Bringing Deakin Home

I guess this is just going to be a little bit out of order - obviously we brought Deakin home from the hospital before Halloween - but I can't figure out how to reorder the post without deleting one - and I'm just not going to bother to do that. I figure that this is a positive step for my anal self - or maybe my slackerism just coming out (less sleep and finals approaching will cause that).

I ended up getting discharged the day before Deakin did. Deakin had jaundice and had to stay an extra day working on his tan. It was really sad but it ended up working out for the best; while Deakin was hanging out with the most expensive babysitters I hope to ever employ Scott, Mom and I were closing on our new house. (a post about the house really will be coming I promise) After leaving the closing we dropped Mom off at the house, because she couldn't come into the the nursery at the hospital anyways and went to pick up our son.

The clothes that we bought him for coming home in were way to big. He was born at just shy of 8 lbs and these clothes were labeled as starting at 8 lbs but really I think we could have fit two of him in the pants. :) Oh well because now (beginning of Dec) the pants fit great - although he is about to outgrow the shirt. I find it odd that the shirt and pants are the same size from the same place and yet fit so very differently - I guess all babies are just different sizes. Deakin is long and skinny, a "banana baby," as opposed to an "apple baby." Bananas are supposed to be healthier - I hope so.

Dressing babies is hard the first time that you do it - in fact I'm convinced that the nurses must get a kick out of it. I didn't look - but I have a feeling that they were peeking through the window laughing at us... :)

We did however finally manage to get him dressed, and by the end of it he was not a happy camper. (and you can tell in this picture how big his clothes are - they were about to eat him alive)

Once we started rocking him in the car seat he settled down very quickly - that is one of the great things about Deakin, he settles down very very fast - what a good baby :)

Baby's first car ride

Kiko was very interested in what this new toy we brought home for her was. Jude on the other hand still wants nothing to do with him and its been 5 weeks. I hope that he gets used to Deakin some day - otherwise it is going to be a very long life - especially when Deakin gets mobile.

And last but not least - Grandma finally got to hold the baby. Due to the swine flu going around, they were not allowing visitors in the nursery so Grandma had only got to see him through the window for a couple of minutes.

Halloween

I love Halloween and we were so excited that Deakin made his arrival before Halloween. We actually ordered his costume while we were still at the hospital. We didn't want to buy it ahead of time because then we were sure he wouldn't get here in time. So we rush shipped it right before Halloween. Originally he was going to be a turtle, but I was worried that his shell might make it harder to hold and/or lay down an infant that was only a couple of days old - so we went with a tree frog instead. When his costume got here it was huge - way to big for a newborn, even though it said that it started at 0 months. So we rolled the legs all of the way up and balanced the head covering on - he will still be able to wear it next summer, if not next Halloween. We are thinking about dressing him up for St. Patties day because its so cute and the color is right :)

Two days before Deakin got here, Scott and I both carved pumpkins. Mine is the kitty and Scott's is the scary face. The plan was to buy another pumpkin and carve it for Deakin if he arrived in time. We put off buying the pumpkin (not like we were busy or anything) until the day before Halloween - and everywhere was sold out. Scott finally found the little pumpkin in the floral department with a sticker of a goofy face on it. On Halloween - right as trick or treaters were showing up (so much fun to have trick or treaters this year) Scott scraped of the dumb face and carved Deakins pumpkin, which says "Boo!"

Here was the inspiration for Deakin's pumpkin. Isn't he too cute.

Halloween was a lot of fun. Deakin wasn't old enough to enjoy it (obviously) and he was not a big fan of his costume (only stayed in it long enough for a few pictures) but we had a good time. We had two little trick or treaters (maybe 2-3) come inside and chase our kitties - their dad was very apologetic but it was adorable, a Georgetown law grad who noticed the hoodie I was wearing and talked about what a great school it is, several congratulations on a new baby (he was helping hand out candy) and lots of people complimenting us on our awesome pumpkins!

...so I finally found some time....

