26.2 Miles

Sunday October 26, 2008...it's a beautiful day for a marathon
Lynn and Yvette are the runners in the family. This is Lynn's 7th marathon and Yvette's 2nd. I met up with Doris at 6 am at her place and we hopped the metro to get to the Pentagon to meet up with Lynn and Yvette around 7 am. Brrrr! It was chilly!

Doris and I were the official cheerleaders, photographers and givers of Power Drinks and Power Gels for Lynn and Yvette and some of their friends. We saw them at Mile 10, Mile 16 and Mile 23 before meeting up with them beyond the Finish Line.

Doris and I had a big cat balloon so Lynn and Yvette could spot us on the sidelines. Yvette had her cell phone too so she called to let me know when she was near.

I am so proud of my sisters! WAY TO GO!!!

If they could just stay little 'til their Carter's wear out...

Ava never wore Carter's but if she did, she definitely wouldn't have worn them out. Just 4 months ago she was a tiny little thing that fit in Trinity's dog bed and could crawl under our living room furniture for a quick nap.

She was about 12 pounds then.

Puppies sure grow up quick. Ava still jams herself into Trinity's dog bed but most of the time she sprawls out of it. She still thinks she is little though--Ed picks her up everyday when he comes home from work and if you sit on the floor, she will happily climb onto (and overflow) your lap. And the last time we weighed her, she was 54 pounds. Still on the smaller side in the labrador retriever world but still so much bigger than the tiny little pup that arrived at our home in June.

She's pretty much full grown now although she may fill out just a tiny bit.

Playtime with Peace

Peace ended up coming back the next day for more playtime with Ava. They had a great time romping around the backyard. It was nice to have another puppy in the house that Ava could play with. Trinity likes to play but not as much or as hard as Ava.
They insisted on drinking out of the waterbowl at the same time and it was pretty funny to watch. And of course, they both ended up dripping water on top of each other's heads.
After Peace left, Ava collapsed on her living room bed in pure exhaustion.

Just a Little Peace

Peace just needed someplace to stay for the day so she came over for a playdate with Ava while her house is getting worked on. Peace gets along great with Ava although not so much with Trin. Peace is almost a year old, taller than Ava but still not a huge dog and of course, she is a Seeing Eye pup. I love her ears!

I tried to get them all to sit closer together for a picture but it's funny with dogs -- the more you try to maneuver them into a pose, the more nervous they get. So there's this great divide in the picture. Oh well...maybe I'll get better ones later in the day.

Our Front Lawn Addition

Today is the last day for one last unobstructed view of our cute little cape. It really is a beautiful fall day -- the weather is nice and cool. The windows are open and it is perfect weather for a cup of hot tea.

By noon, we had a POD on our front lawn. It was so cool to see how it was delivered. It is sitting on our front lawn because hopefully in a few weeks we will have a dumpster sitting in our driveway. I spoke to the Township this morning and they think we will have a permit in a couple of days--yippee!

The POD is 8 feet by 16 feet and will hopefully hold all of our furniture. Ed's sister and her boyfriend are coming tomorrow to help us move furniture in exchange for dinner :-)

Isn't the POD lovely???

Vermont Vacation Wanderings...Ava and Riley

Last year, the Millbrook added Riley to their family of innkeepers. He's a handsome dog and he played with our dogs as much as possible. It was very cute to come home to the inn from a day of hiking or sightseeing to see Riley standing on the backporch waiting for Ava to play. And no matter how tired Ava was, she was always ready for a romp around the yard with Riley.


I tried to get a picture with Ava and Riley and us looking at the camera but neither dog would cooperate. Maybe next year since Ava will still be with us next summer.

Isn't he just soooo handsome?

Vermont Vacation Wanderings...Hiking and Sightseeing Vermont Sept 2008

On Monday, we drove to Pinnacle Rock. It was pouring when we got there so Ed and Ava took a nap and I climbed into the back of the Rav and knit some socks. We even ate our lunch in the car. It finally stopped raining and we were off on our short little hike. Ava had a lot of fun and she was very well behaved on her first real hike.

The next day, Tuesday, we drove to New Hampshire. I wanted to go to Patternworks -- a knitting shop that sends me a mail order catalog. I didn't realize until this year that they are a storefront too! So since we were going to be kinda in the area (i.e. in New England), we planned a ride over there. It was hours away and we went to Castle in the Clouds first. Other than the view of the waterfall and lunch, it was a little on the lame side mostly because we were deceived into thinking that even though we couldn't bring Ava into the castle, that we would at least be able to see the castle from the outside. That never happened. We couldn't even walk up to anywhere there was a possible view of the castle with Ava. So we left.

But I did get to spend some time at Patternworks where I bought some knitting bags and some more sock yarn. One day I will post pictures of the socks I have knit. But for now, it will just be dogs and the occasional cat :-)

Vermont Vacation Wanderings...The Millbrook Inn

We've been spending about a week in Vermont every summer for the past 4 years. Every year we go with a different Seeing Eye pup. We stay at The Millbrook Inn where Ed also stays when he skis in Vermont in the winter. We love it there -- the food is excellent, Thom and Joan (the innkeepers) are wonderful and we can bring our dog.

Ava is the youngest pup to go to Vermont with us. She was barely 5 months old and not quite the year old that the inn prefers, but they made an exception for us since they know we wouldn't bring a pup that wouldn't behave.

Vermont Vacation Wanderings...Ava Goes Chocolate

We spent a week in Vermont this September. The weather was beautiful -- nice and cool -- perfect hiking weather. Ava hasn't really been on any hikes with us since she is still young -- she was 5 months old when we were in Vermont.

SHE LOVED HIKING! We kept the hikes short because of her age and at the end of everyday we had one tired puppy with us. And a little dirty too!

Vermont had a wet summer and a lot of the hikes had lovely mud puddles for Ava to bound through. She didn't seem to mind at all that her lovely yellow coat was going chocolate! By the end of our hikes, we were all a little bit on the muddier side.

We've got a Sign!

It's been awhile since I updated my blog. I do have a bunch of pictures I want to share including Harley's latest litter and pictures from our vacation to Vermont--Ava had a blast!

But I guess I'll share the biggest news first. We have a new sign on our front lawn!

It's official. We signed the contract and we're now waiting for our plans to be approved by the Township. We're converting out cute little 2 bedroom, 1 bath Cape Cod into a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath Colonial so Dad can move in. Plus we'll have space for people to come visit and stay with us. And of course, plenty of room for the dogs and cats.

We are in the middle of packing up our house to since we do need to move out for a little bit. But it will be worth it when it is done.