She Floats!

We took a little roadtrip to Reedsport, OR for the launching of the Robert Magnus. 

Ryker's favorite stop of the trip.....Dairy Queen.

Getting a little bored.  I had to reach into my bag of tricks and whip out the stickers.  Since he's a big fan of mustaches right now, guess what he did with his stickers?  Yep, construction tape mustache and backhoe beard.

We stayed at Pete and Kathleen's house the night before and Ryker checked out their sweet yard.

Not a big fan of the trampoline yet.  "Too bouncy," he says.  Probably wouldn't have been quite so bouncy if he hadn't been in there with Seth!  Molly and Maggie joined him outside despite the rain.

Ryker gets a sneak peak with Seth before it goes in the water.

Like two kids in a candy store....enjoy your new boat boys!

These two make a better couple than Seth and I.  They complement each other perfectly business wise, plus they have become great friends.  We are very lucky to have Pete and his family in our lives.

Ryker freaked out when it started backing down into the water because he thought his Daddy was leaving.  Apparently Seth waving to him from a boat strikes fear and sadness in the liitle guy, because it got pretty ugly.  There was no comforting him (everyone tried) and I had a hard time containing him and holding Kya.  He only calmed down once he was wrapped around Seths neck and on the boat with him.  It took about an hour until the boat was all tied up so what should have been an exciting hour was actually a pretty excruciating wait (in the rain, none the less!).  I hope that it gets easier for him as he gets older and is able to understand when Seth is leaving, but I have a feeling it is only going to get harder, especially now that there will be two kids missing him.

It was pretty cool to see how it went into the water.  They had guys down in the voids to watch for leaks which was a bit shocking to me, but I guess it makes sense.  They can't exactly see if it is watertight when it is completely built out of the water.  I'm sure it is rare that a boat would actually spring a leak, but I guess they don't know for sure until it hits the water.  I have pictures of the christening (or as Ryker calls it: Lady breaking bottle on boat.  He loved it!  He talks about it all the time, but now he knows that lady as Pam because they had so much fun together) on our computer at home but since we're in Wibaux, I'll have to add them later.

Happy Birthday Cosmos

December 7th my first baby turned 10.  Yep, 10 years since we picked him up in Anacortes all covered with pee.  He was the last one, but I know he's the one I would have picked anyway! 

We all loaded up in the pickup and took him to Glendive where Ryker picked out the perfect birthday present...a dog treat for him and Chacon. 

It has been really cold this year and Cosmos and Chacon have been freezing in the garage at night.  My Mom covered Cosmos with this blanket and he wouldn't even come out of it to eat so we put his food right in front of him.  He still had the blanket in the morning.  Someone pretty much tucks him in each night now.

Ryker was pretty excited about the present he picked out and Cosmos' birthday party.  He kept asking about birthday cake.  I think I explained at least 10 times that dogs didn't have cakes for their parties.

Happy Birthday ol' buddy!

Lost Dog

So Chacon (or as Ryker likes to call him: Chaca rama ding dong) decided to take a little walk about one night and left the yard.  He was picked up by someone and taken to Whatcom County Humaine Society.  We checked Skagit Humaine Society since it is about 5 miles from our house, but never imagined someone would take him to Whatcom since it is about 20 miles further.  Anyway after a couple days we found him.  I thought I loved that dog, but after this incident, I realized I don't love him nearly as much as Seth does.  If he ever gets hit by a car (knock on wood), I now hope that I'm the one who takes him to the vet because I don't know if I trust Seth to make a reasonable decision anymore and he may spend our kid's college money trying to save that big lug.  I know people who have spent crazy amounts of money like on ACL surgeries for their dogs (around $2500 a leg) and I've often wondered when it came down too it what my dollar threshhold would actually be for keeping my dog in good health.  I come from a place where you shoot your pets when the going gets tough and put them out of their misery.  I still believe in that theory, (although I would never shoot them myself, I'd have the vet put them down or someone else do it), but I also believe that having a pet is a big responsibility and you should do everything possible to give that pet a good quality of life.  I hope my dogs leave this world of old age and go out on their own without any intervention from me so I'm never forced to make a decision.  For now, I'm happy they are happy and healthy and that the biggest problems we have are old man Cosmos' allergies.....

See the piece of string "tied" to the pile of web?  That's Ryker's imaginary dog he'd been pulling around for weeks.

After Chacon busted through the invisible fence and left the yard, we only let him out of the shop when we were around and he saw the inside of the kennel for the first time since he was puppy.  Since Ryker was so into leading his imaginary dog around, we decided to give him a real one for a while. 

Chacon was not impressed.  You could tell he hated it.  It was a perfect punishment for running off and Ryker had a great time with it.

He would walk around for a while then say he and Chacon needed a little rest and try to get Chacon to sit down too.  I was entertained, but Chacon sure wasn't.

He really wanted Chacon to go through the puddles too and would lead him back and forth but Chacon always went around.

Sweet Baby Girl

Playgrounds are empty on the weekdays

One of the best things about being on maternity leave is that you get to go do all the fun stuff while everyone else is at work so you get the whole place to yourself.  While Seth was showing a potential buyer the Viking Spirit, we hit the playground.  Apparently, Kya and I are a little slow for him.

Really, headfirst buddy?  You better hope you don't do this on a fast slide.

Kya, only a few days old slept most of the time in the sling while Ryker tore it up on the playset.