WE HAVE BEEN INVADED!!

Over the past 3-4 days our back yard has become more and more filled with swallows. At times we probably have more than 500 of them in our trees. I don't mind the constant squaking of the birds but the amount of bird poop that is accumulating on our deck and patio is really becoming a problem. Most of the gnats and mosquitoes seem to be gone though!

Just a few of the birds in our porch tree.

Look closely, all the black dots that look like dirt on the lens are sparrows flying around. Hundreds of them.

Our first day with Anthony

Guys are watching Anthony for he first week but we asked if we could watch him while Shawna went to work today. Yippee!! What an amazing sweet puppy he is. So far (3 hours) and we haven't even had an accident in the house (knock on wood)

"I know I am not suppose to be up on the crate but look how cute I am with my toy."

Nap time - he was making suckling sounds, it was soooo cute!

"I know I am not Gardner, but I am cute too right?"

"wow, a pillow, we didn't have these at the GDB Campus... this is pretty cool!"

A wet puppy spends some time on his back.

A cute wet face.

Alex and Anthony try to find a place for our new hammock.

He is just too darn cute.

A happy Alex wrestles with Anthony.

"I love water, but I am not sure what to make of this pool"

"Pool time...yippee.... I love water!!!"

Splashes!!

WELCOME ANTHONY!!

I was disappointed when I first heard that we were getting a black lab because they are so tough to photograph but Anthony has already won my heart over. He is only 9 weeks old and is exceptionally tiny. His little face is just so precious. He seems pretty calm and very smart! Maddie also got a new puppy since Gabrina went back with Gardner and I swear her puppy who is only one week older than Anthony is twice the size.

The puppy truck guy (supper nice) hands me Anthony.

I show off Anthony to the crowd.

Alex introduces Anthony to Shawna Guy.

The new little puppies (Anthony and Betsy) meet Gardner and Gabrina. Anthony is on the left and notice that he is about half the size of Betsy on the right who is only a week older than Anthony.

(left to right) Alex, Shawna, Carol, Gardner, Gabrina, Betsy, Maddie, Stacie, Anthony, Cali, Leola and Fred. (this is only a small fraction of the FC GDB group).

Carol Guy holds Besty (the clubs - maddie's 10 week old huge puppy)

OMG, how can you not love that face!?!?!?!

Alex, Gardner, Me and Anthony

Again, what a face!

Our new puppy is so cuddly!

He finally takes a nap on the way home (slept for a whole 10 minutes)

We try to get Anthony to pee on the rocks - wish us luck.

The Big Send off

Friday was a big day for Alex and I. We drove with the Guys to meet the GDB Puppy Truck in Denver. I can't really express the emotions I felt when we put Gardner on the truck and said goodbye. Lets just say there were lots of tear from all involved. I now fully understand why it is a good idea to get a new puppy on the same day. It gives you something to hug and wipe your tears on. I kept telling myself that Gardner was off on a grand adventure. His sister was right above him on the truck and his other two litter mates were across from him. I think they all are going to have a great life. And who knows, maybe we will get lucky and he will fail and get to come back and live with the Guys.

This is Shawna and Maddie (left to right) with Gardner and Gabrina. These two litter mates have become great friends - so too have their raisers. They are going to have a great time in CA together.

Maddie gives Gabrina a kiss before she had to put her on the truck.

Doesn't the "knuckle Head" look like he is ready to head off for a good time? He is truly a beautiful and wonderful dog.

One last shot of Gardner. Guide Dog puppies are not allowed dog bone treats until they get to the campus. So as our final farewell we gave him a milk bone once he was in the kennel on the truck (don't tell on us, ok). What a send off. I tried to get a better shot of him but I had a hard time seeing through my tears.

Puppy Assingments

There are only three more days until Gardner goes back to California for training and placement. Boo Hoo!! He is with the Guys this week and we are all taking him to the puppy truck together on Friday.

We got some of the details about the new puppy we are getting today. We will be getting a Male black lab whose name starts with A. The rumor is that he should be between 10 and 12 weeks old when we get him. He has already been confirmed to be neutered at 6 months. That's all we know so far. Check back on Friday for pictures of the new little guy as we are keeping him for the first week. I was really hoping we would get another yellow lab (as they are so much easier to photograph) but Alex assures me that I will fall in love with a black one just as quick as a yellow one.

The day after

Gardner was such a stinker yesterday that we decided to make sure he gets his energy out today. We took him to the grassy hill behind our house and practiced "wait" and "come" commands. He did really well and got a lot of energy out while he ran between Alex and I. It was a pretty hot day and when we got home he was seriously panting. We even hosed him down with cold water to help cool him down.

Pant, pant, pant. Happy puppy.

In a Mood!!!

I woke up this morning to the sound of crunching. I quickly looked around and found Gardner eating the treats I give to our cat after I brush her. Ugh, nothing like starting your day off at 5:30 am with a "Gardner, what are you doing....That's enough!" and then getting a hand full of half chewed cat food while you pull it out of his mouth. And the strange thing is that I know I put the Tupperware with the cats treats in it up on the top shelf.

