Sweet Puppy

Petunia is such sweetie.  I am so glad that Maddie and her family are willing to share her with us, I am so thankful!

What a beautiful puppy. 

The age of Hats

Matthew seems to be at a stage where he wants to put most things on his head, or... his mom thinks it is cute when he puts things on his head and so puts silly things on his head...  who knows?

Matthew took the lock of the backing cabinet.

Guide Dog Outing

Today was our monthly GDB outing.  I have both Irene and Petunia right now so I figured I had to go.  Outings are not my favorite GDB thing, seeing as I feel I take our puppy so many places that the outings are kind of pointless.... but they're required...blah blah blah....   With my husband deathly ill and my self not much better, I stayed for only about an hour.  I recently got my camera lens back from the repair center so I wanted to see if it was really fixed.... so I snapped a few shots. 

About half of the FC GDB gang at the Loveland Sculpture Gardens. 

Petunia checks out a wolf sculpture.

The group during the walk. Petunia is with Maddie (co-raiser) second from left.

Kind of There

Even though we haven't raised Petunia since she arrived here on the puppy truck I feel like we have "kind of" been there.  I was there when she came off the truck and Maddie let me snuggle her since I was tearful about Vigo's return.  We have puppy sat her several times... she is the only puppy I have ever seen that at 8 weeks can jump out of the puppy enclosure that I've made.  She had to have eye surgery right away due to an eye problem that is much better now.  She is such a sweetie!

Petunia and I at the puppy truck the day she arrived and was given to Maddie. 

Jorinda, Petunia and Vigo and most importantly Madeline. 

New Puppy!!!

When we put Vigo on the puppy truck we knew it was going to be hard not to have a new puppy.  Vigo was not chosen as a breeder and was flying through training.  But then he got stuck... he has been in phase 7 for over 5 weeks now.  I suspect that it means a career change is in his future but we just couldn't stand being without a puppy any longer.  So long story short.... Madeline - who raised Gabrina, Betsy and Jorinda - has a new puppy named Petunia.  We have watched her a bit and she is now 5 months old.  Maddie is a senior in high school and is really busy so we all agreed to co-raise Petunia together.  We are supper excited to have a puppy back in the house.

Irene on left - now 9 months old - is staying with us this weekend, Brianna is off having fun with her hubby.... Petunia - on the right - is becoming fast buddies with Irene. 

Here is Miss Petunia.  She is really sweet and snugly but a bit of a garbage mouth.  We are really going to enjoy co-raising her. 

Random Shots

So its official, Alex and I are both really sick.  We have been taking shifts taking care of Matthew and the Puppies.  By some grace of god Matthew hasn't gotten what we both have.  I am really hoping it stays that way.

We bought Matthew a tunnel to play in... but the kitty and puppies keep climbing in with him. 

"I don't want to be a cute penguin!! stop taking my picture get this off of me!"

Diaper change break on the way home from Aspen.

The nice thing about off season is that you can let your little one run around with his blanket in the restaurant because we were the only ones there. 

This made me sick... this is a store front window, one of many I might add that had little girl clothes that started around $500 a piece.  I saw fur coats for 6 month old babies.  Now that being said, I work at a place where all we do is care for those that have nothing so this kind of excess makes me flat out angry.  But instead of being angry I will just hope that the people that buy these things some how give back. 

Aspen Day 4 - Maroon Bells

We didn't get up early enough for sunrise at Maroon Bells, but I am gonna try and go tomorrow.  We had a lot of fun just watching Matthew play in the lake.  The beauty of the spot was absolutely astounding.  One of the most amazing mountain visit I've ever seen and I've done a lot of mountain hiking in a lot of different countries.   The lighting wasn't great for mountain shots so most of what I took were shots of Matthew with the mountains as a background.

Family photo #1

Family Photo #2

Off and running. 

"Hurry up Mom, what's taking you so long?"

We made it to the lake... "please can't I go in and play?"

"Really?  I can????  Yippee!!"

"I think I'll just eat the rocks"

"what you looking at?"

"Look Mom... I found more rocks!"

"pretty view?  Who cares... I'm loving the water and the rocks!"

"This is the best!"

This is my favorite shot of the day. 

Check back tomorrow night and see if I got any good sunrise pictures.   And we start co-raising petunia  next week and will have Irene with weekend as well... so check back next week for fun puppy pictures. 

Day #3 the afternoon

After our naps we headed up on the gondola to the top of Ajax mountain.  We spend the afternoon sitting on the sun deck and walking around.  It was beautiful!

sign at the top of the gondola

View into the back - all of those peaks are over 14,000ft

This took a lot of effort and this was the best we got.  As it turns out getting  a toddler to sit still and smile on command is really tough.

"I just wanna run and climb and eat rocks!"

Daddy and Matthew

What a pair.

Attempt at a family portrait #2.

There were a bunch of hula hoops at the top and Matthew had a blast playing with them. 

"Do it again mommy... its funny"

Matthew carried around the big hula hoops around everywhere. 

Tomorrow we are headed out to do some hiking, assuming my cold will let me.  I am hoping for some good photo ops. 

Apsen Day #3

Yeah!!! It is sunny and beautiful today!!!  Freezing but who cares!  We got up real early, much to both of my boys displeasure and went to the balloon show.  They are both napping now so I got a chance to put up some pictures from the morning.  We are headed up to the top of the mountains after their nap so check back later for more pics.

One thing I loved about this festival is that the balloons weren't roped off.  You could walk right up to the balloons as they were being filled.  It was really cool!  At one point there were 37 balloons in the air.  I took a gazillion pictures so I'll try and show some restraint and only post a few, wish  me luck...

We were there by 7am and the moon was still out... can you see it in the picture... its the white dot on the right. 

It was only 37 degrees out... Burr.....

Balloon as it floated over headed.

The beauty was just astounding. 

Matthew Giggled at all the balloons.

Funny shaped triangle one... weird but cool.

My hubby was so sweet.... he watched Matthew the whole time so I could run around and take pictures.

Sorry for the spots on my camera lens... guess I need to clean it. : )

I never saw the planes but the contrails were everywhere. 

I am finally figuring out how to do silhouettes on manual mode....

Balloons everywhere.

The balloons just kept coming

up up and away...

I imagine the view from inside the balloons was spectacular.  Maybe next year the ride part won't get cancelled by the rain. 

Check back later for picture from the top of the gondola... I'm gonna go wake the boys and were off for more fun and adventure.