Reunion - The Heat is On

2011 has been the hottest summer Austin has ever had. More 100+ days, no rain, and miserable heat. And I'm pregnant! Woo hoo! But we were determined to stick to our plan to sleep in a tent for reunion and we did it. Tents forever, campers never! We cheated a little, though. Owen and I took naps at mom and dad's house every afternoon and it was a much needed break from the heat and exhaustion of reunion. We had a great weekend!

Owen had never slept anywhere other than a crib or pack-n-play leading up to reunion, but I decided to try letting him sleep in an inflatable toddler bed on the floor of the tent this year. It was quite an adventure keeping him in bed and getting him to sleep. I think it took 3 hours to get Owen to sleep the first night and when he finally fell asleep, this is what it looked like. This is Owen with most of his body draped off the edge of the bed. Paula took this picture through the tent screen.

We put Owen back in bed when we went to bed and then, at 3:30am, Tom woke up and realized Owen wasn't in his bed at all. He shined a light around the tent until he found Owen under my cot, sleeping soundly on the floor of the tent.

The next night was similar. Here's where Owen fell asleep.

And then in the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of knocking under my bed and found Owen under there again. I hope we don't have a sleepwalker on our hands! I think he scoots himself to the edges of his crib and I'm hoping he's just scooting himself off the mattress now that he doesn't have any rails to hold him in. Now that we're back home, he's back in a crib for as long as he's happy to stay in there.

Here are some pictures of my view in the morning. I love camping.

This is an unflattering picture, but it's the last picture we have of me pregnant, just 11 days before Cora was born.


And here's how we survive the freakish heat - we swim as much as possible! Owen really enjoyed the river. He couldn't get enough of Tom throwing him in the air and helping him jump out of the tree like the bigger kids.



The best part of reunion is always the quality time we get to spend with cousins. Owen loved playing with Kate, Claire, and Charlee. On Sunday evening, we wrapped up a great reunion weekend with watermelon in the river and our regular cousin pictures.