Sandy Bottoms

Last weekend we made a trip to Ohio for a day with family. While our schedules have been crammed full lately, I'm SO glad we made the time to get there. We had a great time!

It was the first time we had traveled with both dogs (other than to the vet). It was also the first time either of the dogs had had a chance to play in water. While Weimaraners are water dogs, apparently Dublin did NOT get the memo. He's not such a fan of water. Translation....hates it.... so much so that when we go running, he will run around rain puddles so he doesn't get his feet wet. Seriously. He's not a fan. So we weren't sure how this pond playtime was going to go. As it turned out, it wasn't so bad after all (although I'd say he's still not a big fan of water).

First things first... right away he and Arya sniffed out a dead crayfish under the dock. Dublin snagged it, tossed it up on the beach, and proceeded to roll all over the dead fish like it was his long lost friend (see its claws sticking out under his cheek here? Ewww). Weird. And gross. But apparently it made him happy (just look at his goofy smiley face in the 2nd picture)

For the longest time he watched safely from the dock as the kids splashed and played. He wanted so badly to play with them, but he just wasn't willing to get wet in order to do it. So he looked on longingly, wishing he could be part of the action.

This is my niece, C.

And goofy Meagan, of course!

 

And C's little sister, D. The girls had a great time playing together all afternoon! 

Finally, at some point, Dublin decided that  he would test the waters. There was a football that he wanted, so he very cautiously tiptoed in. He never dared to go out far enough to where he couldn't reach and was required to swim.... that is until I scooped him up and plopped him out into the deeper waters. He swam just fine, but wasn't too happy about the whole thing.

Let's face it... this is NOT a look of joy on his face. But hey, at least he retrieved his football!

Arya seemed to have less of an opinion on the water in either direction. I think she was okay with it, but she didn't go in because Dublin wasn't going in. Plus, she had quite an affinity for the sand and was perfectly content to dig down into the sand and make a cozy little spot for herself.

Cracks me up!!! She looks like a cartoon character!

So, that, in a nutshell was our day with family. We went to the park and did family photos. We cooked out. We went swimming. The kids played on a big giant water slide. And the dogs ran around outside all day in a cloud of happy puppiness. It was a great day! So worth making the time to get there!

Of course, I had to get the memories into my 2013 album. Here's my 1st page... Dublin and his crayfish.

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The 1225

These are OLD photos - I pulled them out of the 2009 archives (and I can't beleive it's been that long since we took this trip)! I was prompted to go digging for these pictures based on the fabulous train doodle (see it there in the photo strip?) that Mirjam of Pink Reptile Designs released this week! I saw it, and instantly this fall colors tour came to mind. What a great day! I will never forget how awe-inspiring those 2 steam engines were as they rolled into the station rainy darkness of early morning. Indescribable really. So anyway, I dug out a few of my favorite photos from that trip and put together a quick layout. I think I need to go back and properly document that trip. Perhaps this is the first page of that. (If only I had infinite free time *sigh*)

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Life with 2 Weims

It's been 3 weeks since we picked Arya up from the airport, so I though I'd give an update.  Adjusting to the new puppy has been going pretty well so far. For the first few days, Dublin did lots of fly-by sniffing, trying to figure out why she wasn't leaving. I guess after he figured out she was planning to stay for a while, he decided to give her a chance.

Right away we saw him take her under his wing, so to speak. He taught her how to play - very important to a Weimy. He was super gentle with her, while letting her be as rough and tumble as she dared. It was great! She also learned to walk on the leash much more quickly than he did when he was a puppy, and we think it has had a lot to do with walking them together. She watches EVERYTHING he does, and she tries to emulate him. Other than zigzagging back and forth when she's not walking right next to him, she does a great job on leash!

She's also sleeping through the night, and she is kennel trained!!  They "go in" every morning around 8:30 or 9:00, and they nap until about 1:30. That's in line with my work hours, so we intentionally chose to get them on that cycle. It has worked wonderfully! Now she willing trots into her kennel when it's time to go in. Anything for a little peanut butter treat!!

Andy potty training.... she is doing GREAT! She has gotten the concept of going to the door, ringing the bell, and going potty outside. The only issues come when we aren't paying attention. If we miss her attempt at going to the door, she will go in the floor. We are confident that as she grows and gains more control, this will dissipate. She's super smart, and has trained easily!

All in all, now they're BUDDIES! Two peas in a pod. Mutt and Jeff. Beavis and Butthead. Whatever you want to call them. Playtime is funny stuff. There's lots of this....

Hey, what does she have? 

Let me see if I might want that....

Yep, I wanted that.

 And there's LOTS of tug of war... sometimes Arya even wins!

And there's lots of hanging out together once they've worked out their crazies...

All in all, we're so glad we made the crazy decision to get a second Weimy!!  How could you not love this baby face??

Our Happy Place

Here it is, the beginning of August, and I have FINALLY finished my album for the 1st 3 months of 2013. That's not really all that great of a time table, but hey! Done is done, right?! I decided this year to to a combination of Project Life pages and regular scrapbook layouts. I just merged them all together in one book and printed the book. The benefit of doing it this way is that everything is in one book, all nice and neat. There's no need for a separate album for Project Life and other layouts, is there? ???
The downside to taking this approach is simply this: EVERYTHING has to be done before you can print anything. I had to go through all of my photos for the 1st 3 months and make sure I had everything done that I wanted to do. Every weekly spread. Every individual layout. Everything. That takes time. More time than I anticipated... although maybe that has something to do with not having a lot of free time anyway??  Maybe.

So, here's the last layout I did for my 1st 3 months of 2013:
I have a whole series of photos (no surprise there) of one of our walks to the woods. They were some sweet pictures that I couldn't stand to exclude from our album.

This is what it will look like in the album...

So, as soon as the page was done, I uploaded it to my Shutterfly album, saved it, and ordered it. It looks like I should get the book sometime on Monday! I'm excited to finally have book in hand, something to look at and hold and look at some more.

Now, for devising some genius plan for getting caught up. Because at this rate, it will be mid 2014 or later before I get done with 2013... that can't happen! Or, it just might happen... we'll see.