Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Meet Gus







Gus Feldon. Born March 31st.






At 11 weeks he weighs 40 lbs and is dumb as an ox (literally walked into a car door three times today!). Gus's father was 185 lbs and 36 inches at the shoulder. We expect Gus to be slightly smaller (only 34 inches and 170 lbs!).






He's a mellow dude who seems to like being hand fed chicken and playing chase the Atticus. Apparently he knows that I think he's an idiot because he's already gone to the bathroom three times outside and taught himself to sit after the first bite of chicken... stay tuned for a later update on the intelligence status of Mr. Gus. Should he turn out to have a brain in that very good looking head we will be training him to be a therapy dog for our local hospital. This means he'll go to the hospital and amuse sick people with his good looks and sharp wit. Or he'll drool on them till we are asked to leave....
Anyway, that's what's new here!






Suffice it to say that we are all very happy.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Hot Air Ballooning




For Father's Day, Great Grandpa Joe, David, and Jake went hot air ballooning. Jake was so totally exited that he bounced the whole way there.
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Filling the Balloon



It always amazes me that a hot air balloon can go from in a bag to off the ground in about 8 minutes. Suffice it to say that the boys were totally thrilled!
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We have lift off!




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Gammy and Atti




Atticus and Great Grandma (who he has started calling Gammy) had a very good laugh at those silly boys who decided to go up!
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"Gammy! JJ, Dada, Pepa, UP!"
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My Brother is in There!!!




Atticus was most displeased to be left home until he knew he would get a turn when he turned five. I love these shots of him watching the balloon!
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Fishing

Much of the time we spent at Great Grandma and Grandpa's was spent at the pond. Jakie became totally fixated on catching yabbies (crayfish), particularly after grandpa, being a really good sport, agreed to eat them with him. Someone to hunt and gather with who will also eat my crazy catches??!?!?!?!? WOW
Was Jakie in heaven! The rule was all yabbies needed to be at least two inches to be keepers and all trout needed to be about 8 inches for keeping as well. Frogs and tadpoles were off limits as that population needs to reestablish itself after the great heron feast of '09.

Total numbers:
Yabbies: 58 caught, 12 keepers (although we only kept and cooked three of them up)
Trout: 17 caught, 7 keepers
Frogs: 2 caught and immediately released (tadpoles were left alone under penalty of death)
Snakes: 1 caught and released
Toads: 2 caught and released
Salamaders: 4 caught and released
Also caught for mommy's ewwness- grubs, bugs, and worms.

The boy people were most pleased

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Balloons!



For those of you who don't know, I HATE HATE HATE balloons. They pop unexpectedly and even as an adult it stresses me out. Apparently, Atticus couldn't give a hoot about my irrational fears.
He found every balloon in great grandma and grandpa's.

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Rock Mining




We took the kids rock mining at Rugles Mine while we were in Vermont. They mined for pyrite, quartz, mica, and other things that I can't really see the point of having ALL over the house.

However, I must say that the mining process is tremendously fun (actually it's A LOT like archeaology). By the time we were done everyone glittered with mica and we were all soaking wet and tired. A great time!
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Mining Continued



You can see how this is little boy heaven, right? Wet? Check. Dirty? Check. Loud? At times. Tools? Big check!
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