Settling In

We are all settling in and finding our groove still.  We are adjusting to Austin being back with us and he is adjusting to having parents again.  It is always interesting when your offspring spends extended time with someone else because they just tend to change a bit when they do that.  Especially when teenagers and experiencing a place where people live their lives a lot differently than your home does.

I think it is so good for them though so it's worth whatever bumps go along with that process.  I love seeing how it has stretched his view in some areas and how much he is still the same in others.  All part of the growing and learning that happens as part of being a person.

I'm also grateful that we have family that let him spend that time with them.  He will no doubt have fond memories of that time for years to come and he knows the family better due to the time to bond more deeply.  Family is so important to Austin, so it's one of the greatest gifts to him to be able to spend time there with them.  Thank you for allowing that to happen.

As far as what we are doing here, well not much.  We are having very slow and lazy days.  We are playing pickleball some.  Austin is tinkering and playing with his new favorite toy, a motorcycle.  I gotta give him much praise on how patient he was to wait to ride the bike, since he actually bought it last spring and had to wait to ride it until now.  He mostly uses it to ride to the Y, where we bought him a membership so he could work out.

Beyond that we are situating our lot the way we want it to be and figuring out what our lives will look like this winter.  I think Ava rolls with the punches better than the rest of us, as long as she has a window seat view of the action that is!

Our Social Butterfly

Miss Ava has decided that she really likes attention from people now.  The little dog that less than a year ago only had eyes for Nathan, now enjoys loving from anyone who will give it to her.  She tags along for pickleball and sits on the cart, nice and quiet, and usually gets some attention from those sitting out.

At the Happy Hour, she came out and went around the circle to see just who would want to hold her.

It's nice to see our girl blossoming.  She even makes friends with other dogs now!  We are so proud!

Living the life in Florida!

Out Little Beach Bum

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

A few years ago, this picture of my granddaughter and her dog was snapped along with a bunch of her playing soccer.  I didn't pay much attention to it at the time.  I thought it was cute, but then again I think everything she does is cute.

Today I was going through those pictures and I saw it through different eyes.  I got it.  It wasn't just cute. Now that I'm a dog owner as in this dog is "our dog" owner...I know what this is.  It's pure love.

 If you were to follow us around with a camera right now, you'd probably catch a few shots of us doing the same thing to Ava.  She's growing rather fond of us by now too.

Living the life in Florida.

We are Cat-less

I have sad news.  We are officially cat free as of yesterday.  The main reason we drove over to Sarasota was to take Miss Mimi to her new home.  She was the last of our cats that we had to find a new home for, and it was a bittersweet thing saying goodbye to her.  There were many reasons that we decided to place the cats with new families and since I'm already feeling weepy over it all, I won't go into it all today.  I think we found places where they will be greatly loved and will be safe so that is the most important thing to us.

It is an odd thing to only have Coco here with us.  I'm guessing she will be even more spoiled! 

Coco the Super Hero

I wrote about the less than obedient Coco the other day, and while resizing some pictures, I realized that although she has her own agenda at times, she is so much fun to take hiking because she turns into a super hero when we go.

We could sit and watch her run for hours.

We think it is especially cool to watch her leap into the air while jumping over things:

And then there is that not so obedient part again...where she runs into the water and drinks it...and gets sick from it.  Leaving messes that Nathan has to clean up.  She knows she is in trouble:

And being the dutiful grandmother, I have to share a beauty shot of her.  I'm forcing myself to shoot in manual mode since I'm about five years overdue on it, and she is doing a great job of being my favorite model for the time being.

 Ok, enough about the dog.  Because although I love this dog, it is pretty ridiculous when I have two blog posts about her this week and none of the kids!

Living the life in oh so sunny and WARM Florida!

Coco the Obedient One...Sort of....

Anyone who know Auburn and Ace, knows how well trained Ace is.  Coco, on the other hand, not so much.  Don't get me wrong.  She is a great dog.  We don't have any trouble with her.  It's just comical to us to see her version of dog obedience after being around Auburn and Ace.

Here she is walking with Aric.  I love this picture of the two of them.  She seems fully engrossed into listening to him.  She seems to be saying, I am your dog.  You are my boy.

 You are Master.  I am dog.  Lie down....no problem!

I'll just stay here.  With you.  Until you let me know when I can get up.  Or until.....

something else distracts me and I forget all about you....

Living the life in Florida with our adorable free range Merle-like dog!

Grillin' & Chillin'

Tonight we headed to downtown Wauchula, where they had Main Street blocked off for the Grillin' and Chillin' event. It was a fund raising event that had a grilling contest. There was music and some classic cars there too.  We had fun!

I didn't take my camera, so these are courtesy of Aric:

 

  

  

  

  

And just because they are so cute:

Pretty in Pink

I've been threatening to buy Coco a pink collar since she became a family member.  The poor girl gets called a boy by everyone.  I know how much I'd hate that, so I really feel for her there.  Since Austin left her with us for the week, I took full advantage of it.  In trying to snap some shots to show him how nice she looked, I realized that pets are like kids when it comes to taking pictures of them.  It starts with trying to get them to get close enough and to hold still.

