Triumphant Return to the Beach (among other things)

Well, summer's back in full force around here, y'all.  This is one of those times I'm glad I have a laptop, because I can take it from the toasty spot where the fan doesn't reach and sit in a completely unladylike fashion on the couch to type this post where the air is moving.  :)

Here are some of the highlights from this week:

Grumma and Grumpa borrowed one of our cars while
their truck was in the shop, and they brought Subway
sandwiches for dinner the next night.  The Princess
loved hers, though she didn't exactly eat it
conventionally.

On Wednesday, Piggy went to the vet to get her annual
(well, supposed to be annual, anyway) vaccinations.  She
was a very good girl for  her daddy, and we took her to get
a new necklace and ID tag afterwards.  This was her first
time in the pet store, and she thought it was pretty cool.

On a side note, Bubbles' ashes were returned to us on
the same day.  That was pretty hard, and we're still
nursing some raw wounds there, but the girls
at the vet's office are some of the sweetest
folks around.  Nothing about this has
been easy, but they've definitely
helped it to suck less.

My roses are blooming, which is kind of a big deal...
especially after I thought I'd lost them to the severely
cold winter.

Saturday brought our triumphant return to the beach.  There are still swim
advisories, but no reports of high bacteria levels.  We believe the reason
behind the advisories was the carp situation, which has since been resolved.
After a couple of unanswered calls and unacknowledged messages to the
department of public health, we decided to chance it.  You should have seen
the smile on our girl's face when the swimsuits were brought out yesterday.

There was a lot of this, both yesterday and today.  The Hubbs and I are
both feeling it in our arms, but the squee of joy from midair makes it
completely worthwhile.

In case you couldn't tell, she is extremely happy
to be back.

And so am I.  :)

Smiles galore, the whole time we were there.

After swimming, we decided to take a family car ride just over the border to
pick up a favorite beer for Momma and Da that we can't buy in our state.
The kids are still learning to coexist in the back seat, but most of the time
they seem to do pretty well.

Saturday brought a few scattered thunderstorms and one really good, heavy
downpour at home.  The clouds were just gorgeous.

Driving home through farm fields, the sun poked out from behind a cloud.

Leftovers from the botched camping trip: camp fire dogs!  I made them in
the oven instead of over the fire, but they were awesome.  We also had
S'mores with stove-top-toasted marshmallows and nuked chocolate.

There's been lots of playing this weekend, accompanied
by scores and scores of smiles.

This morning we woke to find the heat had broken after
last night's storms, so we took the family to a local
conservation area for a walk.  This trail actually featured
a brand new pond smack in the middle of it, so we turned
around and headed back to the car.

One town over, we hit another trail.  Piggy is really loving
all of the attention, but her stamina is pretty much non-
existent.  The humidity really gets to her, and she starts
panting and pig-snorting, compliments of her
cute little scrunch face.

Algae has bloomed in the swan pond.

Water lilies are starting to bloom...it's just about time to head to the
board walk on the lake at the other end of this park to  see a whole
bunch of them.

My first day lily of the year opened up today, and there will be many more
to follow.

Piggy came outside for a little bit of a salad.

...and then she slept on the floor.  And the couch.  And
the floor again.  Poor kiddo is tuckered out.

Heading into The Princess's last few days of summer school, we're preparing ourselves for the Fourth of July festivities around here.  What this means is planning an escape from the loud, chaotic parade (hated by The Princess and Piggy alike), the tons and tons of illegal fireworks (the bane of Piggy's existence) and the crowds of people who descend upon our neighborhood to watch the professional fireworks display over the lake (which historically concusses hundreds of catfish to death every year).  

We'll be spending lots of time at the lake while we can, right up until another big fish kill stinks up the beaches again.  Hopefully The Princess and her da can make good use of it while I'm at work this week.  It just seems like it's been so long since we were last there, and I can't even begin to describe how good it feels to get the fam back in the water.  Maybe at some point we can even get the paddle boat out again. 

Have a great week, y'all.  See ya soon!

2014 Family Vacation #1 (Cue Ominous Music): Camping-ish

For nine years, we've had this great tent.  I've been camping a number of times with and without The Princess, and I love the gear we got as wedding gifts.  The Hubbs, however, has never been what you'd call an outdoorsy guy, and has yet to spend a night in our super-awesome easy-up tent.  This weekend, we had plans to go camping together for the first time ever as a family.

It rained all week, torrential downpours and lightning shows with big, rolling thunderboomers.  All week, the weather guys said to hang tight...the weekend was going to be beautiful - especially Saturday.  We were stoked, pumped, rarin' to go.  

I switched shifts on Friday so I could do some last-minute errands and packing.  We wanted to be ready to leave first thing Saturday morning.  As it was pay day and I was reaping the rewards for working sixteen hours of overtime, I treated myself to a new 2-burner propane camp stove and a few more things to make our trip easier.  We picked up camp fire food, I finalized our lists (I'm a known list freak...ask any member of my family), and I stocked the car for our morning departure.

Just after midnight, my head hit the pillow, and it felt like the night before Christmas.

Saturday morning, we headed out to a campground about 20 minutes from
home.  It was drizzling as we drove over there, but we were confident it
would clear up.  When are the weather guys ever wrong???  This should
have been our first warning.

