My 30th Birthday & Winter Storm Leon

I certainly won't be forgetting my 30th birthday anytime soon! The day before my birthday the Gulf Coast shut down in preparation for Winter Storm Leon {it's still so weird to me that we're naming winter storms these days!}. Although snow was forecasted for us here in Biloxi, we mostly just got a lot of sleet. Here's a few pictures of our Winter Wonderland, Gulf Coast Style....

So weird to see white on the rooftops!

Derek loves taking photos to show the accumulation of the winter weather ;)

Shelby all bundled up with Smitten to go see the ice!

Sleet in her hair :)

Back inside to warm up with Mama & Sissy..I think Shelby lasted
all of 5 minutes outside ;)  Derek & Shelby went out the back door
to start exploring, but by the time they made it around to the front door
she was already ready to come inside ;)

I wish I would have gotten a video of Shelby Skyping with my sister during Leon. Emily stood outside while the snow was falling in Atlanta while we Skyped so Shelby could see snow falling for the first time! She was tickled pink by the fact that there were snowflakes in Auntie Em's hair!  It was so cute! Shelby wanted snowflakes in her hair in the worst way, but at least we got a picture of her with sleet in her hair! ;)

Everything was shut down in Biloxi on the 28th & 29th. Some things started to reopen on the 30th with delays. The biggest problem here with winter weather is that there are just SO many bridges, and there is no salt. Instead of salt, sand was put down. Keesler had to rip open their sandbags from their hurricane prep to sand the roads. ;)  Then of course, street sweepers were out after the storm in an attempt to clean all that sand off the roads.

We all kind of laughed at how cautious the Gulf Coast was with this storm, but I'm so thankful they were after seeing how everything ended up in Atlanta & Birmingham! Schools there didn't close ahead of the storm, and it ended up being mass pandemonium on the roads as a result due to the weather & volume of traffic. People were stranded in cars for hours & hours on end, people abandoned cars on the road & walked to safety, kids had to spend the night at schools after buses couldn't get out--it was insane! Both of my parents, Derek's dad & stepmom, as well as Maleah, Lucas, Elly, & Leland were among the countless number of people who were stranded on the roads. So on the eve of my birthday, I was busy fielding phone calls and worried sick about my family. It's scary to think how quickly things can fall apart. Thankfully, everyone ended up safe & sound...but it was a scary 24 hours!

Maleah had to WALK to pick the kids up from daycare & then
managed to safely to get to a friend's house where they stayed overnight
until road conditions improved. But can we please talk about how beautiful
these two mamas look despite the fact that they are trudging through snow
& ice with 2 babies & 2 toddlers in their work clothes?!

Derek & I didn't get much sleep the night before my birthday b/c we were so worried about everyone, so we were both too tired to celebrate my birthday on the day of...plus almost everything was still closed here. So we waited until the day after to celebrate--it's always more fun to elongate the celebration anyways! ;)  We went to dinner on the 30th with the Goins to celebrate & then our Book Club girls went out for drinks afterwards...it was a fun night!