The Puppy

Here is our new little girl.  She is a lab/boxer mix.

The children just love her and she them.  If they are around she prefers to be with them.  Certainly they are more fun than I am.

Since we had those stray dogs come in the yard awhile back I have been thinking we do need a dog around here to protect the children.  I really wanted to get a dog that could stay outside.  I know that labs are good with kids but I didn't know if they would be protective.

Last Tuesday while we were in Fargo we made a return for a friend to a store in the mall.  We still had some time before Daniel's appointment so we walked down to the pet store.  They had just got these puppies in about 10 minutes before we got there.  It was like it was meant to be...a lab mixed with a boxer!  Whitney would love to take her home.

The mother was a black lab.  The father was a fawn boxer.  She had 11 puppies, 3 of which they had at the Fargo pet shop.  They had a black male, a fawn with black mask female who was very cute.  We had a hard time deciding and almost wanted to get both the females.  But we chose our girl and haven't regretted it (much)!

It has taken us a long time to name her but I think we are settled on a name, Annabella or Annie for short.

Yesterday Tim and I made a fence for her.  We put it around the back entry of the house and made it quite large.  We had some sheep wire, I think it is, that we used when Sunny was a pup.  Our plan is to get her used to her fence and keep her out there during the day.  At night I have her in Sunny's big kennel.  The kids played with her so much yesterday that Annie didn't even cry when I put her in the kennel last night.  She just flopped right down and went to sleep.

Look who is so jealous!  I have been trying to give him extra attention but he isn't too happy.  So far he hasn't been too mean to Annie.  And I think he finds her interesting.  I hope they can be friends but that is probably asking too much.

I think Annie has grown since we got her.  She was only 7 weeks, poor little thing!  I don't think she had been eating much solid food as she vomitted every time I fed her.  She is finally keeping her food down the first time she eats it.

Even though she is a lot of work and she will limit what we can do I'm glad we got her (most of the time) as she will be so good for the kids.  Leah has been such a little mother to her.  And Daniel loves to take her outside with him.

When Annie hears them playing she runs right to where they are.  She wants to be part of the fun, too.

Annie will follow me over to the chicken coop first thing in the morning when I let them out for the day.  Today was the first day she was brave enough to come over to the old goat barn where I give Misty, the horse, her treat.  The first time Misty and Annie met Annie's heart almost beat out of her chest as Misty was sniffing her.  She stayed away from the horse after that.  But she must have felt braver today and came with me to the barn.  She crept slowly up to the fence before she turned away.

My husband just got home from working 15 hours last night.  Because of July 4th coming up it was one of the busiest nights of the year.  He had two guys call in sick and expected to work even longer.  He said it actually went pretty well but he is tired.  So I am going to go visit with him a bit before he goes to bed.

My Little Birthday Girl

Last Sabbath while we were still at Itasca Leah turned five years old.  We hadn't had time to buy her anything before we left so I had to sneak and get things while we were on our trip.  Of course the gift shops had lots of stuffed animals which is just what Leah likes best.  In the above picture she had just woke up.  I had placed a present by her pillow.

Daniel joined her while she opened the present, a mother husky carrying a baby in her mouth.

She loves cards and feels good when you mention something you love about her.

She liked what I wrote in her card.

We spaced her gifts out during day so there would be more anticipation.

We found the most lovely grocery store in Bemidji, Luekens, that had this cake Leah picked.

She blew out all her candles.

I found this penguin puppet at the Science Center.

It was her favorite as she really loves penguins right now.

I am so glad swim lessons are finished for a few weeks.  Leah did great and is much more comfortable in the water.  She will have another week of lessons in July.  But for now we have a break from going to town everyday.

I added up the miles I drove last week including driving back from Itasca on Sunday.  I put about 800 miles on my old van. 

I don't have plans to go anywhere today!

I have some news about a new purchase.  When we were in Fargo on Tuesday we (stupidly) went to the pet shop again while we were in the mall making a return for a friend.  Yes, we got a PUPPY!!!  I'm not regretting it (much!) as I realize that we do need a dog around here to watch the children while they are outside.  She seems like a smart little thing.  She is only 7 weeks old but is already learning.  I will try to post some pictures tomorrow. 

