Zoo!

Sarah and I, along with our good buddies Tilly and Katie went to the zoo this morning. The girls LOVED looking at all the animals! It's a pretty small zoo, but is great for this age. They have a "petting zoo" area where you can go in the fence with goats and a donkey. Sarah was giggling and squealing the whole time!!

The first few pictures in the slide show are from our house this morning. We just got Sarah a little table and chairs, which her and Tilly were having fun with. I plan to paint it a deep red color ... we'll see when I actually get around to it :)

You know you've gotten a LOT of rain when your empty baby pool is full after 24 hours! Monday and Tuesday it RAINED non stop. I love storms, so I enjoyed the heavy rain and thunder.

Tuesday was Sarah's first day at "Mother's Day Out" (she'll go Tuesdays and Thursdays 9am-12pm, so I can go to the office and work). We bundled up in the raincoat, but when I tried to snap a picture, Sarah got mad that our departure was delayed. She's funny - if we tell her we're going somewhere, she is ready to jump in the car that instant. No delays! Even though the pictures aren't the best - she sure looked cute in her raincoat and New Balance running shoes!! :)

Sarah loves her truck book, and pointing out "big rigs" as we drive. She finally got to see a "bob cat" in person - and about came undone she was so excited as she watched Jon drive it.

Sarah is getting quite good at walking in my shoes. Isn't it amazing how young this starts?!Ok, I have to include one of the dogs ... :) We got them nice new beds for in the house - with their names monogrammed on each. I know, a bit unnecessary. A few nights ago they started sharing a bed ... why the heck did I buy 2???! I'm sure as Isla gets big though they will thoroughly appreciate the 2 beds!

Here are a few recent pictures ...

Sarah definitely had her papa's dimples!!

picking blueberries - she's learned to only pick the blue ones. Of course she eats everything she picks!
On Thursday, we went to visit my good friend Beth and her 2 boys, Teddy and Wilder. I didn't get a picture of little Wilder ... and man is it hard to get 2 toddlers to both smile at the camera!! :)Sarah LOVES petting Rory - and he's such a good sport
smelling flowers. My flower pots look amazing - thanks to Jon's Mom!!!

My cross country team comes back to school tomorrow. So life is about to get REALLY busy for us. I'm so excited, but also sad that the low key summer with Sarah has come to an end. Posting my be sporadic over these next 3 months, but I'll do my best!

Day 1 with Isla ruling the roost

I should note on how amazing Isla has been during the day - sleeping most the time, staying by my or Sarah's side, and letting me know when she needs to go out. She has her moments of insane puppy energy, but all and all she's a great, mellow dog.

Yet last night was a sheer disaster ... she slept in our room. We hardly got a wink of sleep until 3:30am ... Jon took her out twice to go to the bathroom and she kept wanting to play rather than sleep. When my alarm went off at 5:25am to run, I promptly shut it off, desperate for more sleep. She also threw up in the car this morning. Lovely. Other than that, today has been great. We'll see how tonight goes!!! And poor Mattie - so incredibly jealous that Isla is in the house.

We decided to have Isla spayed. Her surgery was yesterday, so I picked her up from the vet after lunch today. I love our vet. I'm greeted by name, they comment on Sarah, they love the fact that we take good care of our dogs (it's a bit of a red neck area and lots of animals aren't well taken care of), etc. So I'm getting the spiel of no running, jumping, don't let her play with Mattie for at least 4 days. Ok got it. She then goes to get Isla while I head to the car to load Sarah up. Isla comes bounding out of the vet and LEAPS into the back of the Subaru. No jumping runs through my head. Oops. I shut the back hatch, and Isla immediately bounds to the front seat to be ready for me to get in the car. Um that would fall under no jumping as well. The girl then looked at me and said "Good luck." aka - YEAH RIGHT can you keep that dog from running and jumping. She said it took 3 of them to hold Isla down to get the anesthesia in her because she wanted to play!! She said Isla was one of the sweetest, but most energetic dogs they'd ever spayed. All I could think is GOOD THING we haven't taken Mattie in because she's worse!!!!

