965 Beaumont Dr., Crystal Beach, Texas - Part 3

Here's the last set of pictures. Enjoying the beach and cabin way back when.

Little baby me:








We used to spin ourselves sick in this hammock:

Not many other cabins around in 1976:

Me and Uncle Gary:

Mowing the grass (and drinking beer) with Papa. Ah the good old days, when it was OK to let a two year old chug beer. I bet I was a good sleeper.

Bec and Papa:

Bec and Geah:

Little baby Becca (looking a whole lot like Caleb):

Nice flattering picture of myself. Showing my arse even back then.

That's me way waving from way at the top, in 1982-ish:

My kids heading up to the top in 2008:

Becca and I in 1982:

My kids in 2008:

965 Beaumont Dr., Crystal Beach - Part 2

I made up a slideshow using pictures from our beach visits over the past 6 years. From Jacob and Jonah's first visit to our last one this past July. I chose the song for a very specific reason. Mom decorated part of the cabin with tropical stuff, and there was this one battery operated parrot decoration (toy) that spun around on his perch, told jokes and sang a song. He sang Sitting on the Dock of the Bay and my kids would play that over and over and over again while they sang along. It was always the first thing they ran to when we got there and the last thing they put up before we left.

The video is a bit longer than I planned on it being, but I had more pictures than I thought.

965 Beaumont Dr., Crystal Beach - Part 1

We join with the MANY people across Texas (and elsewhere) who are devastated by the destruction at "the beach." Hurricane Ike totally effed things up, that's for sure. Our family cabin is no more, all that's left are the numbers from the address on a thin piece of wood stuck to the poles. I have such sweet memories from there, really the only vacation spot I (and my kids) have ever known. Jonah cried when we told him that it was gone, Emmy keeps mentioning the waterslide and the Big Store, she just doesn't understand. It's hard for even adults to understand, the power of water is amazing.

Before:



After:

You have to look really close to see (click on the picture to enlarge it) but if you look right between the telephone poles, you'll see what I'm pointing at. The sad little piece of wood with 965 on it. That's all that's left. :(



I'll be making a few more beach cabin posts in the next few days as I gather up some of my favorite pictures from over the years with my kids, and Mom is going to dig some of hers out from WAY back. We'll never forget all of the good times we had there and we'll miss it like crazy. Maybe we can rebuild one day but it'll never be the same.

Well that was fun

I'm so over hurricane season, just so everybody knows. We went all the way to flipping Dallas this time. We ended up in Plano in an extended stay hotel which was really nice, Plano is a beautiful city, by the way. We're home now though and everything is fine with the house. We were lucky and didn't have any damage. Our fence fell over but so did everybody else's in the neighborhood.

We took the kids to the Dallas World Aquarium (really cool) and to the Dallas Zoo (not so much) and we found some nice parks to play in. I took lots of pictures of course, and will try to get them uploaded in the next few days.

No idea when school starts back up, not soon enough is all I know. Last night I was watching the news and Greg Bostwick had the nerve to talk about another "disturbance" in the tropics. WTF?! He didn't talk about it for long though, that's right Greg, move on to the 5 day forecast, nobody wants to hear it. I bet he's afraid of walking into an angry mob in the parking lot after work. It IS his fault, afterall. Mr. "Ike will not be a threat to the Gulf." PPPPPPFFFFFFFTTTTT!

That's all for now, I'll have another post with pictures later on!

Evacuating

Hence the million posts tonight. We're leaving in the morning, heading to Dallas. PLEEEEEEEEEASE don't let it take all day to get there. Hopefully things are just being blown out of proportion again, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Everybody stay safe!!

Video

I made this video last year when Jacob and Jonah started school, it has the same song that I have up on the blog to go along with the pictures. Turn the blog music off (scroll way down to the bottom of the page to do that) and listen to the song with the video, that way it'll match up. ;) I cry every time I watch it!!

Bike riders

Jacob and Jonah rode their bikes to school for the first time this week. We cheated and parked at a friend's house because she lives in a safer place for biking. Our street doesn't have sidewalks and people drive way too fast on it. It's a short ride, but their friend James was excited to have somebody to ride with. My friend and I pushed our little ones in strollers while the "big boys" rode their bikes. We only did it the one day, I had to stop on the way back to the car so Em could yak in the grass and the week just went downhill from there. I'm sure we'll do lots more of it especially when the weather cools down some.

Jonah

Jacob