Its been a month since I last updated the blog, so I have finally found some time to write about everything that has been going on in our lives - baby, new house, school, etc. So get ready for several blog posts all at once :)

Deakin's Arrival

After having contractions for 10 days and completely neglecting my school work during that time we finally went to the hospital on Sunday October 25. I had contractions all day Saturday that were about 7 minutes apart and Scott and I had been going for long walks trying to get the contractions to hurry up. We walked over 25 miles in less then a week before Deakin's arrival. The contractions would get harder and more frequent during the walks but then lessen in strength when we would stop. On Sunday, I woke up having contractions 5 minutes apart and they stayed that way all day long. Normally they tell you to go into the hospital when you contractions are 5 minutes apart - but my contractions didn't hurt, which I was assured that they would when they were real contractions and not just false labor.

I spent the hours leading up to the hospital calling several people for advice about when to go to the hospital - because I did not want to show up and get told to go back home. That would have been a waste of time and if we weren't about to have the baby then I needed to be doing homework for school on Monday. I called my mom and then I called my cousin Frannie - who had just had a baby 3 months earlier, and her sister Bridget - who has 3 kids and is an RN. They both suggested that I head to the hospital because the worst that could happen was to go home. At about 5:30 pm I finally call the hospital and asked what they thought. I told them that I had been having contractions for 10 days and that they were finally pretty consistent and close together, and that I had been having other symptoms that would indicate that labor was imminent. The only thing that I was missing was painful contractions or having my water break. The hospital said that it was better safe then sorry and to come in - especially since I already knew that I was dilated to at least a 4.

We got to the hospital around 7:30, and when the nurse checked me out she said that I was only a little past a 4. They allowed me to decide whether I wanted to stay and having the kiddo with the aid of pitocin (if things didn't speed up on their own), or head home to wait for things to happen naturally. I opted for the drugs - it was time for Deakin to make his arrival.

They put us into a labor room and since walking around strengthened my contractions they put me on a wireless monitor and had me walking around the room (they had nice big rooms - see picture - thats about half of it). Scott and I had got the first Harry Potter book on audio so we listen to that to pass the time. A couple of hours later I still hadn't made progress so it was time for some drugs. They set up my pitocin drip a little after midnight and told me to get some sleep.

They came back in around 3 am (Monday morning) and decided that I was now up to 6 cm. They were surprised to find out that I was that far dilated and that the contractions were still not painful. In order to get things progressing faster they decided to break my water. They were surprised by how much water there was - I guess we figured out why I wasn't really feeling my contractions - because as soon as they broke my water my contractions were exceedingly painful. Epidural please!

At one point after they broke my water, his heart beat dropped. They were going to try and put fluid back into the uterus to relieve some of the pressure on the umbilical cord. They told us that if that didn't work that we were going to have to do a c-section. Deakin, I believe, is going to be a poop head (and I say that in the nicest way). He wanted until the doctors had the catheter out of its sterile packaging and were about to insert it - and then he flipped over (or something) and his heartbeat went right back up to normal. I think that he just wanted some extra attention :)

Around 7 am they told me that I could start pushing and that they expected it to take about 30 minutes to get Deakin out because he was already sitting so low. Deakin had other ideas - he wanted to come out sideways. No matter how they tried to flip him over he always rolled back to the same sideways position. His head got stuck to the point that he was missing some skin on his head when he came out, and even after his head was out his shoulders got stuck. I guess they were thinking about having to break his collar bone to get him out - but then he finally made his way fully into the world at 10:08 - that's right 3 hours. It really wasn't too bad until the last 45 minutes or so. I also lost the right to say that I never threw up during my pregnancy in that last 45 minutes - oh the joys of labor.

But I guess he is worth it. This is Dr. Bathgate - she has been my OB for my entire pregnancy. I guess that it is uncommon that your normal OB be the one to deliver the baby because they run a group practice and who ever is on call that day is the one to do the delivery. This photo is about 5 minutes after Deakin was born.