Since it was cloudy and rainy on Thursday we drove up to Bemidji.  It wasn't a long drive from the park.  I think it was about 30 miles.  I had never been there but had heard this is where Paul Bunyan and Babe reside.  We asked at the visitor center if there was anything interesting for kids to do.  They told us about a science center close by.  And they had a neat animal farm.  But we weren't looking to get wet so we chose the science center.

 

Before we went to the science center we ate at a little cafe, Minnesota Nice Cafe, across from the center.  I like to eat at local places like that.  We had a delicious breakfast.

There was a lot of neat things to do in the science center.  It wasn't too big which was fine with me.  They had several birds, turtles, fish, a snake, and a chinchilla, too.  Here we were trying out the mirrors.  We looked like little people.

You may remember that I like doves.  I had looked at the doves, a male and a female but didn't notice the nest of two babies.  Later I heard the male dove cooing so I went over to the cage and saw the female feeding her young.  I got a video of it but I can't find the place to load it onto blogger since I downloaded the new version.

The day we were in Bemidji was the day all the storms came through ND and MN.  We weren't too far from Wadena.  While we were in the science center it rained pretty hard.  People came in a little wet.  As we drove back to the campground we hit several cells of hard rain.  While we were in our camper we listened to radio and heard there were tornado warnings and watches all around us.  The Park Ranger drove around and warned everyone as well. 

There were a lot of these caterpillars around.  Leah doesn't like to touch them but she is interested in watching them.

Here Tim is getting Leah's carriage ready for her.  We found the little vac worked really well getting it clean.

Leah is getting inside.  I think she found it very comfortable and loved taking her stuffed animals along as she could play while we rode.

Today is the last day of swimming lessons for a few weeks.  I am relieved as we all are getting tired of going to town everyday.  We did stay up after lessons yesterday, ate at Dairy Queen, and went to the outdoor pool in the afternoon.  Whitney was able to join us as she had worked in town that day and was done early. 

After swimming we went and got some flowers to plant in Brandon's planters.  It didn't take us long to plant them and I think he liked the result. 

I best get busy and get my morning work done so we can leave.

More Itasca Pictures

After we played at the headwaters awhile Daniel wanted to wade down the river like we did the last time we were there.  Since the water was cool and neither Tim or I had our swim clothes on we didn't want to get too wet.  So we let him go down as far as we could walk beside the river on this nice path.

It seems we always meet nice people wherever we go.  When we were registering some people came up the counter to buy some firewood.  They were unusual as the lady had an African grey parrot on her fingers.  We talked a bit.  Then we found they were camped right across the road from us.  We got to visiting quite a bit while we were there.  She brought her parrot over to us so we could hold her if we wanted.  Cleo was a nice girl and loved to give kisses.  As she kissed she would make a kissing sound.  So cute!

I was a bit afraid to get a kiss from a parrot as a bite from one would be pretty painful.  Erica assured me that Cleo never bit.

Cleo wore a little harness (that she didn't like) with a tether.  Erica said that Cleo had never tried to fly away.  It was fun to see Cleo sitting outside by the fire on the back of a lawn chair.  The first night I heard a bird singing and wondered what it was.  Then I realized that it was Cleo.  She could sing really nice.

Daniel was happy to hold her but notice Leah sitting by the camper.  She wouldn't get too close to the bird as she doesn't like the feel of their feet and claws.

Daniel would love having a parrot.

That's about all the time I have for writing as we need to leave for town for Leah's swim lessons.  Every day she improves.  I am so proud of her.  I will try to post more pictures tomorrow.

Our Bike ride

On Wednesday morning after breakfast we took a bike ride.  They have the nicest bike paths at Itasca.  You can go all around the lake if you choose.  This day we just rode to the visitor center which was about 2 miles from the campground.  It is a paved path with a center line.  Bikers need to ride single file and stay on the right side of the path.  There are many little hills to go up and down.  It was along this path that I saw a bear 3 years ago.  That was early in the morning.  We didn't see any bears but Daniel did see a deer.

Here we had made it to the visitor center.  They had a rack to park bikes.  Tim and I needed to rest a bit outside before we could walk up to the visitor center.  Daniel did fine and of course Leah got to ride in the trailer behind Tim's bike.

It was fun looking around in the visitor center.  They have a nice display and interactive things to do to learn about nature and the wildlife in the park.  And we always enjoy looking at the gift shop.  We spent about an hour there before we rode back to the campground.  Such fun!

