The Sun-Dog

We haven't posted much lately, because things have been pretty eventful around here. This is going to be a long one, so hold on tight. On the sad side, we lost one of our family in early June when our 12-year old lab Sunny lost her battle with cancer. She was everything we could have wanted out of a friend - always happy (and always hungry). She is usually the ever-present rug of yellow fur in the background of all of our pictures, so we thought she deserved some face-time for once, doing her favorite thing - hanging out by the water. Dog was Owen's first real word, and if you can't tell, she was his best friend. We miss you Sunny.









On the happier side, Owen turned 1! It seems crazy to think about how he has changed from the tiny little guy we brought home from the hospital into the little boy he is becoming. He is almost running now, he climbs on everything, and he seems to learn something new every day. Owen was lucky enough to have 3 birthday parties - one on his birthday, one in Ft. Wayne, and one at home for the Deak side. A big thanks to my mom, who did 95% of the work on the coolest superhero cape a 1-year old could hope for.

Owen's birthday candle from Amy - Fire bad Owen...


Birthday cake #1 did not survive


Cake #2 in Ft. Wayne


My man (and Owen's friend) Isaac rocking the superhero mask


He was a pro by cake #3 - No hands!


Superdude


Owen is lucky to have some pretty cool cousins on both sides, and after getting to hang out with them lately he decided that he LOVES them. He has also gotten to spend some time with my mom (he even says something close to grandma) at the beach.

Hanging out with Rachel


Being goofy with Chelsea


Looking to catch a wave


Making mom do all the work


And finally, most of you know by now that Kristie just accepted a job offer at Duke, and we just bought a house! This has all happened pretty quickly, but the short version is that Kristie couldn't pass up this opportunity, I'll have more interesting research jobs to pick from, and we have a lot of great friends still in the area (many of whom have young kids themselves). It hurts leaving the Chicago area because of how much we get to see our families now, but we won't be living far from the airport... Anyway, we took a 3-day trip to look at houses, and we hope we found a winner. Here are some pics of the journey:

Preparing for takeoff