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Four Day Weekend

07 Sep

Matt and I have done enough years of One Day Weekends on a good week to really appreciate a Two Day Weekend, and even more so a Four Day Weekend. That is what we had this last weekend when our flex schedule at work aligned with Labor Day. Here is the recap:

Day 1: Clubhouse Fun Zone, or as Ali calls it, “the bounce bounce playground” with my mom, Michelle and Hannah. On Monday night Ali prayed to go to back to the bounce, bounce playground soon. At least she knows where to go with the really important requests!

That evening we got some quality TV watching in with our neighbors Corey and Jen, as we continue our ongoing Chuck marathon with them.

Day 2: Road trip to beautiful Bakersfield. We spend a couple of fun hours with my friend Davi and her Band of Brothers where her two oldest boys taught Ali how to use a light sabre, while I enjoyed talking to Davi and left wishing we had more time to chat.

From there to a 50th anniversary party for Lanny and Joyce Lloyd. It was so peaceful being in a room with so many Ridgecrest (or more specifically Immanuel) people, and it was a tribute to the guests of honor, just how many people made the trip.

Next, the required swim at the hotel pool. I was so happy to be someplace warm enough to swim. Those who spent this summer in Ventura and Oxnard know what I mean.

This is where our weekend hit a speed bump.

Actually, it was not a speedbump it was the corner of a door frame, and it was not our weekend it was Ali’s head.

Matt got us to the nearest ER to have her forehead glued back together, and despite their lack of pediatric consideration they did have us in and out of there pretty quickly. The wound is usually hidden by her mega-bangs, but if you ask Ali will be happy to show you her new “bonk”.

Day 3: Took it easy after the excitement of the day before. Returned home.

Day 4: Spent the morning hiking towards (not to) the punchbowls. Since we are not Ventura County natives we had never made this hike before, but we were happy to find the first stream crossing not too far up the trail.

There was much fun to be had right there at that spot, so we did not bother to venture any further and just lingered where we were.

The rest of Day 4 was made up of all the stuff that gets crammed into a few hours whether your weekend is one day or four days long. Groceries, laundry, cleaning etc. We’ve got to be ready for another week.

Amy

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Posted in Baby, Dog, Friends, local

Night-night Puppies

19 Jun

Cozy puppies, all ready for bed.

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Ali made sure they are all tucked in, and even gave Asha her pink bear-bear to cuddle with. One little puppy fell fast asleep, but the big one was restless.

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This resembles Ali’s nap today, tossing and turning, playing and saying “I not sleepy”, then all of the sudden…..

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Out like a light. For now.

Asha sleeps through everyone else’s restlessness.

Except in the early morning. She knows what time my alarm goes off and a few minutes before its scheduled alert, she is there at the side of the bed, stretching her little body up to remind me that it is time to get up.

How do you explain weekends to a dog?

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But now, she is enviably relaxed.

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Hmmmmmmm.

Amy

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Posted in Baby, Dog

Camping trip

12 Jun

Memorial Day weekend we took our first camping trip in three years, our first camping trip as a family complete with kid and dogs. I had some apprehension going into the weekend. Mostly I was afraid that the dogs would bark the whole time and ruin the trip for our friends, who would then refuse to speak to us again (0r at least refuse to go anywhere with us again). I was also nervous about how Ali would do camping and if she would sleep.

I think it turned out great, and at the end of the weekend I did not want to leave. Ali and the dogs were so happy out there, I would say they were easier while camping than they are at home. We went to Santa Margarita Lake, and for a Memorial Weekend trip it was a good choice (you can see the holiday crowds on the lake behind us).

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We joined the Baums, the Kiners, the Pecks and the Vanolis, which meant that we got to camp with these three two year old girls.

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Hannah, Annabella and Ali. So much fun, adventure and cuteness!

Matt said we brought our own petting zoo.

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Although I am not sure that Asha was completely happy to serve that purpose.

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Besides enjoying being with my family and being outside for a few days, what made the time great was being with some amazing girlfriends.

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For Matt, I would guess his favorite part would be……..

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Now I can’t wait to go camping again!

Amy

2 Comments

Posted in Baby, Dog, Family, Friends

Asha

22 Apr

“I am contacting you on the off chance that you would be interested in adopting a friend for Nala?”

And with that question from the dog rescue, Asha came into our lives.

We had thought from time to time that Nala would do much better with another dog in the house, but never actually considered doing it because we didn’t want to take on the unknown issues of another dog. Nala has enough issues, thank you very much. The early story of Asha, as with Nala and many other rescues is a sad one. When Asha was just a six month old puppy she had been so badly neglected that she was very ill and was completely bald from severe mange. The vet didn’t know if she would survive, but she pulled through. It was another six months before she arrived at our house looking as healthy as can be.

We are shocked that we own a very small dog. A dog whose paperwork from the vet says, “chihuahua mix”. We are also shocked at what a great dog she seems like she will be.

So here she is………actually, here they are.

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You don’t really get one without the other. Right now they are sleeping at my feet like this.

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They may look sweet and innocent here.

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But most of the time, it is like mixed martial arts in my living room.

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I find it very entertaining.

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You never know what the day might bring.