I am on call all weekend so I headed to the hospital around 8am today and Alex went too. He is trying to get hours in for PA school, so we left Gardner in the guest room. Before I shut the door on him, I checked to make sure there was nothing he could destroy, as the number of couch pillow is quickly dwindling.

When Alex came home from the hospital to let him out...4 hours after he had left...this is what he found. And I have to add, Gardner had five toys to chew on in the room.

Now, I really don't know what to make of this one, except to think that he was mad at us for leaving him. He literally chewed an entire roll of TP off of the holder, cardboard included. It doesn't appear that he ate any of it, he seems to have done it just to spite us.

In the afternoon Gardner "helped" me do some weeding and yard work. One minute he is sitting right beside me and I swear two seconds later he was gone. I couldn't find him anywhere in the yard and he didn't come when I called. Then a burst of fear I saw that the fence gate was open. A few minutes later, in a complete panic, I found Gardner. He was down at the lake about 6 houses down from ours. He normally never leaves my side. I about had a heart attack thinking I had lost him. I also found out who had opened the gate just prior to Gardner's sneaky exit (he shale remain name less but lets just say he shared in my panic as he helped search).

When we went out for dinner later we found that we had a dog on our hands that was truly "in a mood" and he was determined to miss behave in every way he could. Alex and I chalked this up as him being a teenager... he has had days like this before but today was special.

On a different note, we had some beautiful clouds the other day and I couldn't resist taking a picture. This evening we had a gorgeous full double rainbow but we were in the car so I couldn't get a picture.

Clouds as seen from our porch.

Gardner visits New Belgium

Gardner, Alex and I went to New Belgium today to get a new 1/6 barrel for our Kegerator. It was a bit overwhelming for Gardner as it was very crowded but I think it was a good training experience for him.

Gardner in front of the New Belgium Brewery (practicing "wait").

Picture update

Just an FYI - I finally got the rest of our pictures uploaded to flickr: (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaplun/sets/72157619010968010/).

Hope everyone has a great 4th!

Busy Week back

It has been a crazy first week back. I think I kept my sanity only because Gardner and Bree have both been so sweet! Since Bailey has passed, Bree has become a different cat. She is super snugly and has become quit vocal. She still hisses at the puppies on occasion but she never chases them or swats at them the way Bailey did. She actually seems to like the puppies as long as they don't get too close.

I can't believe that Gardner goes back next week. I am going to miss him so much! I am comforted though when I think about what a wonderful companion and guide he will make for someone. And who knows, maybe we will get lucky and he will come back to live with the Guys if he gets Career Changed.

Gardner and Bree take a nap together in the living room.

Great to be home

Alex and I arrived home last night around 9pm, safe and sound. We had some serious airport drama in Houston that required us to literally run around from terminal to terminal to terminal. I won't go into the details but we just barely made our connection flight.

Our house was great to come home to but I always feel a little bit guilty whenever I come home from an extended period of time in central America. Our country is so rich and so blessed with so much and so many of use take it all for granted. My other observation is that our country is really uptight. This was incredibly obvious in Houston and I really just wanted to tell everyone to slow down and just relax. We could all learn a lot from spending some time in a profoundly poor country.

We picked up Gardner today and it is so great to have him back around! We sure are going to miss him when he goes to California for training next week!

headed home

Alex and I made our way from Coban Ruinas in Honduras yesterday all the way to Antigua. We don't like staying in Guate so it is easier to stay in Antigua and take a cab to the Airport. We are currently sitting in the nicest central American airport I have ever seen! It has air conditioning and get this.... free WiFi. I am looking forward to heading home but will miss it here too!

It was a good thing we got out of Honduras yesterday because they arrested the President of Honduras today and there was a military coup. It started while we were there and got worse overnight. In the city we were in, they weren't letting any tourist travel east of where we were for safety reasons.

We splurged and took a direct gringo shuttle to Antigua and there were 8 people on the bus. The Guatemalans can usually cram 20 or so people in to these tiny vans but several of the Americans in our van were so "fluffy" that they took up enough room for 2 or 3 people. Alex and I were the last ones on and so their was no room for our skinny butts on the seats. Alex finally gave up after falling off the bench and just sat in the door well for SIX + hours. Doesn't he look happy!

There was an accident so we waited in the fumes of trucks for about two hours. Oh the joys of travel!

In Guatemala there is a saint named Moximo. He is always seen smoking a cigar and drinking rum. Gotta love the catholics!

Video from Tikal

View of the Grand Plaza at Tikal.

On top of Templo II.

Temple V

Last view of the Grand Plaza

Coban

Today we got up and after a yummy breakfast walked the mile to the ruins of Coban. These ruins are from the Mayans just like those at Tikal and are over 2,000 years old as well. However this civilization was different in that they put hieroglyphics on everything and covered all of their structures with stucco and paint. At its peak, this town must have been spectacular as everything was red, blue and green colored.

