The calm before the storm

There is a storm heading in our direction. (Is it too late to head back to Kodiak?) Since the kids are used to getting up at around 6:30am for school, they were up really early on Sunday morning. They were loaded in the minivan and at Publix for some last minute supplies by about 7:45am. We purchased our normal groceries and a few extra supplies (bottled water, batteries, and some non-perishible foods). At 9am we left the store and entered into an overflowing parkinglot. It seems like everyone is out preparing for the storm.

Keith will likely be over at the air station during the storm, but the kids and I are very prepared. Most likely we'll just have some Kodiak-style winds and collect a few inches of rain. I want to put Megan's rain gauge outside, but I'm afraid the wind will take it away. Just in case we loose power, we've got oil lamps and fun kid lights. I've even taken it upon myself to finish the last of the ice cream, you know, just in case the freezer isn't working - I'd hate to waste some fantastic mint chocolate chip.

After lunch, the kids and I walked down to the park. The temperature had climbed up into the 90's in the sun, but it was beautiful and breezy in the shade.
Daniel loves to collect acorns. We've agreed that he can put them in a cup, not in his pockets.
He took his acorns on a ride down the slide. Notice his mouth wide open, "weeee".
Megan was getting distressed when she noticed someone intruding on our personal belongings.
It was this little fella. He was going after the unattended trail mix. Apparently the selection of acorns had gotten a little boring. He made off with a cashew that had fallen off the bench.
Daniel being a scary dinosaur.

I have no pictures of Joshua because he saw a friend of his at the park, and I didn't want to embarass him by following him around like the paparazzi. I wasn't too crazy about this friend. Purely for the fact that he kept talking about shows from the Cartoon Network (something about a pancake superhero? anyone familiar with this?). We usually limit the influence of TV to PBS and very, very rarely Noggin. However, we've been letting the kids watch the Olympics (although I cringe at half the commercials that are on during the games for NBC's new line-up of lame primetime shows). Lucky for us, when people start talking about mainstream media things, we just shrug and blame it on, "oh, we've been in Alaska for the past 5 years" and then change the subject to igloos and polar bears. :) I'm sure sometime soon I'll have to come up with a way to nicely change the subject away from kids and TV without sounding like a snob. Any suggestions?