*Whooping* it up for New Years at Barking Sands Beach

*Whooping* cough (I'd heard of it . . . from the Middle Ages, right?) has taken every single one of us down except the most recently vaccinated Alli.  The rest of us have a persistent cough which *whoops* so loud we anticipate neighbors will call 911!  It's been hanging around since I (we guess) brought it over mid-November.  It does take awhile to acquire the *whoop*, as in several weeks.  Mine is very well developed, Sam comes in a strong 2nd, little Ben gets up on all fours at night, *whoops* and cries while on his knees, and Dave and Richard do a very manly *whoop*.  When we adults *whoop*,  our eyes "bug", tears dribble from from the violence of the cough (paroxysm), we can't breathe, Oli gets light-headed, we can't talk for a few minutes afterward, and the "whoops" sound like donkeys braying.       Through it all, Alli giggles (only because she knows it's highly unlikely a whoop will end our days, so we might as well find some humor as we deal with this for months!).


Barking Sands -- a fitting place for us to stay, don't you think? And by the side of the road to our beach cottage on the Pacific Missile Range Facility, there was a DONKEY tied up, grazing. This made Alli smile every time we passed it. Too bad we didn't have time to stop by Donkey Beach! :0


The *whoop* is caused when you're trying to replace some of the air you've expelled during the coughing spree.  Turns out, Alli did a ton of research, diagnosed us (diagnosis has since been confirmed by each of our doctors), and only 50% of adults get the *whoop* sound.  How lucky can we be.  We hit 100%!!

With all of us together in the Barking Sands house, we all knew exactly who was *whooping* and when.  Mornings were like a support group gathering to share the night's experiences!


If you're over 10 years old, get a Pertussis booster, PLEASE!  We've done a lot of laughing about it (uhhh, not the boys), but it is NO FUN!  The kids had finished part of their vaccination schedule, but this caught them between shots.


Life is pretty good between coughing spasms . . .

Our cottage is 4th from left, and beach at the right of the picture.

Richard's getting into the swing of things . . .

View from near the deck at our house.  The wave sound was fantastic!

Dinner at Shenanigans our first night -- Alli and Dave's 8th Anniversary!

And here's our New Year's eve.  Blissful!