Nap time

The Puppy and the Big Fat Cat

Poor little Fu Fu wants desperately to be friends with Chester. Chester, on the other hand, finds Fu Fu to be a pest and really has no use for him at all. Chester will allow him within about a foot of himself, but no closer. It's quite comical to watch little Fu Fu approach Chester, very timidly, then plop down a foot away and lay his head between his paws and look up with his big, brown puppy eyes as if to say "Why don't you love me?" only to have Chester turn away with as much snobbish attitude as a high school "mean girl". Cats...you gotta love um!

Museum of Glass

A couple weekends ago we spent the day down at The Museum of Glass in Tacoma. We got to watch some glass workers in the hot shop create goblets for an upcoming auction, which was pretty fascinating. There was also a great exhibit running by Preston Singletary. His work is inspired by Native American tribal art. It was amazing how he was able to make the forms from glass and so closely resemble the original art.

The sun was out too so we enjoyed some time outside and walked along the marina. There were some gorgeous boats and we imagined what fun it would be to live on a boat. The freedom of being able to go wherever you heart and the sea could take you...then I realized I'd probably miss my garden too much. :)

Dane-ism

Dane, getting ready for bed tonight ~ "Man, I could really use another week-end."
I second that motion! ;)

The Beach

Since summer is officially over, according to the calendar anyway, I thought I would reminisce with some beach pictures from our vacation last month.

Madeleine is 10 today!

My little ballerina ~ age 5

My "little baby girl" is growing up. It's hard to believe both my kids are in the double digits now. Where has the time gone? I still remember Madeleine as the pudgy little baby who wanted to be held constantly, the funny dinosaur noises she made as a toddler, how she used to pretend she was a kitty for days, weeks on end, the 'angry' faces she made when she wasn't happy...all these memories are so dear to my heart. And now as she steps into this new, more grown up phase of her life, I am excited and sad at the same time... and as I write this I can't fight back the tears. Excited to see her turn into a young woman, and sad for leaving behind the little girl part of her life, but to me she will always be my "little baby girl". :)

San Diego Wild Animal Park

It was our first visit to the Wild Animal Park. Like The San Diego Zoo, there is so much to see it's nearly impossible to do it all in one day. There was a huge array of different animals small and large. The most impressive to me were the lions. Yes, those are real! A picture fails to grasp the majesty of these animals. It is truly awe inspiring the amount of power, as well as grace, that they possess. They are truly a magnificent creation.

Bank Error in Your Favor

Last night we were playing Monopoly, one of my all time favorite games, when I got the 'Bank error in your favor, collect $200' card. This card was especially ironic since I recently experienced a bank error that was definitely NOT in my favor. I got to wondering; "Has anyone actually ever had a bank error in real life that was in their favor???" Oh, if only things in real life worked as they did in Monopoly...wouldn't it be grand if all that paper money was real, banks really did make errors in our favor, and the tax man only took 10%!

Not so Lazy Sunday

Today Brent and Bob took the kids fishing so it was just me, the puppy, and the two cats at home. It's amazing how quiet the house is and how much you can get done when no one is around. I took advantage of it and got caught up on some much needed yard work. I also had a nice harvest from the garden this morning; cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and two large zucchinis which I was able to get 3 loafs of zucchini bread out of. Well it's starting to cool off so I'm off to mow the lawn. :)

Touch and Go

While in San Diego I experienced my first run in with the Cali Law. We were heading out for the day and we had made it approx 2 blocks when I see flashing lights behind me. I pull over and obtain my ID, car rental documents, and proof of insurance. The officer approaches my window, and as the ditsy blonde I am I say "What did I do?" as sincerely as possible, honestly having no idea what the infraction was. He proceeds to tell me how I had ran a stop sign. I really did not see a stop sign at all, but apparently there was one there. This is the funny part...I apologise and he lets me off with a warning and then says "You didn't even touch and go." He said it so matter-of-factly as if the "touch and go" is a completely acceptable practice. I found this quite amusing. Gotta love the 'California Stop'!

My new puppy!

We went over to Bob and Mary's the other night for an innocent night of pizza and fun, and low and behold, we ended up with a new puppy! Their neighbors were out walking their pekingese with pups in tow, and I completely fell in love and had to have one. Our little guy is 12wks old and is already potty and crate trained! He is the smartest little dog I ever seen and is so well behaved. Ginger has already excepted him, but Chester is a little slower to warm up. I know it will take some time for Chester to want to share his territory. The puppy's full registered AKC name is 'Grand Master Fu Ni Nan Shan', which roughly translates to 'Grand Master Fu, mythical lion of the south hill'. We call him Fu Fu for short (pronounced 'foo foo'). :)

Disneyland!

Disneyland was a blast, as always. This year was fun because the kids were tall enough to ride everything. Last time we went, about 5 years ago, there were several rides we couldn't do. Tower of Terror and the big roller coaster at California Adventure were two such rides. This time around, those were two of the kids' favorites! We of course got tons of pics with characters. Above are just a few. Scroll down to my slide show to see more! :)

Sea World

We absolutely loved Sea World! We got a pass that allowed us to go as many times as we wanted for 5 days...we went every night! They had this great new show with Shamu after dark which involved a light show too. It was amazing. We sat in the "soak zone" of course. The picture above is actually us watching the dolphin show. They get you really wet too amazingly. Dane was being "brave" without a poncho. That really didn't last long, as he got completely soaked. So the next time around he was all for the poncho. :)

They also have a great roller coaster there called "Atlantis". It's a water coaster and it's tons of fun. We probably went on it about 20 times, no joke. The line moved pretty fast after dark because people were afraid of getting wet and being cold, but for us Washingtonians it felt like home. :)