The people of Coban build one temple on top of another as one king died and a new one reigned. So archaeologists are able to tunnel through the top temples to discover the older temples underneath. This is how they know things were covered in stucco and paint. the tunnels were really cool but did not lend to pictures. Again I only posted a few pictures and you can see the rest on flickr if you want.

That is actually a sculpture of a Macaw.

ruins of one of the temples on the main plaza.

This is their "rain god".

The heat was getting to Alex and I again so we started getting pretty silly. I thought I would give this guy a good nose picking. He He. It is really an altar where they did sacrifices.

Alex tries hard to "push" over one of the big Steala. Again, I think the heat was getting to us.

This was my favorite thing at the whole site!! It is a jaguar and it use to have huge black onix in it for its spots but I think it looks like a cartoon version of a jaguar. Most of the sculptures here are so serious but this one seems so out of place being so playful!

There were wild Macaws in the grounds. They can really make a raucous but boy are they beautiful when they fly. We saw about 6-8 of them all take off at one time. It was amazing!

This was in the museum and is the a sign of the entrance to the underworld. It is a bat with a jade necklace that represents death.

This was the coolest and most elaborate carving that we saw. Really cool.

Alex is looking around the structures that have been moved to the museum and trying to pretend he is not dying of heat exhaustion.
We are making our way back towards the airport tomorrow and then head home on Sunday. It has been a great trip. We are both sad to leave but at the same time looking forward to long warm showers and seeing our guide dog puppies again!

past 5 days.

Hello all. Alex and I have been in some remote areas for the past few days so posting was difficult. I have posted about 5 or so news posts so keep scrolling to see what we have been up to for the past 5 days or so.

To Honduras we go.

Alex and I headed out of El Remate on Wednesday so that we could break up the trip to the ruins in Honduras that we wanted to see. It was a five our ride down to our first stopping point called Rio Dulce. The town was really cute and was on a big lake/inlet off the ocean. Lots of yachts ride out the hurricane season there.

The only problem was that it was just so $#^%&;% hot again! If you know Alex, you know he doesn't always tolerate the heat well. Our bus was suppose to leave at 2pm and at 2:30 we were still sitting in the bus waiting to leave. Oh did I mention that there is no air condition in vehicles here. I was really beginning to get worried about Alex and then we finally started to go and the breeze helped cool us down a bit.

Alex ridiculously hot and close to heat stroke and hoping the bus leaves soon.

View from a restaurant in Rio Dulce.

In Rio Dulce we had our first bad experience in a hotel. We were both exhausted and starving and so we just took a room at the first hotel we saw. Alex paid and extra $5 for AC but once in the room the AC unit didn't work. He went and asked what was up and a young boy came and climbed the wall outside our room and flipped a switch. Well now at least the unit made noise, but no cold air ever came out of it. Then we tried to take a shower and guess what...no water. Alex went back down and they said..."oh you want water too...that will cost another 10 bucks." Alex was getting pretty mad by this point but he paid anyways. We had our showers, ate a delicious pizza at a river side restaurant, and went to sleep. When we got up in the morning at the exact moment we got out of bed, the power went off and the there was no longer any more water and the front office was closed. Oh well, what can you expect for $20 a night.....usually in central America $20 will get you a decent room with hot water. Alas.

After breakfast we got lucky and found a bus that was headed to the boarder with Honduras. They promised it would only take 6 hours. So off we went to spend another hot day in another bus. Now on these long trips we pay a few dollars more and take a version of a coach. (except without AC and most are 20 yrs old). Usually there are no animal on these types of buses but our was filled with chicks today. And they were not happy about the heat either, or maybe they were not happy about being stuffed under seats and in the luggage bins, who knows, but man can they make some noise and some stinky poo poos!

About three hours into our trip our bus abruptly stopped its wild and crazy 40 mph and sat for what seemed like forever. As it turns out, an oil tanker had crashed into a car and rolled several times. This made quite a mess and they shut down the road. So....again we sit in a really hot bus in the sun, thinking.... these had better be some great ruins in Honduras for all the effort we are going though. Here's hoping! Thank goodness we both had books on our iPods to listen to!

View from the bus on the way to Coban Ruinas.

View closer to Honduras.

Crossing the Guatemalan/Honduras border was a trip. Our buss stopped at a giant road block and said this is it everybody out. We grabbed our bags and walked across the blockade to a row of windows where we "left Guatemala and entered Honduras" Then we grabbed our packs and walked a bit up the road and got in a Microbus and headed into Honduras. Oh did I mention we had to pay them to let us in? Oh and because our driver had to keep stopping to pee (seriously, someone needs to check that man's prostrate!) we made it to Honduras in just over 7 hours.

I do have to say though, this is the first time in almost a week where we have been in a town with Internet and it is blazing fast. Go Honduras! Check back tomorrow for pictures from the Ruins of Coban.