The proud dad. Scott told me that there were times in the last remaining minutes of labor that he wanted to say encouraging things - but he was too choked up to talk. I'm so glad that he was there with me.

Our first family picture. Don't you just love my hairdo - it took me forever to get all of the tangles out of my hair the first time that I took a shower after this.

Deakin arrived weighing 7 pounds 13 ozs, and was 19 inches long, more then a full pound heavier then the admitting doctor guessed he would be.

We talked to Dr. Bathgate about the next kiddo that we are hoping to have. She told us that they were going to induce the next one early in hopes of avoiding some of the problems we had this time with the labor and delivery process. That means I get to schedule it - woohoo!!! You have no idea how excited I am about this. It means that I won't have to wait for over a week having contractions and not getting anything done. (Well I guess that could still happen - but at least now I will know that there is a specific end date.) It also means that I get to know the plan ahead of time - and we all know how much I like to make plans - this is going to be awesome!

Weeks 37 & 38

Here we are approaching the final days of Deakin's life in-utero. We are ready for him to join us in the outside world. I had my 37 week doctors appointment and found out that I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced...we didn't figure that there would be a 38 weeks picture...but as you can tell from the title there was, and then there was a 38 week doctor's appointment - we found out that we are almost 4 cm and 75% effaced. At least we are making progress. I also believe that I am going to have to stop posting about the progress on facebook because people feel the need to tell me that they were that far along for weeks and not to get my hopes up....well I don't want to hear those types of comments and the hormonal preggo lady in me got kinda pissed that people would feel the need to tell me that. However, the more rational preggo lady in me said that I shouldn't be upset because they were just wanting to share their experiences etc. So I resisted the urge to write back on facebook - so I'm doing it here instead...the urge was too strong to do nothing.

Hopefully this will be the end of the belly pictures - Scott is voting that we wake up tonight (Friday the 23rd) after going to bed and having to go to the hospital then. I just hope that he is here before the end of the weekend. I don't want to go to school on Monday, but more importantly we are closing on our house on Thursday and I kind of need to be there...but if I am at the hospital then I am setting up a power of attorney so that Scott can sign for me. The biggest problem would be if Deakin comes on Thursday and Scott and I are both at the hospital...then well...I guess we ask them to reschedule - surely they won't hold a baby against us and decide not to sell us the house right :)

Week 37

Week 38

Weeks 35 & 36

So I am always runing a couple of weeks behind with photos - here are weeks 35 and 36.

Week 35

Week 36

Deakin is Full Term

Today marks 37 weeks - that means that Deakin is officially full term. He could show up at any time. My vote is that he is going to listen to mommy and come before Halloween. Scott on the other hand is going with statistics and saying that he is going to come late. I guess we'll find out soon. I won the last bet (about Deakin being a boy). Now we just need to figure out what the terms of the bet are going to be.

Dad's 50th B-Day!

Kelly Coover is officially old - he is a half of a century old today! We are going to start looking into old folks homes this weekend - since we finally found a home for ourselves, Scott and I just have too much free time (yeah right) so we needed something to do...lol

Love you dad

Haunted House

I was so worried that this year Scott and I were going to have to break our Haunted House tradition. We have been to one every year since we started dating, and have gone with our friends Kevin and Jane every year that we have been in DC. I assumed that being 8 months preggo that either my doctor would tell me not to do it or that the haunted house wouldn't admit me for liability reasons. However, I have received the excellent news that I have been cleared to go by both of them. Woohoo. The doctor said that it shouldn't be a problem because I haven't had any complications; she even wrote me a note that I could take with me. She said that she had never written a note for a haunted house - I believe that she finds us amusing...lol. As for the haunted house that we selected this year (indoors so that I don't have to worry about tripping in the woods) they said that while they do not recommend that pregnant ladies attend they would be happy to have me. Both this email and my doctors note are coming with us - that way if they try to change their mind I have proof that they already said I could come. So Saturday we are meeting up with Kevin and Jane, showing them the new house, and then off to dinner and a haunted house - its going to be a great weekend!