The Princess and Piggy had a ball at the camp site,
one little girl running full-tilt from end to end while the
other loafed around on the ground.

There was a little bit of fun with the iPhone by the camp fire.

Da even joined us by the fire for a bit, even though he'd
been chewed within an inch of his sanity by the
relentless mosquitoes.  Second warning, anyone?

There was some uke time by the fire, after the first round of rain
whooshed through.  Then, the sky turned black.

The next round.  Text message from Grumpa:
"Pack up and get out.  Tornado warnings.
Just got emergency notice to take shelter."

This pretty much sums it up right here.  Flash flooding, turning our camp
site into a lake.  We packed up in seven minutes flat, leaving the tent to
pick up in the morning.  Soaked to the bone, we cautiously made our way
back to our little, cozy, dry yellow house.

The sky on the way home.  None of the pictures of the runoff came across
very well, but there were rushing roadside rivers with their very own rapids
(say that five times fast).  More than once, we had to slow to a crawl in
order to navigate through 8 or 9 inches of water on the roadway.
Downed trees, closed roads...this was a doozie.

Original dinner plans: pigs in a blanket over the camp
fire.  Modified (and highly justified) alternative: Italian
beef and roasted pepper pizza, Canadian bacon and
pineapple pizza, and Fireball whisky for the adults.  The
good news?  We did get to have s'mores before the big
storm hit, so the camping trip wasn't a total bust.

The Hubbs wasn't the only one mauled by mosquitoes.
See The Princess's new shiner? Mosquito bite.  And there
are probably 25-30 more all over her poor little legs.  She's
always puffed up like a balloon, and they were vicious
yesterday.  Should have been a clue that storms were
moving in, but hindsight is 20/20, I guess.

Coming home after picking up our tent today, our two little ladies showed
off their new found ability to share the back seat without squabbling.

After picking up the tent and stopping for ice cream and French fries, we returned home and set everything back up to air out in the back yard before the rain hits again tomorrow.  It was a bit of a lazy afternoon around here today, vegging in front of the TV while our stuff dried out enough to be packed up.  Right now, I'm sweating my knickers off and trying to cool back down after packing everything away.  Again.  But at least it's dry this time!

For a first camping trip as a family, this really sucked the big one, but we're gonna suck it up and be big about it, give it a little while to scab over and try again.  Never before have I been on such a doomed camping expedition...and hopefully never again!  Our goal for next time: stay the night without floating away.  I really don't think that's too much to ask.

In the meantime, we'll hang at home for a couple of weeks before heading back out on the open road for our first family trip to Red House.  We're going for an entire week, which is huge for us (first week-long vacation since our honeymoon - we're usually the long weekend type, jamming as much as possible into four days while still getting to relax a bit), and we're taking Piggy along.  She seems like she'll make a great traveling companion...more on that later.  We'll be holin' up with Grumma and Grumpa in a small one-bedroom cabin.  For those keeping score, that's four adults, one whirling dervish and two dogs...not to mention all our stuff.  Wish us luck!

Goodbye, Bubbles

Nine years ago, I bought a house.  Not even a month in to this adventure, The Hubbs and I made the decision to adopt a fur kid, and we've never regretted that decision, not even for a moment.

Driving with my parents to a farm about an hour away from home, we were excited.  All four of us were giddy at the prospect of meeting the American Bulldogs who were up for adoption.  I even wondered how I'd choose.

The truth is, I didn't choose at all.  She did.  And so we became a family.

Our family in 2005

This little girl worked her way into our hearts so fast, it was hard to imagine what life had been like before her.

The day after we adopted her, and her first walk at the state park.

Our sweet girl

 She's been with us through everything: our wedding, the addition of Sookie, the birth of The Princess.  Before her, this was a little yellow house.  Thanks largely to this big, beautiful, buxom bulldog, it's now a little yellow home.

Happily snoozing on one of our many couches through the years

She used to love laying on the back of this one.

Very important business lady, keeping Doodle company in the office

How, I ask you: how do you not love that face?

Such a good girl

After she'd been with us about a year, we ran across this beautiful baby
bulldog who had just arrived at a local pet store.  It was lub at first sight,
and before we knew it, Bubbles was an adoptive momma.

They've gotten along famously from the word go.

One of my favorite pics of the girls together

Puppies grow fast.

A gentle soul, Bubbles always loved to hang on the couch (or the bed, when we'd allow it) with her people.

A little girl and her daddy

Momma dog and her not-so-baby-anymore puppy

She's always kept careful watch over The Princess.

Not to mention screening gentleman suitors before allowing them to declare
their intentions.

A girl, her pig, and their protector.

Always together, these two

So gentle.  She would let kids step all over her and yank on any of her bits,
all without a complaint.  She loved people, and man, did her people love her.

She also loved to "drive."

I like to call this one "Really, Nana?"  

In the last few years, she really came to love walking with her people.

It's been a hard week.  That's the understatement of my life.  But I would not trade one moment of the last nine years for anything.  The pain of losing our beloved fur kid is far outweighed by the multitude of wonderful memories she blessed us with over the course of her life.

After spending a peaceful afternoon and evening with her family, Bubbles fell asleep one last time around 3:00 this morning.

We love you, Bubbles.  So, so much.  Goodbye, sweet girl.