11-21-08

Happy Birthday Justin! Although Justin spent most of his day at work, we celebrated with a dinner of cheeseburger pie followed by cake and ice cream. I am sure Lincoln enjoyed the candles and cake the most out of everyone.

It is getting colder down here. We actually had to wear long sleeves today. We have switched to walks around the park instead of cart rides because of the wind chill :) Lincoln is buzzing around every where now. He is walking like a pro! He is getting taller now too, so I have to watch what I leave on the counters because he thinks everything is his toy.

I had my appointment with my new OBGYN and we liked her a lot. Justin was able to come along so that was nice. She wanted to do another sonogram because the first one I had done was not very good, so we got to see the baby again......and no, we did not find out what we are having. We felt very comfortable there and we were hoping for that. I have realized, however, that the facilities in Duluth were really great and I don't think I knew what I had until I had to go elsewhere.

Well, we will keep you posted. Love you!

11-10-08

Hello Everybody. For those of you up north, are you enjoying your first snow fall? Caroline sent me pictures of their snowfall in Northfield, MN, and it was very pretty. We are supposed to get a cold front this weekend with highs in the 60's and maybe even freezing at night. BRRRR! Our sensitive little bodies aren't used to that anymore.

Everyone is doing good down here. I am looking forward to my first appointment with my new OBGYN next week. Lincoln will be going in for his doctor appointment on the 1st of Dec. He and Justin just got over a bug. I had it, as I had mentioned in earlier blogs, about a month ago now. Lincoln had been having diarrhea and threw up all over right when we sat down at Luby's after church.....meanwhile, Justin was at home unable to even get out of bed. That night Brenda got sick and the next day Justin's aunt Jan had it. I has been spreading rampant down here so I am doing everything I can to keep the family healthy.....lots of bleach wipes!

Well, I hope that this finds everyone healthier than we have been! Love you.

10-28-08

Today we got a little touch of Fall. We drove up, and over, to Lost Maples Park. It is a Texas state park that has lots of, you guessed it, maple trees. They were very pretty and it reminded me of Minnesota. The weather is cooling off, so it made for a nice hike.

Lincoln is doing great. He is walking more and more everyday. He is such a big boy! We are getting excited for Halloween. We took Lincoln to Sea World again on Sunday with the intention of dressing him in his costume. However, it was a very hot day so it was still around 80 degrees that night so it was too warm to have him in it. We did, however, see Shamu at "Shamu's Rockin Creep Show" and he loved that. It was pretty cool, but it seemed a little creepy to watch those huge wales perform tricks.

I had my ultra sound a week ago, and it was OK. This baby was a lot harder to get a good look at than Lincoln was. It just did not want to cooperate. We have also decided to seek out a new clinic and doctor to see for the rest of the pregnancy. We just did not feel comfortable at the clinic we were using and we didn't care for the doctor either. So we have found a new one and hopefully this will work for us for the rest of the time. If we end up not liking this one we might just have to stick it out b/c there isn't too much time left.

I am not sure if you can tell in this picture, but we gave Lincoln a haircut. With the assistance of Grandma, we used the buzzer and buzzed it all off. It is very different; he looks like such a big boy. I will put a closer up picture in the future so you can get a good look at it. Love and Miss everyone!

10-15-08

Sorry for the delay in any new blogging. I spent the majority of last week fighting the flu, but I am well now. Justin took great care of me, however, and Lincoln too. He is not sure he could ever be a stay at home dad, but he said he and Lincoln had a lot of fun.

The picture is from Sea World. I was hoping to get one online a little closer to our trip there, but I didn't. We have season passes so I am sure you will see more. Grandpa Terry has finally started heating the pool here in the park so in the next couple days we will probably go swimming. It has been a while, and although it is still hot outside, the water is colder than you might think.

Lincoln has started walking. He still doesn't use it as his major mode of transportation, but he loves to walk from one person to the next....especially if you are holding something exciting in your hands! I guess this new milestone just opens the door for more scrapes and bruises, which he is already good at getting.

We miss you!

10-5-08

It is another sunny day in Texas. It is muggy, however, but we can't seem to get any rain. It hasn't rained since we got here and I could use a rainy day. Those are nice once and a while. Lincoln went to the nursery today at church. I am not sure how much he likes it right now. We have noticed he has started having seperation anxiety, so they last couple times we have come to get him after church, he is crying. We aren't sure if it is because he misses us, or b/c he had trouble taking a poop:) This might sound wierd, but he seems to have trouble pooping sometimes, and when this happens, he starts to cry........SO who knows. Either way, his playtime with friends isn't quite as happy as it has been in the past.