We have a house!

Found out this afternoon that the sellers ratified our contract. Now we have to get all of the inspections done and get our mortgage and insurance in order. Hopefully we will have possession of the house in about a month. Then we have a month and a half to do get it ready to be moved into - we can't leave our house sitting post until we leave for Christmas break. However, we hope to get at least most of our furniture etc. moved in before we leave for break.

Before we move in we plan to carpet the whole house, put overhead lighting in the bedrooms and probably the living and family room, as well as paint and maybe redo one of the bathrooms (but that might have to wait until later when we have a bit more money. Its so great that we have a place lined up ad that we don't have to move back into an apartment.

House Update

House #2 didn't work out either. However, we already have an offer in on house #3. Hopefully third time's a charm. We don't like it as much as house #2 but it is a great investment and much better then moving into an apartment when our house sitting venture is over. As of right now we are not in a competitive bidding situation and its an estate sale so we are hoping that they will want to close fast. Our real estate guessed that we would hear sometime back within 2 days. So we might know by the end of the week. Here is a link to the house - not as pretty as the last one but lots of potential.

http://www.redfin.com/MD/College-Park/4900-Laguna-Rd-20740/home/11082260

Weeks 33 & 34

Go me - I am getting back into the groove of keeping up with the blog. Here are the last two weeks. I think that I actually look bigger in week 33 - its funny how much of a difference what clothes I'm wearing makes.

Week 33

Week 34

Deakin's Coming Home Outfit

Scott and I put some thought into what we would bring Deakin home from the hospital in. We decided to go with real people clothes - this outfit actually really looks like something that Scott would wear, so I'm debating on making Scott pack something like this :) then they could be twins. If it is really cold we also have a navy blue zip up hoodie for him to wear.

House Update

So about an hour after I made an entry about the house it was taken off of the website that I linked to. We are hoping that this is a good sign - but really who knows. Hopefully we will know something by the end of the week!

Potential House - Try Number 2

The last offer that we put in did not turn out so well....moving on. Yesterday I was avoiding homework and was looking through a real estate website at some houses when I found a new listing. It looked great on the outside (no inside pictures), huge (5 bedroom, 3 bathroom), and in our price range. I yelled up to Scott to get on messenger so that I could send him the link and insisted that he call the realtor right then. I wanted to see the house ASAP - it was priced below that it was worth and it was going to go off the market fast.

We went out with the realtor this morning. The house is awesome. It is basically move in ready (wash the carpet, paint, and a new stove) and I love it. Before we left the house we had the realtor calling the selling realtor. They said that they already had multiple offers (the house was only on the market for 3 days) and they implied that they were over the asking price, which isn't surprising. The house is a foreclosure and the bank was asking less then market value because they want their money fast.

Long story shorter - we called the lender and got our bid out at 5pm this afternoon. We offered a fair bit over the asking price and our terms seem really good - so our realtor thinks that we have a good shot at it. My heart is set on this one - which is dumb...after the last one I said that I wasn't going to get attached to another house before our contract was ratified...but oh well what are you going to do.

If you would like to see the outside of the house here is the link - the info is a little off, its 3 beds upstairs and 2 downstairs but other then that I think its right.

http://www.redfin.com/MD/College-Park/9606-48th-Ave-20740/home/11082589

Halloween Costume

Deakin is due right around Halloween. We would really like him to show up on or before Halloween - because the birthday parties would just be soooooo much fun. If only we knew for sure that he was going to make it here on time I would be getting him this Halloween costume. However, I have a feeling that if I did buy it, he would come late.... So I have the website saved and if he comes early I am going to have them rush ship it to the house so that we can dress him up on his first Halloween.

And yes I realize that he won't be crawling or even able to hold his head up but I bet that we will be able to get some really cute pictures.

