Swimming and Snow

Our friends that live up the street moved here from Texas.  They have four kids (including twins) and their oldest son is Jack and Wyatt's age.  Their mom Erin is adamant they keep swimming regularly even here.  She has managed to borrow passes from various homeowners to get us into the local resort pool.  We are trying to go once a week.  We have made three trips in three weeks so we are doing well so far!

  

Wyatt had quite the get-up on one afternoon so I had to get a picture.  We went swimming right after their last day of school before the break.  Their teacher made them scarves with their names on them. Wyatt is wearing his new scarf.  And his swim trunks.  And his Sorel boots.  The other thing I notice in this picture is Jack's jacket.  We bought that two years ago at a ski swap and it was enormous on him.  We had to roll up the sleeves all last winter.  And I just noticed they look slightly short!  

It is even more fun because you can still see snow outside the windows of the pool and I always feel like I am on a vacation at a resort when we go there.   This picture is hilarious to me.  All the kids (but Avery) took a hot tub break and they look like teenagers to me.  The funny part.  If you look carefully there is a man in the hot tub - poor guy - he's probably on vacation…he's just trying to relax in the hot tub…and then there are six kids staring at you.  

    This little one LOVES it.  She starts jumping up and down saying "poohll"  "poohl"  or "I swim" "I  
    swim".

Merry Christmas!

The boys woke us up at 6:15 on Christmas morning.  It was so foggy and frosty it looked like it had snowed overnight.

I remember the boys saying that there were oranges in the stockings.  Avery woke up a short time later.  She has been ready to open presents for the last two weeks.  She has been saying "Santa" and "ho ho ho!"
We started with stockings.  Wyatt said "Mommy, all daddy got was socks in his stocking!  And peanut butter cups."  He was excited to find some sea animals in his stocking or "baby whales".

W had fruit and cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Geoff fed the dogs and walked Katy on her leash so she won't run.  She is looking and feeling great and even managed to sneak a whole loaf of bread on Christmas Eve….

 Speaking of Christmas Eve,  I was certain this year we wouldn't be rushing to church like last year on Christmas Eve but it happened.  We ended up rushing to get pictures (and while we were outside is when Katy and Bear helped themselves to a couple of loaves of bread).

I got ready in about five minutes and remembered that I don't have a hair dryer anymore so I was rushing off to church with soaking wet hair and running late.  Again.  I need to get my act together in 2014!  Geoff left early to save us a seat.

 We got home and had dinner before the kids got into their jammies and we watched the last part of Polar Express.

Then Geoff read "The Christmas Story" and "The Night Before Christmas."

Then we opened PRESENTS!

Santa brought Jack the coolest Lego set.  A winter village.  It has skiers, an igloo, and you should see the house.  It even has a tile floor in the kitchen and carpet in the living room in front of a fireplace (that really lights up).  I want to play with this Lego set!

We got the best faces from Avery when she was playing with this ball popper toy from Aunt Amy, Uncle Matt, Chloe and Logan.

 The kids really like the balloon set which comes with a little air pump.  They pump up the balloons and let them fly.

 Playing with the two little Star Wars lego sets.

 Wyatt got a remote control helicopter from Santa.  So far, Geoff has played with it more than anyone.

   Avery finally got fed up with her way too long pants (these jammies are size 2 Gymboree) but the pants seemed about a foot too long.  So she pulled them off.

They spent the rest of the day and part of the next building the Lego Winter Village.

 Merry Christmas to all!!!!

Katy and the Rock

Our dog Katy gave us quite the scare last week.  On Tuesday our dogs slept in the garage and Geoff told me that one or both of them had peed in the garage which is really unusual.  The next morning there was a lot more pee (so we thought) in the garage.  When I went to feed them in the a.m. Katy literally turned and walked away from her bowl without touching her food.  I knew right away that something was very.seriously.wrong.  She hasn't NOT eaten her food ever in 10 years!!  Shortly after I saw her kind of spit up yellow/orange fluid (it looked like bile).  That is when I realized that she had been getting sick in the garage.  The vet told us to bring her in immediately.

They kept her all day and all night Tuesday.  She didn't get sick but they had her on anti-nausea meds.  She did alarm them by getting sick after 24 hours on the meds, so they recommended moving on to blood work…then x-rays.

They found a rock several feet away from several other rocks.  Katy started eating rocks when we moved here.  The vet told me that it was just a really bad habit.  The vet couldn't say that the rock was 100% the problem bc the rock actually isn't too big for the size dog that Katy is.

   Next up, a barium test.  She then knew there was an obstruction so Katy went in to surgery.

The rock was the cause of the obstruction.  It was just not moving.  The vet said it had passed through about a foot of her intestines.  It had caused some damage but the vet said it looked reversible.  The rock was in her duodenum and it could have been a really bad situation.  We were so worried about her!  Her poor belly with lots of stitches.

She is doing great thank goodness!!!  She is five days post surgery now and is in the house full-time because she can't jump or run for 2 weeks.  We also have to figure out how to get her to stop eating rocks in our yard!!

We know she is feeling better because she was back to trying to grab food off of our counters, out of the pantry, and out of the garbage can.  While I was typing this post, I heard growling in the pantry…both Katy and Bear were standing at the doorway with their backs toward me.  Katy turned around and had a bag of hamburger buns in her mouth (Bear was growling at her).  Katy literally just dropped the whole bag and moped back to her bed to lay down.

She can't eat any food other than her special post-surgery food so we really have to watch her.  Obviously Bear is watching her too!