Kittens!

We would like to introduce the newest Smoldon Family members...Caly and Hobbes! (If you know Jeremy you may remember his fondness for a certain comic strip). They are siblings who were strays and have an estimated birthday of 1/1/19. Caly is a female tabico (tabby/calico mix) and Hobbes is a male orange tabby. They have been wonderful entertainment and love to run around, chase things, wrestle, cuddle and stalk Lily trying to get her to play with them. Lily is surviving the change but still wishes to be left alone (though she has allowed an odd lick or two from Caly). She has claimed my legs on the bed and is quite vocal about her displeasure when a kitten comes and invades her space. Here are some pics the past couple months with our new littles.

They decided nap time one day should be on the bath mat.

The kids love them and love to get pics taken with them

Some snuggling

Lily suffered through Caly being behind her but when Hobbes came in front she fairly quickly had enough and got down

More kid snuggles, sometimes appreciated, every once in awhile not so much.

This was early on and about how close Lily (far right) would allow a kitten to get on the bed, now if she just has a foot or so she is ok.

Caly made it a little hard for Kate to see her show.

Synchronized grooming. These last few are from their first couple days home with us.

Lily plays chess

 Lily decided to play chess one day. Haha

Kodiak

We got up to Kodiak to visit with Granny and Papa for a week!  Traveling went well and we had a wonderful time.  We always do quite a bit of hiking when we visit and this year we had the added thrill of hunting for Kodiak Island Rocks (people paint rocks and leave them on trails). Not only did they all enjoy hunting for rocks they loved painting them too.

Granny and Papa had some bunk beds for the kids to play on. They were a big hit.

And of course throwing the ball for Rocky was a must, every day they did it a whole lot

Good-bye to Higgins

We had to say good-bye to Higgins. He was such a wonderful part of our family and he will be missed.  It was unfortunately also during a very crazy busy stretch that we had to say good-bye and we were very fortunate to find a vet who would come to our house within a few hours of calling and allow us to say good-bye to him peacefully at home just hours before Jeremy flew out for a week long business trip.  We all cried, we all smiled and we all celebrated Higgins and the love he brought to our home. 

Sorry it is sideways but a nice card we received from the vet a few days after.

Just a couple days before we said good-bye Jeremy gave Higgins a nice warm spot near the fire

The kids new he wasn't doing well and would try and cover him with this blanket to help him feel better.

It was hard to say good-bye but it was time. One of the hardest parts was the next morning when I went to get Kate in the morning and the first thing she said was "Higgins feeling better now, he can come come?" Oh tears, we miss him!

Higgins

Oh Higgins, he is such a love, on his terms with his few chosen ones.  He loves Lucy and Kate though certainly not all the time.

Snuggled up with Lucy while she got to enjoy a little screen time

I was washing some dishes in the sink and turned because Kate was screeching with joy, this is what I found.

Leavenworth Weekend

We went to Leavenworth to hang out with Aunt Mary and Uncle Phil.  They always invite us over to partake in a summer theater show, this year Jeremy and I went to The Drowsy Chaperone, it was very funny.

The kids were pretty tired after adventuring at Auntie Jenny's all day and then being up waaay too late a couple nights in a row, finally this is how we found them crashed out around 11pm.

Family photo time with Aunt Mary and some thumb sucking

Keeloch and Bailey joined the photo

Then we got Uncle Phil to join in.

A view from their back porch where we enjoyed many meals in an amazingly lovely setting

Lucy wanted to try the sling-shot tennis ball tosser for Keeloch!  You can see by the video I did a really great job helping her :-) (Bummer, on my page I can see the video but when I looked at the blog it is a blank space, I guess I still am having no luck with videos)   We had a wonderful visit and look forward to going back for a few other weekends throughout the year.

Lahti Family Reunion Days 1-3

We had an amazing family reunion at Lake Osoyoos! We had a couple rental houses just a short 3 minute walk away from each other.  One in the state park with the nice beach access and one on the river with a fabulous dock to swim off of.  There was plenty of space and as a friend of Gram's put it, it seemed like summer camp for adults - it was great!

Hanging out at the 'big house' on the first night.  Aunt Linda made this cool quilt for Jaydon!  She will eventually work her way up to having made each of the grand-kids something.

Jake (my aunt and uncles dog) and Troy (grandpa and Nanas dog) enjoyed hanging out.

Before the afternoon lake time on Day 2 my dad, uncle, aunt and I all went and played 9 holes at the local golf course, it was hot but a lot of fun to get out on the links again.  The kids enjoyed some bike time around the campground and went to the beach, I had no pics of the AM adventures.

Ahhhh...is there anything as great as just swimming around in a wonderfully warm lake hanging out? 

Uncle Greg and Grandpa playing some football, the dock was also pretty great for jumping off and trying to catch a touchdown while entering the water.

Lucy felt extremely comfortable swimming around in her life jacket and playing with a noodle.  She could get herself most places she wanted to go.

Jaydon enjoyed fishing off the dock, he never caught anything but his cousin Clara did catch a really little fish one night.

Day 3 we went to the beach in the morning and built sand castles and played in the water.  Jaydon enjoyed the little boogie board.

Lucy wanted to go in the boat.

How relaxing for Grandma and Gram.  (I will say I have a pretty wonderful family that my mom and her partner would be welcome and totally considered part of the family with my dad's side).

Lucy met a little friend and they built a wonderful sand castle.  The little boy's dad did a lot of the work and my kids really enjoyed it.

And although there was a burn ban and we had to be careful because of all the fire activity around the state we were able to do our S'mores on the grill.

Stellar view right from our deck

Nana and Aunt Linda enjoying some badminton with Jaydon.

More S'mores photos!

I am licking my chops in anticipation!  I love roasting marshmallows!