Just How Far He's Come

Uploading pictures by the week so that the first ones and the later ones being on different pages its hard to tell just how much change has happened. So I thought I would give a recap. The following two pictures were taken at 6 weeks and 32 weeks. I forgot just how skinny I was until I opened this early picture...wonder how long it will take to get back down to that size...if ever...I have a feeling that even if I can get back down to my pregnancy weight - that things will have shifted around a bit - its all a conspiracy to make me buy new clothes :)

Weeks 29 - 32

Finally, I have gotten around to putting more belly pictures on the blog. In my defense...school started. So here is a month's worth of photos - hopefully I will get better about putting them up when we take them - but don't hold your breath. This weekend (we normally take them Friday mornings) I am working a 9 hour shift on Friday, Saturday we are looking at houses, and Sunday is the date day that Scott owes me for losing the bet about whether we were having Deakin or Kaylee. My vote was for Deakin, but Scott was convinced we were having a girl. Anyways, he assures me that he has plans for the whole day and that I have to have all of my homework done before then. Long story short - it will be at least next weekend before I will get around to doing this again, sorry. :)

Week 29

Week 30

Week 31

Week 32

House ....

A tragic event has happened....someone offered cash for the house we wanted.... But the really sucky part is that it happened after the broker had contacted us for more information (a really good sign that they were looking to ratify our offer). So when our realtor called this afternoon, we thought it was to tell us that we had gotten the house...and then our hopes were dashed :(

So this weekend I guess we will continue the search for a house....I guess the next time around we know not to spend so much time trying to decide what we are going to do to fix it up ... until after we go under contract

Potential House

Scott and I decided that our lives weren't busy enough this semester - so we decided that it was the right time to try and buy a house....and not just any house but a foreclosure that needs some work done on it before we could move in. Don't get me wrong - this house is a great opportunity and I really hope that it works out. If you would like to see pictures of the house you can click on the following link. If the link no longer works that means one of two things... 1) we have a contract out on the house, in which case many more pictures will follow or 2) someone else got the house and Scott and I start the process all over again.

http://www.redfin.com/MD/College-Park/5114-Kenesaw-St-20740/home/11089939

The house has a lot of potential, and I could spend half an hour writing about all of the things we are going to do to it, if we get the chance. However, since I should be doing homework....I am going to save that post until later when we know if the bank has accepted our offer. :)

Baby's First Christmas Present

Just thought I should let you know - I've already bought Deakin's first Christmas present. Its not that I'm crazy - although I do admit to being a little crazy - its just that it was at Costco and it was awesome and you never know how long something will be there. So as you can see, I had to get it. I just can't tell you what it is because its a secret - don't want Deakin to find out early. :)

Baby Clothes

So I couldn't resist the urge anymore - I had to go buy some baby stuff. I think that the uncontrollable urge was given the final push over the edge by receiving an email that told me that Carter's was having a 50% off sale, and then giving me a coupon for an additional 20% off. See it is completely understandable - it would have been silly to pass up this opportunity right...never mind that they seem to have these types of sales every couple of months....

Anyways I thought that it would be a good idea to get Deakin some warm winter clothes. I figured that there is a good chance that Scott and I will have to bring Deakin into our schools on a regular basis - which means bringing him out in the cold in Jan and Feb - we have to walk between where ever we will be living and the metro and then metro and the school - lots of outside time. Further - if swine flu does get bad out here like they are predicting (metropolitan area etc) then I didn't want to have to take my newborn out to buy baby clothes. In other words, my brain was trying to rationalize my excuses for going shopping - and it worked. We got two fleece hoodies with coordinating pants, several long sleeved onesies, a couple of short sleeved onesies, a couple of pairs of pants and a really cute pair of fleece overalls. We also got a pair of adorable pants that have a money head on the butt - we made sure to get a big enough size so that he should be crawling by the time that he wears them...lol because really whats the point of having a monkey on your butt if no one gets to see it.