Wait a minute...that's a bit too close.  Coco...oh drat...squirell!

Let's just call this one good or we'll be here all day. 

 

So what do you think about the pink collar?  Can you tell she is a girl now?  Living the life in Florida!

Happy (Another) Thanksgiving!

We drove down to Fort Lauderdale to spend the day with our kids.  We have missed them so much.  We were so happy to see Ambir.  We were sad that we did not see Aric and Ashleigh today.  We had a great time together, with those of us who were there.

 

 

There is nothing I am more grateful for on this earth than my family.  While I've struggled at times to figure out the kind of Mom I want to be and then doing it, I have never struggled with loving these beautiful, amazing people.  They have been one of the biggest inspirations of my life.  I love taking pictures of them because I do love them so much.

 

 

It's nice that they are old enough to not fight for the most part, so I can enjoy them enjoying each other.

And since I was feeling sad over not seeing my grandkids today, I took a ton of pictures of the grandpups instead.  The newest baby is Ambir's puppy Cairo and he's a doll.

Seriously, this is the most adorable face I've seen in awhile:

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who we did not get to spend today with.  We love you all.

Gloucester VA to Gasburg VA

Yesterday we left the Chesapeake Thousand Trails resort to head a short distance to Gasburg, VA.  We didn't want a long driving day because of going to DC the day before and we wanted to see what the resort here was like.  We stayed at Lake Gaston Resort which is a ROD resort.  This was one of the nicest resorts we've stayed at so far.

It was similar to Chesapeake in that it had water and the gorgeous fall colors.  It was very different in one special to Austin way-it had an incredible family center.  He was able to bowl and play racquetball

with Dad right at the resort.  Ask him about the big goose egg on his forehead and he'll happily tell you his sports injury story.  Then he'll tell you how he hurt his Dad too.  Great male bonding times!

Actually, he'll probably tell you about the prime rib dinner he ate here that so impressed him, he is counting down the days until his birthday dinner where he wants prime rib again.  Speaking of impressive, I have to brag on Nathan for a few minutes.  He took the shots in this post and I think they are fabulous!  I used to say we took entirely different shots when we had a camera in our hand but I've noticed our styles are beginning to merge a bit.  Guess that is what happens when you live this.close.together.

He still does zero photo editing, so I grab all of his shots and do with them what I want.  Pretty generous of him, huh?  We really had a great time at this resort, even though we were only there for two nights/one day.  We will come back in the spring and spend a longer time here then.

Coco loves to walk so much that it's a treat to watch her.  She just wants to be outside all the time, most likely because she was used to having a doggie door and a backyard before.  Since we just joined the rest of the world and watched the movie "Up", we find this particular move hysterical:

She is so obsessed with...Squirrel!  Living the life in lovely Virginia.

She's Got the Sweetest Little Baby Face

Little Miss Lana is growing up, and she is losing the kitten face some.  She's still so cute though, that I think she still has a baby face.

Not only is she the cutest thing, she is so helpful.  She is willing to join in and lend a paw wherever she can.

Don't tell the other pets, but she is my favorite by far.  This week, at least.

Well, apparently the boy and the dog are jealous over this post, so I have to add a few shots of them too.

The dog is awesome too.  She is by far the most affectionate of all our pets.  She gives slobbery kisses all day long.

Now Mimi is so cool, she isn't even jealous that I said Lana is my current favorite.  Mimi just sits in the corner and rolls her eyes at all of us.  Which makes me extra fond of her the days I am trying to get something done and the other two are wanting attention.  They are all pretty fabulous in their own ways.  Just like people.

Living the life in Virginia!

Cadillac Ranch and the Giant Legs

I like unusual things so I was looking forward to visiting Cadillac Ranch.  I thought it would be cool to see cars buried in the ground for art's sake.  I didn't realize that the visitors are a part of that art, by leaving their mark using spray paint.  Even more cool!

From Roadside America: The Cadillac Ranch, located along the tatters of historic Route 66, was built in 1974, brainchild of Stanley Marsh 3, the helium millionaire who owns the dusty wheat field where it stands. Marsh and The Ant Farm, a San Francisco art collective, assembled used Cadillacs representing the "Golden Age" of American Automobiles (1949 through 1963). The ten graffiti-covered cars are half-buried, nose-down, facing west "at the same angle as the Cheops' pyramids."

 

The kids had a blast here and even the dog seemed to sense that this was way cool!

On the way back to the campground, we stopped off to see the "Giant Legs" that sit in a field, compliments of the same guy.  Not sure if all of Amarillo is this fun or not!

Living the life in Texas!

Our Newest Member of the Family

Ever since Ace has went to Florida with Auburn, we have been talking about getting another dog.  We were going to wait until we got back to Florida ourselves, because we are settling down there for a few months.  Then I saw an ad on Craigslist for a sweet girl and she won my heart over right away.  We went to meet her and really fell in love with her.

She is technically Austin's dog, which he is happy to tell you.  Her name is Coco and we are so grateful that she has joined the family.

 And while the boy was bonding with his dog, we had Josh and Lauren to have fun times with. 

 

 

 

 

Living the life in Arizona!