New Puppy!

I am loooong overdue for a post! It has been a busy couple weeks. Last weekend Ray-dad (aka, Ray's father and my father in law) came into town. And we took like no good pictures. I have nothing to post. But we had lots of fun. Saturday we went out to the Montgomery County fair and played games, the girlies rode ponies, they won prizes. We ate too much funnel cake and fried oreos. Fun was had by all. Then Sunday we went geocaching and, though we only found 1 of 3 caches, we all had a blast. Especially Trevor, who thought geocaching was like a treasure hunt! It was wonderful to have grandpa visit us and the kids were really upset when it came time for him to go. Hopefully he'll have business in the area again soon!

Then, this past weekend we added a new addition to our family. We've been thinking about getting a dog for about a month now. The kids are more independent, they've been asking for a dog. Ray and I miss having a dog. So we checked out a few area shelters over the next few days. We had already decided on a puppy. I didn't mind if he was older than 8 weeks, but I wanted him/her to be younger than 6 months. I figured this would lessen any baggage a shelter dog might have (that is another story). But puppies go very quickly at our area shelters. In fact, neither are shelter had puppies. Frederick county did so we drove all the way out there, only to have them both adopted by the time we got there (1.5 hours later. Argh!). So we filled out an application with our local rescue group and, on a whim and with no definite plans to adopt that day, we went to their adoption fair the the Petco. We got there WAAAAY early, they were just arriving to set up. After looking at all the dogs, we really liked this little beagle mix girl who was 5 months old. We went to put an application in on her and when we got into the Petco, there was this pen set up with this ADORABLE hound puppy! He was four months old, big paws, floppy ears. He was sooo cute. We all loved him.

Well, getting a dog from a rescue is like adopting a child or something. We were there from 11ish when they were setting up.. all the way until 4pm that day. At the Petco. In a strip mall. The kids were WONDERFUL. Got a little tired near the end there, but hung out and drew on all the Petco applications (sorry Petco!) and pet all the dogs. We had to go through an interview with a volunteer. Yes, an interview. Then, if we pass that interview, we get a second interview with a board member. It felt like a job interview. heh. We passed both interviews! Then, they did something they apparently never do. They said if they could contact our vet today then we could take him home today, prior to the home visit (yes. Home visit) as a foster to adopt. Since they did reach our vet and I guess that was good. So we loaded up our puppy with lots of puppy things and took him home!!!! Sorry, minimal kid pics!


His name is Willie, not our name, he came with it and it stuck.


On a trip to Lake Fairfax yesterday.


Ray holding him on leash. He's not huge. I think he will be a houndy size when full grown. Not huge, not small. He's big a goofy and always trips over his feet right now.


This is not our dog. This is Brett's English Mastiff puppy who went to the park with us. Yes. Puppy. She makes Willie look like a chihuahua. She will like double her weight. She was terrified of Willie at first. I think Roxy is also adorable.


Am I cute or WHAT?


Willie LOVES the kids. He bounds after them all day, trying to see what they are up to. He also loves Rachael's shoes. And he loves their stuffed toys. And their lego pieces. Oh, and their bed covers. He's a teething beast. But he really adores the kids and they adore him. They have been so wonderful, making sure they get stuff out of his way, not getting mad at him when he grabs their toys. They play in the backyard so Willie can come out and splash in the wading pool with them. I wanted a dog that would kind of be one of the gang and he really is (I sure hope there are no hitches in the foster to adopt thing!)

On a good note. He was obviously crated before we had him. He has been crated both nights now. The first night he gave one houndy cute bay and that was it for the night. Last night he wanted out at midnight and I let him out to pee and put him in his crate. He whined a couple minutes then no more noise for the rest of the night. He has only had two accidents in the house and no poop in the house. He paces when he has to go out and we let him out. If we don't catch him pacing, well, he'll pee in the house. He's only 4 months old. But I was very surprised at how little pee I have been cleaning up (knock on wood). He's really been great so far. Very sweet and good natured. He rides well in the car with us. Our routine has been walking him in the morning then he takes a midmorning nap, then he goes somewhere with us in the afternoon, we're always going to a park or hiking or something. Then in the evening he gets one more walk. He was so pooped today that he almost didn't walk the rest of the way back from his walk. He's currently sleeping on my feet as I type. He's a wonderful little monster puppy!

Pirates and Treasure

It's been a pretty relaxed week. Sorry I have no pictures to post. We have backpacks and school supplies and I registered Trevor and Rachael for school. I am kind of excited! We went to Lake Fairfax last night and cooked out for dinner and et the kids run around everywhere. Then we met Ryan at his campsite and the kids all ran around with eachother. Except Ariel, who for some reason, has decided Ryan is super scary and won't wander away when he is around. But the reason I posted and what I thought was cute was Trevor's obsession with finding treasure.