Its amazing how cute baby clothes can be. I know a lot of people say that they prefer to shop for girls clothes because there is more selection - and that is true at some stores, but if you go to a store with more selection I would pick boys clothes every time. I like that they are more in bright primary colors as opposed to pastels and really light colors. I don't think that they will stain as bad as a lot of girls' clothes and they have awesome things like dinosaurs on them. Its a good thing that we are having a boy...I was buying boys clothes before we knew what we were having. I guess if it had been a girl we could have bought little bows so that people would know it was a girl (Scott was concerned about people not knowing what the sex was - not sure why...but I guess everyone has their thing).

Baby Shower

My three amazing cousins were sweet enough to throw Deakin and I a baby shower while we were back in KS over the summer. They are sisters who all got married within about 18 months and now all have kiddos. Bridget (in blue) is the oldest and has three kids, Elaine (green) is the youngest and has a step child, a son and is currently working on #3, and Frannie (brown) just had her first baby. In fact, she had it just a few days before she was helping to throw me a shower. They are a great group of girls and I wish that I got to see them more often.

Here is a picture of Addison (Frannie's baby) - I believe that she was 5 days old when she was brought to the shower, and the proud grandma Darlene is in the background.

Deakin got all sorts of the stuff that he was needing at the baby shower - from diapers and wipes, to clothes and toys. I believe that this little guy might just end up spoiled - especially from his grandma Denise - she got him a pack n play (which will be his bed until we move after Christmas and get him a crib) and then filled it with presents - I think that she may have gotten him even more stuff then Scott and I have :) Scott's mom, aunt and sister all made it to the shower. It was great seeing them again before we left for DC. Kathy (his mom) got us an amazing infant seat - it bounces, vibrates, and plays music. I actually put it together the other night...and then realized that I didn't have batteries for it... Nancy (aunt) got us a cute tummy time activity center that turns into a tunnel, and Jennifer (sister) got us (and by us I really mean Scott) a cd of lullabies that are to the tune of Nine Inch Nails. :)

Deakin also got several home made blankets. Aunt Pauline made this cute rubber duckie blanket.

Aunt Laurie made this cute teddy bear blanket.

And of course (been on the blog before) my mom hand quilted this frog and dragonfly blanket.

And what baby shower would be complete without Wildcat clothes! Frannie told me after the shower that she had thought about putting a pink Jayhawk diaper bag on the table - my two favorite things - pink and KU :)

Trend Setters

It seems that Scott and I have set a trend for weddings. Scott's mom's cousin Stanley and his now wife Nancy got married in Galveston during the family's week at the beach. (yes Scott's family is so small that all of his mom's cousins their kids etc - squeeze into a single beach house for a week every year...not that it isn't very crowded :) The wedding was a very cute ceremony with several family members reading passages or poems. The dinner was a Thanksgiving feast - apparently that is Stanley's favorite meal of the year. It was really good - and I even got to see Scott eat mashed potatoes and stuffing - the boy is getting better!

The nieces were having a great time standing on the air condition vents watching their dresses flow up - that is until someone decided that they wanted to get a picture of it...then it was almost impossible to get the three of them to stand together - it took forever to get this picture...guess the cameraman should have been more sneaky and got it while they weren't paying attention.
So Scott and I are dressed up and looking pretty and we manage not to get a single picture of the two of us on our camera - besides this one....hmm...have to think about that next time.

I bet I know where this girl got her dress - down at the strand...at least now I know what it will look like when I'm not preggo...lol. We thought the dresses were identical - but as it turns out they just used the next piece of fabric on the roll to make the dress and let the pattern fall where they lie - no one noticed that they weren't the same until we were looking at the pictures. :)

2nd Anniversary

Scott and I are lucky to get to go back to our wedding destination each year for our anniversary. We have decided to try out a new hotel each year - its nice to get away from the beach house for a day and get to spend time with just the two of us. This year we tried the Harbor House which is located right by the Strand on Pier 21. Even though we booked just a basic room - they were nice enough to put us in a large corner room for the night. We had windows on two sides of the room - very nice - with a great view of the harbor.

