Irene has Run

This has been an eventful weekend--in a boring sort of way.

Basically, life has been suspended indefinitely as the entire Eastern Coast of the United States collectively holds its breath waiting to see what exactly Irene has in mind. It's my first hurricane. And I was curious to see how this would all go down.

Sadly (but I guess it really is for the best) there is not much to report. My little family has spent nearly the entirety of the last 48 hours indoors. We are safe and well. We have power. We have yet to break into our three and a half cases of water we stocked up on in preparation for this storm (we have started snacking on the granola bars and peanut butter filled pretzels though. Tasty.)

So how have we been passing the time? Other than eating? Well, let me me tell you; there has been a lot of watching the news, interspersed with a little Peter Pan, Finding Nemo and The Jungle Book; a fair amount of coloring; some Ring-Around-the-Rosie; a bit of baking; and a lot a lot a lot of playing with my new Nikon D3100.

Oh, did I mention I got a new camera? It's a nice one. Pete and I bought it as a consolation prize after we we missed the charter bus that was supposed to take us to his company party somewhere in upstate New York. I guess he never got the email telling us to be there at 8:45 instead of 9:30, which was the original time. Sad.

So instead of spending the entire day with a whole bunch of professional people I don't know who are still incredulous that Pete is actually married and has 1.75 children, by choice, and at his tender age, we went to Costco and bought a camera.

Luckily we had a few good hours before the storm was scheduled to hit, so we got to take some shots outside. Here are a few of the very first images taken with my brand new SLR:

This is the first shot I took just after inserting the fully charged battery. Fitting, I think, to capture a shot of the most important person in my life as my first photo. And a genuine smile too!

Out to the park; these were taken at the Conservatory Garden and a playground nearby.

I know I have loads to learn about how to use this camera, and as soon as the population of NYC is allowed out of our apartments I'll try to capture some of the local aftermath of the storm. Until then, I'm photographing every detail of Amelia's life. So stay tuned for those pics!

Oh, and I wanted to mention something I think is interesting; about three weeks ago the Bishopric of our ward gave a special lesson on hurricane preparedness. New York City hasn't been hit by a hurricane in living memory for any of the ward members, so many of them were a bit skeptical about the likelihood of ever needing to know the information. But the Area President felt inspired that the members needed to know how to prepare for the chance that a hurricane might hit. And just in time. Pretty awesome, yes?