank you so much, Katelyn and Devin and Bob for hosting us! And I'll be sure to share more about some little bits of normal daily life soon!