Friends Exploring Low Tide

This was a great day. I could say this sentence with every beach picture...It really doesn't get much better than this. Beautiful mother nature, friends, sea life and more. Days like this make me happy. Seeing Rocco active makes me super happy.

Rocco, Kodiak, Calum, Briggs and Jackson

A Sister and A Brother

Stephen and I helped Stephanie move into her house in Pacific Grove. We had a great time at an expensive dinner place that we will never go to again, feel asleep around 10:00 because these two were too tired to stay awake and took a fanatic walk in the morning to the ocean edge. It was great to be together. Lots of laughs and love.

Rocco and Calum

Calum and Rocco go to school together. I met Mryiah shortly before he started at the school through Heidi. I really enjoy getting to know Mryiah and boy do these boys love hanging out together. Calum also has a little brother Briggs. Mryiah has been able to stay at home with the boys and Calum goes 1/2 at school. Rocco thinks if I have another baby he will be able to be 1/2 day everyday like Calum.  I tell him if I had another kid, he would still have to be full time.

Lately we have been doing lots of 1/2 days. Once he goes into Kindergarten in the fall we will not be able to do 1/2 days like we are now. They want them to only miss 5 days for the year. So I am trying to soak up as much time as I can with him before the next 13 years become much more strict. So when he is 1/2 day, I always get asked, can I have a playdate with Calum?

While on the Subject of Wednesday

Here are some more shots of the first few days together. What a beauty. First female animal for us. 

New Family Member - Wednesday

Well, that didn't take long. A house with no animals is clean and easy, but gosh it is also lonely, quite, missing something. We had been talking about a dog for a long time but we were waiting for Daktari so he would not have to put up with a puppy in his old age and plus him not being able to hear. It would have not been fair to him.

Jared wanted a boston terrier. So we had been looking at rescue sites and the pound. Gosh there are some really cute dogs out there. I found one on the santa cruz SPCA that was a boston terrier/whippet and a year old, but it didn't have a picture and I let it sit a few days. I told Jared about it and low and behold, they added a picture. She was beautiful. I called and she was already out for a test night adoption. But we called back the next day and they didn't end up taking her. So we did!

Welcome Wednesday. No we did not get her on a Wednesday but a Tuesday. And yes her name was Tuesday for about 2 days and it just didn't seem to fit. So we moved it to Wednesday.

After doing some research we think she also has rat terrier in her as well. She loves to hunt birds and small animals. She is already house trained (YES!!), loves kids, loves to play with other dogs and loves to snuggle deep under the covers. She loves to chase the birds at the beach and boy is she fast. Everyone comments on how fast she is. The only thing we really need to work on is barking and so far she is doing great.

DAKTARI

Well it is an end of an era. Our beloved and long lived 18 year old cat has passed. Daktari was a little orange cat covered with fleas when we first brought him home. We gave him several baths just trying to get rid of all of them. He was so cute and tiny. We got him a week after Jared and I moved in with each other in 1996. He was my first picture subject and boy did I capture him doing everything. He quickly grew to a teenage cat that used to attack our ankles as we went into the shower. He would leave long scratches all up our arm while he used it like a climbing tree.

He helped us welcome three other cats (Simba, Aker and Lander) and our dog Max to the family. Not saying he welcomed them all with open paws, sometimes he would just stand out in the rain and look into the house from the window with a mad mean face. But he quickly got over it and ended up being the cat that would always give gentle face cleanings to the other cats.

He lived in three houses with us and out lived all the animals. He was a strong lion. He will always be missed and always bring a warm smile to my soul. The first picture is on his last day but not the last day that he brings joy to my heart. The beautiful sunshine shots on my lap on the porch is where we would snuggle in the last few months. He loved the sunshine. The standing shot was one of the pictures where I really noticed how tiny is body was getting. He used to be 12 pounds and was down to 6 pounds. The last pictures were after a bath and Rocco helped dry him off with a warm towel and warm snuggles.

Thanks for being a wonderful cat Daktari. We are blessed to have you in our family.

Hot Chocolate and Beautiful Moments Captured

Took Rocco to get some hot chocolate at Verve and we had such a lovely time chatting and spending time together. It is the simple things that make my heart happy.