The picture is from the river walk yesterday. There was an arts and crafts on the banks of the riverwalk, so we looked around at that and did a lot of people watching. The one downer of the walk was when I overheard someone say (about me) "So, do you think she is pregnant?" Yes, unfortunetly I am entering the stage of my pregnancy where it just pushes my fat out, and, well, makes me look fatter:) Oh well.

After naptime we are going to Sea World to visit Shamu. Very exciting! We have season passes so we can go as much as we want....and I am sure we will get a lot of use out of them. I will post some pictures.

Have a great week!

10-1-08

It is pretty hard to believe it is October and in 4 months there will be another baby around. I am still tired from the first one:) I am feeling the little one move now and my cloths are darn close to not fitting. I pulled the maternity wardrobe from storage and got it all washed so it ready to wear when I break down and decide my cloths are just too tight. Lincoln is very active, although he is not walking yet. He sure like to talk though. He jabber and jabbers, and I think he assumes we know what he is saying.

We have decided that his "one year pictures", and I use that term loosely, will just have to show some bumps and scrapes because he just acquired a nice shiner tonight and we can't keep putting them off. As grandpa and grandma Vaupel put it, "he is all boy".

Today Justin and I took Lincoln to Breckenridge Park and he got to ride on the train that goes through the park. It was a short 15 minute ride, but it was pretty and we got to see a lot of nice scenery. It is a very large park with lots of trails, but after I saw the HUGEST spider in the world, there was no way I was going to go hiking on those trails.

Hope everyone is doing well. Keep in touch.

9-24-08

As you can see Lincoln loves to drive the golf cart. I don't know what we will do when we move out of the park and can't take him on golf cart rides to keep him occupied. We did find him a helmet, but we haven't taken him very far on the bike. We just stayed in the park, and it was a short ride. We are still figuring out how to keep his little helmet on his head!

The doctor appointment went good. The baby is growing as it should and the heart beat sounded great. We will get to see the little bugger at our next visit in October. It is a little different office than I am used to in Duluth. I was a bit spoiled because the office there was brand new. This office is right downtown and the building is a bit older, but it was a fun new experience.

The weather down here is still very warm, and from what I hear, not much different than up in MN. I still haven't received any fall pictures:( I am in need of a fall fix down here! Lincoln and I went out on an adventure today. We went to the Wells Fargo near downtown, and then, I admit, got a little lost trying to find the Whole Foods store. We ended up driving through a very nice part of town with some huge house. It was interesting, and luckily, I ended up coming out somewhere familiar to me! So slowly but surely we are learning our way. Miss you!

9-19-08

I hope everyone is enjoying our almost daily updates. Not much exciting is happening, however, so I know they might not be the most interesting thing to read! I have been feeling a little out of place down here because I don't have my drivers license. This may sound funny, but you can't it seems like you need a photo id for everything. I couldn't buy any clothes at Old Navy b/c I didn't have a photo id. We were talking about volunteering at the Red Cross for Hurricane Ike, but you can't with out a valid ID. I even need an id for my doctors appointment on Tuesday....not sure what I am going to do there. I suppose I can bring my passport and my marriage certificate since the the name on the passport is Rivers. You may be asking "Why can't you just use your MN ID?" Well, I can answer that. They make us surrender our id when you apply for a TX driver's license and all they give you in return in a piece of paper. What a mess:)

I am not sure if we will get an ultrasound on Tuesday or not. I will be in my 18th week, and they do one b/w 18-22 weeks. I am guessing I will have to wait, but I will let you know. It is hard to believe we are almost half way through the pregnancy. I don't think about it as much as I did with Lincoln. I am sure I will notice it more when I start to get a belly and the baby starts moving.

Lincoln loves to practice walking, but he hasn't ventured out on his own yet. He likes when you hold onto only one hand. He is trying hard and we think he will probably start walking on his own soon. He is trying to talk a lot too. I suppose what he says makes a lot of sense to him! He says "Mama", "Dadda", "cat", and something that sounds like "What's that". Too cute.

9-17-08

This is a picture of Justin's feet 3 days after being attacked by fire ants. It looked much worse, but is still pretty gross and we thought you might like to see what it looks like.

