Mans Best Friend

So a few months ago we went to Oerschlins to get some flowers and they had the most incredibly cute dog we had ever seen there. So of course I don't even think I got any flowers but we did end up bringing this dog home. He has become Connors best friend. Connor has to go outside 20 times a day to check on him and pet him. He sleeps in the garage and stays in the yard (minus going to my neighbor shelley's house occasionally and eating her cat food). So all in all he is a pretty good boy. (Minus chewing up everything he comes in contact with. Including the seat on our golf cart and some Reebok flip flops that don't belong to us. Hopefully none of you are missing any. Hehe. I guess that is part of him being a puppy.) This is the first dog we have ever had and I am not a dog person (at all). But he has become part of the family. My friend Beth has taken over the Animal Control for Washington and she was telling me about how they have to put down all the dogs that don't find homes. That just makes me sick. Just think if we wouldn't have adopted Raylin he would be there in that situation. Yuck. Next time you get the itch for a dog adopt one. There are so many that need good homes. Maybe I will even get a second one someday. Doubtful but maybe. First I have to replace everything in the garage that this one has chewed up.

Vacation Success!!

Last week we were brave and took our children on vacation. We went to Gatlinburg with my parents, sister, and her family. I was a nervous wreck thinking of being in the car with the kids for 7 hours. Surprisingly it went incredibly well. I don't think we had a single melt down in the car. Somehow we ended up 20 minutes in front of everyone else on the way so we stopped at a church parking lot and let the kids run around for a while.

It felt awesome to get out and stretch our legs but not that awesome that it was 100 degrees! We were sweating to death. We meet up with our crew and ate lunch and continued on our way. It was such a nice and calm ride. I would have never dreamed it would have gone that easily.

First thing we did was go to the aquarium. Here are a few pics of that.

This is in our cabin one morning before we went out. Sam loves coffee (Actually all of my kids do. For this reason I never make it except for a special treat!!)

The whole gang together. I wonder if we will ever get a pic of all of them together and looking. Maybe in a few more years.

This was the view from the deck on our cabin. Pretty yes- Scary absolutely!! I went into serious panic mode when I took my kids out there the first time. They were not allowed on the deck without an adult ever.

This was at wonder works. Mag kept trying and after a couple attempts she made it to the top. I was so proud of her.

Sam absolutely loved to run on this piano.

Connor and Jack wanted to go to a dinosaur museum and Maggie and Luke wanted to go to this Titanic place so we ended up taking the little boys to the dinosaur place. It was awesome. We were the only ones there so we went thru it like 5 times and took our time. Dont they look cute in their safari hats??

I on the other hand- not that cute in the safari hat!! Lol!

After the dinosaur place we took the boys on a helicopter ride. It was short and sweet but still pretty cool for the boys to say they got to ride in a helicopter.

Connor as the helicopter was going up!! Looking a little scared at first but he ended up really liking it.

At 2:30 in the morning the night before we left I got up to use the bathroom and found this guy right next to the toilet. I killed it and then tried to go back to bed. I couldn't sleep all night thinking one of them was going to get in my covers. That was my first and hopefully last Scorpion experience. Yuck.



That is the highlights from our trip. Can't wait to plan a trip for next year.