It all started out one weekend it was supposed to start warming up with 'severe weather warnings' being shouted out all over the news so we decided to take up living outdoors. Sleeping under the stars, creating our own little drive in. We blew up the camping beds covered them in sheets and pillows. Hooked up our little TV from the living room and installed the portable DVD players. Eric's brother in law and kids came over and brought the latest Harry Potter DVD. We were set! First night, in the middle of the movie we felt... what? A rain drop? Nooooo! It couldn't be. I think the skies just had to remind us that yes we did live in the NW. We were looking to the skies and yes a thunderstorm was brewing. I didn't think it would amount to much but with 5 kids under the age of 6 we better pack it in so in we went. The next day not a cloud in the sky and it was getting warmer earlier so out comes all the gear! Beds, bedding, TV and swim suits. I haven't paraded in my swim suit since I was a kid... ahem, not a pretty picture to say the least.Much to our surprise our neighbor comes knocking at our door and hands us a gently used air conditioner and helps us to install it in our kitchen window. Holy Cow, someone is looking out for us! we turned that puppy on and it didn't stop for a whole week. Honestly I'm not sure we would have made it if we hadn't received such a generous gift out of nowhere, I can't tell you how thankful I am. I actually told Eric after the first night of trying to sleep, "we may have to go find a hotel to stay in". He looked at me like I was crazy but I think down deep he may have thought I was on to something. :) You know growing up in the heat of CA all my life and enduring the high temperatures down there, the heat that we have been living through here in WA is so much more intense. I've been in hotter temperatures down there but when it got over 100 degrees here... I don't know, life was much harder to handle. I'm not sure if its the humidity or maybe I just have to accept the fact that I'm getting older and need the pampering a bit more than I used to??? The picture below is of our drive in movie camp out... it was quite cozy and fun!
Then it hit! 100 degrees plus, and it wasn't cooling of at night. I think one TV report said it was 85 at midnight on those really hot nights. We packed everything we needed that was out in and started transforming our house into three small rooms. Our generous gift was precious but she just wasn't cut our for the whole house. So when Eric went to work I started renovating the house. The living room (picture below) was rearranged, stripped and this now was our drive in bedroom for the 5 of us. Our thickest sleeping bags got nailed up to the entrance to the family room to cut off that huge room and another was hung at the hallway down to the bedrooms. All we would have to do was endure the heat when nature called or we forgot to grab something we couldn't live without. It wasn't pretty but all 5 of us stayed pretty comfy for the next few days. Poor Eric having to try and sleep through us watching TV at night and get himself up at 2:30 to get off to work. Neither of us slept very well all week, but I felt especially bad for him.
All in all, it was fun, maybe not in the thick of it all but looking back its a good memory that will stay with us forever.
I think today was the first day back to the 70's and 80's. The beds came down, toys getting picked up, girls bummed they have to go back to their regular beds in their regular bedrooms. Tomorrow morning starts the "getting back to normal" phase before this weekend. Next we start packing up for a big camping trip we have planned for the Oregon coast. The next few weeks will be busy ones but... lots of fun blogging stuff ahead. Goodnight.
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