We were all eating our hot dogs and chips and strawberries at the picnic table when Trevor suddenly stops eating and exclaims "I know! I will need to go to the library tomorrow. Then I will check a book out with treasure maps in it and, well, I'll need a shovel and I will dig up some treasure!"

I pointed out "Well, Trev, don't you think if treasure maps were just at the library, someone would have just checked it out and found all the treasure by now? I think treasure maps are rare and hard to find."

Trevor thought about it for a moment and said "OK. Well, then I will get a book about people who have FOUND treasure and then I will go to where they found their treasure and get their map.... no, wait. They will have already FOUND the treasure. Hmmmm."

So he thought about it like all evening. This was something he was very intensely focused on, this tough issue of finding a treasure map. So I took the girlies over to the stream to catch water skippers and watch a spider weave his web and Trevor finally comes running over...

"Mommy! OK. I've got it. Even if the treasure is in Europe, well, I'm just going there for it."
ME: "Um, ok. Are you going to save your allowance to fly there?"
Trevor: "NO! That's like 10,000 dollars!"
Me: "OK. How about daddy and I find the treasure for you when we got to Europe?"
Trevor: "Oh, it's in a cave with lots of spiders. You won't want to go in there."
Me: "OK. Well, I'll send daddy, then and I'll stand guard outside."
Trevor "OK, that would work. And then daddy could go down into the dark stairs and to a door...." suddenly Trevor just groans and rolls his eyes... "But what happens if the door is LOCKED and there is NO KEY? I hadn't thought of that."
Me (thinking this whole scenario is hypothetical) "Well, we could just learn how to pick locks. Maybe there is some lock picking kit we could buy."
Trevor: "Oh! Good! OK. So then daddy can get in the room with the treasure map." (Yes, map. No treasure is here! This is just the map!)
Trevor: "I wonder if there will be a knife or sword in the room."
Me: "Oh, it should be a sword! Maybe a ninja sword, like some big samurai sword. That would be so cool."
Trevor, exasperated: "Noooo, mom. This is a PIRATE. There are no samurai swords. This is dead pirate bones holding out a map."
Me, finally laughing because I realize he is deadly serious about all this, "Ohhhh, uh huh."
Trevor, getting irked, "Don't laugh at me, mommy! I will find a treasure map!"

It was just really funny. Trevor is just darn sure that he will not only find a treasure map, he seems to know just HOW he will come across it.

Hiking to Bear's Den

Yesterday we took a couple hours to hike up to Bear's Den, off the Appalachian trail. This was the first time doing an actual hike with the kids, although, if you notice Trevor's Crocs (Crocs have to be the world's most hideously UGLY shoe) and Ariel's sandals, we didn't realize how much of a hike it would be. It was a ton of fun, though! And the kids did awesome- lots of uphill clambering over rocks.


We put the timer on for this picture. I think Ray got shy and hid behind Trevor. heh. We're in the parking lot before heading up.


TONS of blackberries along the parking lot. We picked lots.


A beetle we saw. We kept having to tell Rachael NOT to pick up the bugs. She picked up some sort of cricket/grasshopper bug at one point and it bit/stung her. She exclaimed "It BIT me!" and not 5 minutes later tried to pick up another one she saw. Yes, this is the child who, at 18 months was so scared of bugs we spent the summer inside because everytime we went outside she FREAKED at the gnats and flies and ants.


Butterfly that landed on my shoe at one point.


The moss was absolutely thrilling.


Finally at the top. Ray is helping Rachael leap across the rock. I am taking the picture and trying not to be a nervous wreck. The drop off the rocks is almost 90 degrees and straight down the mountain (trees might have stopped them about 30 feet down).


Daddy, Trevor and Rachael. Ariel is back with me having a fit because SHE wants the opportunity to scare me over on the rock with daddy.


Ray helping Miss Ariel, who always gets her way, across. It kind of looks like he is flinging her to her death. I am probably holding my breath as I take this picture.


A rare moment of not being silly. Trevor meditating upon the wonderful view.


Rachael climbing a tree.


Kids on the rocks.... no salt.


Trevor walking through a set of rocks. There were daddy long legs EVERYWHERE. Trevor was a little nervous one would crawl on him. I was glad I wore tennis shoes and when I wasn't freaking out the kids would fall down the mountain, I was keeping an eye out for montserous daddy long legs. OMG, I am just a wreck. But, thankfully, as my anxiety can't actually keep up for that long, by the time we got up to Bear's Den, I was much calmer. On the way down, I could actually walk without being twitchy! Go me. Maybe that's how to overcome arachniphobia.

All in all, it was a great hike. We're definitely going to look for more hikes like this one. The kids got tired about halfway down. Ariel needed to be carried and Rachael just cried and walked. But otherwise everyone had a blast!