Amy

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Posted in Dog

Easter Pics

09 Apr

I want to start out with what I think is pretty much the best family picture of our family ever – at least it is the best one in my current possession. For that one moment, we all look pretty good

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As usual Donna and John hosted us in their beautiful home with wonderful food (I wrote that backwards the first time…..beautiful food with wonderful home? It still applies.)

The weekend was jam packed full of so much stuff! For starters, Matt and Charlie and Ruthie and I did the Santa Anita Derby Day 5k. Ruthie and I were both thrilled to meet our goals of getting personal best 5k times. Not necessarily impressive times by anyone else’s standards, but success to be proud of for us! Our chivalrous boyfriends hung with us and cheered us on rather than speeding ahead to their own impressive finishes.

Afterwards we sat back and watched the horses run. It was fun and relaxing to kick back on such a beautiful day, but I don’t see the race track being someplace where I would choose to spend much of my time beyond another Derby Day. I thought it was kind of icky. Like Vegas without the “bling”.

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Seabiscuit was a good book/movie though. And being here always makes me think of my friend Kerri and her dad. And those are happy thoughts.

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Ali played so hard that day too, climbing the hill behind her Mimi’s house and sliding down on the plants.

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She had Nala as her companion. Check out that long tongue! In the mutt mix that she is, there may be some anteater.

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John and Donna’s dog Tucker hasn’t spent a ton of time with kids in his life, but he seems to like Ali.

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They played together a lot and he was there for her at the end of a long hard day.

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I have more pictures that I plan to post soon of actual Easter day, but it is late so I will sign off for now.

Amy

2 Comments

Posted in Baby, Dog, Family, holidays

Ballet Class

10 Feb

We had the most wonderful weekend in Tahoe with the Jungs. It could only have been better if we could have stayed longer!

Zoe and Ali serendipitously had the same jammies. (Please note the beautiful, snowy winter wonderland through the windows in the background).

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Zoe is quite the accomplished ballerina, so she gave Ali some quick lessons.

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Second position arms, and those are some lovely ballet hands. I think she may be a natural!

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Zoe demonstrated a lovely arabesque. Ali’s still needs some work, but she has continued to practice even tonight.

And now to the snow report.

It snowed!

We had one day of snowboarding and one day of sledding and snow play. Matt built us an awesome sled run behind the house.

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The red and pink bundle in his lap is Ali. She loved the sledding and the snow and rode down happily with us or on her own.

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Not only did we have matching ballerinas, but we also had matching pups.

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The hours we spent playing in the snow, Nala and Olive spent bounding through drifts and wrestling. It was a beautiful thing.

I also want to add that I am feeling like a super hero these days. The ski resort we went to allowed Matt and I to buy a single interchangeable lift ticket and trade off watching Ali and snowboarding. Watching us on the chair lift had an impact on Ali. Her current favorite topic of conversation:

“Mommy fly”

“Mommy fly high in sky”

Yep, that’s right, I can fly.

Amy

2 Comments

Posted in Baby, Dog, Friends

December – or what is left of it

21 Dec

Ali and I had as great a trip to Hawaii as we had to DC. Kirk, Jenny and Sadie were so hospitable to us. We mostly played around the house and in their neighborhood and went to the neighborhood park. While we were there they had huge waves on the North Shore prompting the Eddie Aikau surf competition which is only held when the wave face is at least 30′ high. We did not go to the area where they were having the competition because of the huge crowds, but Jenny did take us to a north facing beach where we saw the big waves (way off in the distance) and a bale of sea turtles.

(Credit to Wikipedia for providing me with the correct spelling of Eddie’s name and the proper term for a group of turtles. When in doubt, Wikipedia.)

Since we have been back, we have of course been very busy getting ready for Christmas. I am pretty sure the shopping is done, and I haven’t done much wrapping but I am counting on Ali to take good naps the next couple of days in which case we will be good to go. One of our pre-Christmas projects was to buy a Cargo Carrier to go on the back of the Escape. When we travel, Nala rides in her cage in the back which doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for all the rest of our stuff. Especially when you add in Christmas presents. Matt threatened to put Nala in her cage on the carrier, but I don’t think he meant it.

Matt and Ali worked together to assemble the carrier.

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Ali really did help to take the nuts off the bolts so that Matt could use them. She was concentrating so hard.

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Nala was sad. She did not know that Matt was joking about making her ride on the carrier.

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Also, she wanted to help but they would not let her.

Amy

1 Comment

Posted in Baby, Dog, Family, Friends, Home, holidays

Good times

03 Oct

We were celebrating Matt’s birthday with his family last weekend. His mom made a feast for us (thanks Donna!) and we enjoyed leftover cheesecake all week.

Mmmmm, cheesecake.

Nala showed up ready to party!

Look, she is smiling about wearing her hat!

And Nala was not the only one smiling. Look how happy Ali is to be with Aunt Amber and Papa!

It was a nice and relaxing day. Ali and I went swimming where she practiced dunking me under water – I guess that is only fair considering we do the same thing to her, and Nala actually got Tucker (Matt’s parents somewhat older and less playful cocker spaniel) to romp with her. We are definitely enjoying the freedom that comes with no longer running a retail store and instead having……

THEHAWKINSHOUSE.NET

Archive for the ‘Dog’ Category

Four Day Weekend

Night-night Puppies

Camping trip

Asha

Easter Pics

Ballet Class

December – or what is left of it

Good times

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