Lincoln added another injury to his list. He fell the other day and gave himself a black eye. It looks worse than it really is, but it has prolonged us taking him in for his one year pictures. Hopefully we can keep him out of mischief until we can get him in. Not much else has been happening. The weather has begun to cool off, so it is actually in the low 60's in the morning when we get up. It seems pretty cold after the 90 degree weather.

Well, we hope everyone is enjoying Fall. I sure miss that, it was my favorite time of year. Not sure if they have that down here, but apparently there is a park nearby with a lot of maple trees in it that is beautiful when it starts getting a little cooler. I will have to check that out in order to get my "fall fix". Feel free to email me some pictures of the pretty trees. I would love to see a bit of Minnesota.

9-14-08

Well, we saw nothing from Hurricane Ike. No wind or rain....only evacuees. It was hard to hear their stories. Some were lucky and were coming from farther down the coast around Corpus Christi, but many were from around Galveston and Houston and they don't have much to go back to.

On a lighter note, Lincoln has a new favorite past time....riding on the four wheeler! He only really sits on it while it is standing still since we can't find a helmet to fit him, but every once and a while Grandpa Terry takes him on a slow little ride around the park.

Lincoln also went to the nursery for the first time today at church. He loved it, so they said. He got to play with a lot of little kids and go on a ride in the Bye-Bye Buggy, which is a covered stroller thing that holds like 6 kids. What fun!

This evening we went to the El Marcado downtown and listened to some Mexican music and enjoyed some margaritas....well I enjoyed a virgin Bloody Mary......yum:) Lincoln is quite the little dancer, so I am sure we will go back again soon. He has also learned how to turn on the stereo in the living room so he can jive to that to.

Justin spent the night last night fixing up a bike for me. It is a older three speed bike named the "Free Spirit". He made some adjustments to his bike and then hooked on the bike trailer so we can go for a ride and pull Lincoln behind.....as soon as we find that helmet. Anyone know where they sell helmets for 1 yr olds?

Hope all is well and we miss you!

9-12-08

Not much new to report. We went to eat at Luby's last night....it is probably Lincoln's favorite place ever. He gets to eat tasty mac and cheese and watch all of the little kids run around. We need to find him some little guys (or gals) to play with. We will probably go to the pool later this afternoon and see who we can meet. There are an awful lot of people in the park and the pool is busier than we are used to, which means that I will have to wear a swimsuit in front of other people:( But Lincoln, however, is not shy about his belly!

I looks like we are just going to get a little rain tomorrow. So much for Hurricane Ike.....I hope I don't regret saying that. Well, tune in tomorrow for another exciting episode the The Vaupel Chronicles.

P.s. Sorry my face is so big in this picture.

9-11-08

Well the park is filling up today with Gulf Coast evacuees. The news crew was here this morning interviewing a family that is staying across the way from us. Seems like Ike is going to hit the shore some time late tonight or early tomorrow morning but we won't feel the affects until early Saturday. Looks like we will just get some high winds and rain. I am told that we may have to worry about the electricity going out and, of course, flooding. We stocked up on the essentials so I suppose we will just sit in the house and throw a hurricane party:)

Other than that, Justin has been spending his days working in the park and Lincoln and I have been enjoying the pool and we like to ride around in the golf cart. What a life! We have also ventured to Target and HEB (the Texas equivalent of CUB).

It is still super hot and a little muggy......so whoever tries to say "Oh the heat in Texas is different. It's dry heat" is lying. It may not be Minnesota humid, but it is humid!

9-10-08

Today Justin and I went and got our Texas licence. Very Exciting. We are preparing for Hurricane Ike. Apparently we are right in its path when it makes landfall so we could expect 70 MPH wind. Things in Texas are not built for weather like that so if it gets too windy, we will have to hang out in the office building at the front of the RV park.

We took Lincoln to the Zoo on Monday. He had a lot of fun. His favorite thing was probably the hippo exhibit. I would say it was mine too. He liked seeing all the animals, but it was very hot out so we have more to see next time.

The weather has been pretty hot and muggy. We have gotten a few rain showers the last few days and today is pretty cloudy. It is easier to spend time outside during the day, though, when the sun isn't beating down on you. It also makes it easier for Justin to help Terry with things around the park. They are getting things ready for the evacuees that will be heading our way in the next couple days.