For dinner we took Yvonne's suggestion and tried out Yaga's cafe. It is a bright and colorful restaurant right on the strand. They had a wide variety of meal options and the staff were very friendly - even when I asked if we could pick a differently seat when they showed us to the back - much better to sit by the windows then the kitchen and the bathroom - not that I didn't have to make at least one trip to the bathroom - but I don't want to sit by it when there are other options available.

Scott and I started with fried jalapenos - they weren't too hot at first but they definitely were by the time that our food arrived...if fact my mouth was so hot from the spicy of the jalapenos that I couldn't eat my meal at the beginning because the hot temperature aggravated the hot spicy. My meal was Texas shrimp - large shrimp wrapped in bacon and smothered in cheese - very healthy I'm sure - but delicious. Scott has a "death burger." It was a cheese burger with bacon, chili, and jalapenos. He actually managed to eat the whole thing - I'm not really sure how...it was huge and we had filled up on fried jalapenos...

We also continued our yearly tradition of getting a caricature done - we weren't able to get one the year that we actually got married but I think that we are going to try and get him to do one off of a wedding photo when we go next year.

Here is the finished product - it took me a while to figure out what he was drawing in Scott's hands but once he was finished I couldn't stop laughing. I am so glad that I never had cravings for pickles and ice cream together - separately...yes...but never at the same time.

Its funny how fast our family is changing and that we will be able to document this change in caricatures (assuming that the guy continues to go to the strand and do them). We get married one year, the 2nd its just us, the 3rd I'm preggo, the 4th we will have a baby with us, and who knows maybe by the 5th we will have two kiddos with us. Crazy how fast time goes by.

Beach '09

Due to Hurricane Ike - the beach house this year was at a different location. It was still in Galveston but several miles closer to town. Even though this is a bigger more spacious house, I believe that next year we will be back at the original. The old house has too many memories to be left behind. I think that I actually preferred this house because it meant that Scott and I were sharing a full-sized bed instead of a twin, but I understand the desire to go back to the other.

Many of the houses in the front row of the beach were badly damaged and have to be torn down. There are even some houses that were not badly damaged but will still have to be removed because the vegetation line moved. In Texas, you are not allowed to own land in front of the vegetation line because the beaches are public. So there are several home owners who are trying to restore the vegetation line back in front of their houses so that they don't lose them. This house probably fell in the later category. It looked like it could have been repaired but it was now out on the sand. It was just down from the house we were staying at and we got to watch it be torn down.

Here are some of the people who stay at the beach house. As you can see it is becoming quite the full house.


This was Deakin's first walk on the beach. I sure hope that he likes the water otherwise he is going to have a lot of boring vacations in his future.

Here is Scott participating in the boccie ball tournament. I decided not to play this year because it was so hot outside and because I need to study for a big test that I was taking the next week - nothing ruins a good vacation like having a test to worry about. Scott was really proud of this photo - he would want you to notice that both of his feet are off the ground.
Scott's dad, Louise, and his half siblings all came down to the beach for part of a day as well. Its always great to get to see them, I know that Scott wishes he could see his dad more often. Scott and I stayed at their house for 2 nights after the beach but this was Jennifer, Andrea, and the nieces' only chance to see them. (not all of them are pictured below and the extra guy w/o a shirt is Colleen's bf) While at the beach house we also got to see Scott's cousin Daniel practice his fire twirling.

Its much more impressive at night.
We also went down to the strand which is the downtown business district. It is quite a ways from the beach but it sits on the harbor so it got quite a bit of water damage from Ike as well. Here on the window is a line that shows the water level. Almost a year later, most of the store and restaurants are back up and running but a few still haven't opened. The Strand was very quiet this year. My guess is that a lot of tourist still aren't coming back yet, hopefully by next year everything will be back to normal.

And last but not least, Scott and I played mini golf on our way to his dad's house. Scott just couldn't stand to go a year without playing this course.