Drinking Straw Glasses

I came across a freebie on a blog that I couldn't pass up...even shipping was free!  These were too cute not to try, and Caleb loved them.  It was so funny to watch him watch the liquid as it swirled around his eyes.

Brothers on iPod

A Good Dog

I haven't given a Charlie update in a while. She is about 10 months old now. She is very sweet and very submissive, a great combination when you have kids. She is also very much a "herder". She is a mix between a Border Collie and an Australian Shepherd mix (so she has some other things mixed in that we do not know.)  This is not so great when you have kids.

When the boys want to play in the backyard, they want Charlie inside. It turns out that little boys don't really like to be "herded".  Especially when it involves a hyper puppy that has sharp nails no matter how many times we file those suckers. She used to nip at their heels quite a bit, and we were able to mostly curb that. But she still chases and uses her paws to grab at their legs and heels.

I was getting pretty frustrated with her, so I decided to go and get a book from the library on understanding herding dogs and their instinctual tendencies. I found a book called "A Good Dog" by Jon Katz. It is a memoir of his years with a hyper, difficult to control border collie that liked to herd everything from school buses to UPS drivers. I was about halfway through the book, beginning to have some sympathy for the strong instincts that our Charlie must have and realizing that it is very difficult for an animal to learn to go against those instincts that are specifically bred into them. And then she went and did this...

I guess she decided that she did not want to be understood.

Muddy Boys

This is the aftermath of jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler spraying underneath.  Somehow, that turned into unhooking the hose from the sprinkler and turning a low spot in the yard into a huge mud puddle.  And when that got old, I guess they had a mud fight.

Someone was really not happy with the results.  And someone was pretty pleased with himself.

I will let you guess which is which.

Last Stop: Fort Walton Beach, Florida

So after a l-o-n-g drive back up north from the Miami area (about 10 hours) we arrived at Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  It is right down the road from Destin, so it is on the "Emerald Coast" as some have named it.

We rented a condo on the beach for the weekend and the view was spectacular!  We were on the 2nd floor, and the sand was about 20 feet away from the balcony.  The sand was white and sugary, the water was a beautiful greenish-blue, the seafood was fresh and tasty!  Couldn't have asked for a better end to our vacation.  Now I will stop talking and let the pictures speak for themselves.  There will be lot's.  Sorry in advance...

(Click on the first picture to view images in a slideshow)

Our condo

The view from our balcony

A cloudy day makes for much more interesting photos!