In the afternoon it was nice and warm so we drove in the van over to the beach.  The children enjoyed playing in the water even though it was still pretty cold.  I don't think they have had much warm weather there either.  Since taking swim lessons Leah is doing great about getting in the water.  She used to only go up to her calves.  Now I have to caution her about not going out to far as she hasn't learned to swim yet.  She still is learning to have fun in the water.

Before we left they needed to warm in the sun.  They enjoyed playing in the nice sand, too.

After they swam we drove up to the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  It is neat to see where that mighty river starts, Lake Itasca. 

The river coming out of the lake by the rocks...

Tomorrow I will try to post some more pictures of the river as it starts its winding way down to the Gulf.  I need to get the children ready to leave for town.  Leah has swimming lessons again this morning.

Before Tim's mom died Tim had taken vacation for last week.  He thought he would build new front steps for the house.  Then he wanted to go to Lake Itasca State Park for a few days.  We thought we could just go to Fargo for Daniel's appointment on Tuesday and leave from there.  Our plan was to take the motor home which we hadn't used for several years.

Well...Tim didn't have time to make steps but he was working on the camper when he would get a chance as it wasn't running well.  By Monday night it was apparent that we would not be able to take it to Itasca.  We really didn't feel up to tenting but wanted to get away.  So we loaded everything in the back of the van.  Brandon had our little trailer so he brought that out so we could use it to pull our bicycles. 

The children and I went to bed around 10:00.  Tim and Brandon were still working outside.  At 12:30 Tim woke me to say that Brandon got the camper fixed.  I figured I may as well get up and help Tim transfer everything to the camper as I wouldn't be able to sleep.  We didn't get back to bed until 3:00 and then I had to get up at 5:30.  Needless to say we were a little tired that day.

We had decided to take the van as well as the camper so we would have something to drive other than the motor home if we wanted to leave the campground.  The children rode with me to Fargo.  Tim just kept going with the motor home and stopped at Detroit Lakes.  He was going to find a bike for himself.  It worked out that he wasn't in Detroit Lakes very long before we got there even though we were in Fargo for over an hour.  He couldn't drive the camper much over 60mph.  And he had to stop several times as the windshield wipers weren't working properly and it was raining.  Finally at Casselton he found a pin at a gas station that worked to fix the wipers.

When we got to Wal-Mart Tim had his bicycle picked out.  We also got a child trailer to hook behind his bike for Leah.  They have such nice paved bike trails at Itasca.  Leah would never be able to ride on them with her bike.  If we were to rent a trailer it would have cost us almost as much as buying one.  We made it to Itasca a little after 4:00.  Then we found that there were only 3 open sites.  Yikes!!  We didn't think it would be hard to get a site on a Tuesday.  They told us they are pretty much full all summer long.

We were so happy to have the camper (Thanks Brandon!!!) as it did rain and storm while we were there.  We had our own bathroom, hot water, fridge, stove, and oven.  And best of all we had dry beds!

We had bought Leah and Daniel some sand pails at Wal-Mart as they have a nice sandy beach.  They were able to play at the campsite as well.

Having an awning was nice, too.  We could keep our chairs dry when it rained.

We loved our campsite.

It was so relaxing to get away and very worth the work getting there.

I will post more pictures and tell more about the trip soon.  But it's time to get to Leah's swimming lesson and then we have to go to Fargo for Daniel's vision appointment.

Mom's Funeral

The above picture is of my honey, Tim, in front of St. John's Lutheran Church.  The service was nice and honoring to Mom.  She was a beautiful woman inside and out, one that I am grateful to have known and especially to have had for a mother-in-law.

The grandchildren were the pallbearers. 

This picture is (l-r) Ryan, Jared, and Brandon.

Not a very good picture but (l-r) Mike (Tim's brother), Tracey (Tim's sister), Troy, Eric (both cousins), Kara (Eric's girlfriend),  Mark (Tim's good friend from North Carolina), and the back of Tim.

We had a light lunch after the funeral with the burial at the Veteran's Cemetery south of Mandan at 3:00.  They only do one burial every hour with the last of the day at 3:00.  It is such a beautiful cemetery overlooking the Missouri River.

We had a short service in the building and were all invited to go down to the burial site.   The spouse is buried on top of the veteran.  I suppose it would be the opposite if the spouse died first.  The veteran's name is on the front of the headstone and the spouse's is on the back.

The workers were very efficient.  They had the grave filled in and sod on top before we left the cemetery.

All I can say right now is "Rest in Peace, Mom."