Sept 27th Swim Meet

It's fall and the water may be cooling off, but the competition is heating up! I can't think of a better way to spend 6 hours on a Saturday than hanging out at the pool~

Tayne is all business as he makes ready for his first race

That water is colder than it looks
Pallas loves being part of the action - she had the very important job of keeping track of the goggles between races
Here's a video of Tayn'e last race of the day -

and just so she doesn't feel left out, here's one of Pallas walking

and some random flashing to remind us all how fun Market Square in San Antonio is

Back home!

Even though our "hurrication" to San Antonio was fun, it's good to be back home. Luckily there was only a little damage to our yard and carport - the house, fences and even our shed held up pretty well -so it's basically just sweeping up, killing mosquitoes, and raking leaves/tree debris to get our place back to it's normal state. We did see quite a lot of damage to trees, fences and roofs as we drove into town yesterday and while driving around today- and there are traffic lights out randomly pretty much everywhere (but at least most of the homes and businesses have power, so nobody is really questioning the electric company's priorities) it just takes some planning and extra time for the 4-way stops. Overall things are getting back to normalish (which is normal except for the lack of fresh carrots in the grocery stores -why doesn't anyone have fresh carrots???) I'd like to think we were pretty smart and that's why we came through the storm so well off (after all we before we bought we researched the flood and storm surge maps, and had the place inspected so that it met windstorm standards, etc. etc.) but the truth is we were just really lucky & luckier still some of the bananas were ripe enough to keep even though the plants themselves had to be cut back or down - so there's hope for banana bread soon, but carrot cake it seems is a no-go, at least for the time being.
*FYI - I'll try to add some cool storm damage pictures later, today we were just settling back in so I didn't get a chance to take many yet. Sadly, there will be plenty to photograph around here for quite a while, Ike was quite a storm...

Travel makes you do strange things...

No, it's not Halloween yet,
but Friday the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile rolled into San Antonio - it's seems these days you can't just get your picture taken next to the wienermobile, as if that wouldn't be embarrassing enough, now they want you to hold up the wienie costume - whatever, as you can see Troy wouldn't even pose with us, and I tried to hide behind the baby - the kids had fun though and that's what counts.

Update after Ike...

As you can see, some of us got up pretty early this morning to see what the weather was doing -
Then later, because we needed something to do while we waited to hear news about what was going on back home in Houston, we strolled it on over to SeaWorld San Antonio -
Always lots of whales, fun, and walking...
No word on when the power in our area will be back, and no word on when Troy has to go back to work yet, but we did hear from a couple of friends who stayed in town and weathered the storm - it seems our house made it through pretty well (yeah!) -and it seems our neighbor who stayed for the storm is doing ok too.- So thanks to everybody who was thinking good thoughts and sending your prayers our way.

Cross your fingers!

Well, it looks like hurricane Ike has decided to check out Galveston this weekend - frankly, I blame their tourism board and their heavy advertising to attract new and international visitors - see what it get's ya, Galveston?!?, Anyway -after watching the track of the storm shift toward us twice last evening, we decided to get out last night in the wee hours before too many other people got the same idea. Lucky we did, this Thursday morning they are calling for lots and lots of mandatory evacuations from our area - I don't envy the lots and lots of traffic on the road today- long story short, we're already in San Antonio so there's no need to worry about us - but feel free to say a prayer for our house, er I mean neighbors -yeah, neighbors...

Summer wrap-up...

Well, since we didn't have to flee a hurricane at the tail end of this Labor Day weekend, and seeing how we previously canceled our other plans for the long weekend, I guess this is a good a time as any to catch up on what these kids have been doing with their summer.

JULY:
The 4th was too dry for fireworks (at home) which was ok, because dry weather equals less summer mosquitoes - and there's always glo-sticks!

probably safer for Pallas anyway...
And there were professional fireworks put on in the local park. Ah, memories...

Cindy, Everett, and Oakley came for a visit - and what visit would be complete without a trip to Space Center Houston?!?

AUGUST:
We didn't travel at all this month. Pallas entered that jabber-walky stage, not quite talking/but adding her jabbers to the conversation and not quite walking/but more step-step-dive. (*Sept. update - She's really getting better at the walking, she can take 3 or 4 steps, so maybe she'll be getting around on her feet by her birthday next month)
Tayne's room got a bit of a makeover - a new computer desk (that doesn't wobble when you bump it or turn on the fan, or look at it funny...) and a new computer chair (his old chair had to replace a bench from the living room that Pallas' jabberwalking kept tipping over on top of her and somehow I didn't think a straight trade, bench for chair, would be the way to go. -Look at this kid, would you trust him with a bench???) And last but not least, Troy. No, he did not run away to join the circus, the Space Center had an interactive exhibit with all sorts of crazy stunt stuff - I guess the trapeze swing was calling to him, it's debatable whether he knew we were getting this on video....


That's pretty much it for our summer - now it's back to school work, and building the new BBQ grill that was my "birthday present"/ "for hurricane preparedness" (if the power goes out you have to cook somehow right???)

Father's Day weekend

Father's Day weekend we got a big surprise - Troy's parents decided to spend a long the weekend down at the beach, so luckily for Troy our plans got a whole lot more beach related...

The kiddos love the hotel lifestyle - I think the beds are bouncier than the ones we have at home.

Saturday we headed over to the aquarium - Tayne was in charge of directions, Pallas was bitter that she had to sit in the stroller while I took their picture. Honestly I don't know why I bothered to bring that huge thing, I ended up caring her most of the time so she could get a better look at the exhibits, guess it was good for hauling all our stuff though.
Here's one of the pictures Tayne took - nice penguin shot (really it was) they were tricky to see because they had the water dark to simulate their natural habitat winter. Pallas had lots of fun trying to see them and then being surprised when they would zoom up close to the glass then zoom away back into the darkness.
Penguin lineup time again....
Can you tell this is a favorite?
Thankfully this was the only jellyfish we saw (or felt) this weekend -
Sunday we headed over to the beach to get some sand, sun, and salt(water).
It was Pallas' first time actually in the ocean and she loved it! Grandma didn't love it as much, a wave knocked her glasses off and sadly they remain the property of the sea.
Pallas loved everything - and even being damp didn't stop her from crawling along the sand - she would just be sitting on the mat one second and then she'd decide to take off down the beach, such an explorer!
Oh, and happy father's day to all the dad's out there! If you couldn't be at the beach I hope you had fun wherever you were!