We'll see how these next 4 days go. And for those who are wondering - initially we had said we'd get Mattie spayed and let Isla have a litter of puppies in a few years. Our vet talked to me about the health benefits of getting a dog spayed before her 1st heat; and said after 3 heat cycles, there's no time sensitive benefits to it. So, we basically figured it's too late for Mattie so might as well help Isla out. Our thought is maybe a year from now, breed Mattie one more time with the same daddy dog. We'll see where our sanity level is and decide.

Swimming with Papa!

After Sarah's nap yesterday the thermometer said 95.5 ... so to the pool we went! Sarah loved swimming with Papa! He's much stronger than Mama and sure threw her hi in the air! She had a blast and went to bed early when we got home :)

Marley & Me

If you love dogs, especially labs, you must read this book - Marley & Me by John Grogan. The Preface made me cry, I'm sure the ending will as well, but from chapter 1 on I have laughed out loud HARD at least on every other page. It is too funny! I bought it on our date night at Barnes & Noble last night, and more than likely will have it finished by tomorrow. Few books have ever made me laugh this hard (Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is the only other 1 I can think of). For all of you who know our dog Mattie, you know she is a bit energetic (ok, that's an understatement). Marley is Mattie times 50! I'll post an addendum to this once I finish the book!

catching up

I really need to do a better job of posting more frequently so the posts can be shorter! Warning - this is long with LOTS of pictures!!

I just have to point this out - Sarah's ponytail is longer than mine!!
























Last weekend, we had the LOOP reunion here at our house - "LOOP" is the nickname of Jon's group of friends from when he taught school in Vienna. Pretty much every time Carole is back in the States, the group joins up for a weekend. We REALLY missed Ember and Mary Kay this year! Our camera battery died, so I missed a lot of the group shots, but I did get a few pictures. On the Saturday, we went down to Coolidge Park and walked on the Bridge. We don't see these friends that often, so it's always a treat to get together - and to marvel at how big all the kids are getting!!

It was Sarah's 1st time on the Carousel and in the Fountain. I tried to set her on one of the horses, but she was way to nervous - so we rode in the chariot. She loved playing in the fountain!

This was hilarious - on Friday night we ate pizza - and Jenny had her girls take their shirts off to avoid pizza stains ... a few minutes later, Sarah started tugging at her shirt. So we took it off as well (thus the picture below of post dinner video watching - why put a shirt back on if it's almost time for PJs?) But for the next several days, at EVERY meal, Sarah would tug at her shirt wanting it off! We haven't given in and I think the desire is fading!

Last Monday, several friends that I grew up with all got together at the pool. It's always hard to catch up when we're all chasing kids in various directions, but it was still fun! Check out Beth's blog for a group photo. This is 1 of the only ones I got - Sarah drinking from a straw, not realizing she doesn't need to tip the cup up like a sippy cup.


With having 6 extra people sleep at our house last weekend, we did some rearranging for everyone to fit. Sarah loved the process of putting everything back together! Since then, one of her favorite things to do is play on a futon mattress in the basement - she does somersaults and just rolls around giggling. It is too funny! - and a great way for her to be entertained while I do laundry and clean up from the dogs.


It has been HOT here lately. Sarah sweats A LOT. Look at this ... just sitting on the desk eating a snack, she's dripping.

I took this picture when she was playing on the futon in the basement - you can tell from her grin how much fun she's having. And she looks so big to me in this picture.

And finally, a thanks to my husband :) I often complain to Jon that my brain is shrinking - I know, sounds crazy. But seriously, I read "Go Dog Go" and books like that all day long; by bed time I'm normally way to exhausted to read anything that makes me think. So I'd been saying I wanted to get Scrabble for us to play in the evenings to stimulate so brain flow ... so the other day Jon came home with it. He kicks my tale every time, but it has been fun!