Snowy Day

These are from a few days ago, before the most recent snowfall. Collin and Willow had a blast, until Collin got snow in his boot, which threw a damper on far more than just his toes. He cried his way the rest of the way home. He was back out later that day, though, romping about happily. The puppy is Sophia Strawberry. She's five months old, and is almost entirely adorable. She's a much more active soul than Zoe was, and I think it's only partly her age. She's got a Cavalier temperament, which means she's snuggly and cuddly and loves everyone, but where Zoe was all gentleness, Sophie is a livewire. It's impossible not to like her, and while we still miss Zoe, Sophie has helped a lot simply by bounding about and being herself. It's wonderful to watch the kids with her - we have to go roust her out of Collin's bed when it's crate time most nights these days. (I might cave in and let her stay, if I weren't fairly certain that she'd wake up and chew apart his room. No nights out of the crate until she's done teething, at the least!)

And she finally returns!

I finally have a working camera again, courtesy of a friend willing to loan me one. I'm a bit trepidatious about using it, as it's much nicer than my own geriatric model, but I've missed taking pictures of the kids.

Summary in a nutshell before I get to the post with the actual pictures:
Collin is in first grade now. Zoe died on August 1st, which was heartbreaking for the entire family - everyone was touched by Zoe. She was a beautifully gentle spirit, and we miss her. Willow is five, and wants to make sure that you know this. We started, finally, planting part of my semi-formal garden in the back, and have mostly painted the shed as well.

As I type this, it is snowing outside. I believe it snowed all night, adding to what was on the ground from several days ago. I do not recall ever seeing anything quite like this.

Technical difficulties

My card reader is refusing to read my photo card - that, or HP and Vista are having snit fits - the latter is more probable, really, but the result either way is that I cannot access the pictures on my camera from my computer right now. I'll work it out as quickly as I can.

Let it snow!

It's April 20th, and I live in the greater Seattle area. It's snowing, quite heavily, and starting to stick. I don't recall ever seeing snow this late in the year - of course our puppy wants out badly. She adores snow and hail - I had to pry her in earlier after it had slushed for a little bit; she wanted to stay out indefinitely snuffling around this wondrous wet mushy stuff, torn between sniffing and licking. She doesn't have her full adult coat by a long stretch yet, however; in particular her foot feathers are only partly grown in, so it's not good for her to stay too long in the slush/snow/ice. She's certainly not willing to admit it, though.

All Hail Zoe

It's April 18, and it's snowing - heavily. It hailed earlier - and the kids let the puppy out before I realized it. She thought it was great - ran around the yard, tail waving behind her, ears streaming along, though she did come running in as fast as I've ever seen her move after a while. This shot is on the deck; the hail you see all fell in a five-eight minute span at most, and was already lightening back up by the time I fetched the camera.

Meet Zoe

This is our seven, almost eight month old Cavalier. (See two posts below for further commentary.) She's settling in - as evidenced by the destruction, over the course of two hours, of a gamecube controller, an army man, part of the Millenium Falcon, a sock, and countless pieces of paper, as well as one yogurt lid that escaped my notice on the floor. She loves to play fetch now, but not on the linoleum in the kitchen (can't blame her.) Her first vet visit with us is this coming Monday. She'll probably enjoy the attention this time out - not so much on the visit after that, wherein she'll be spayed. (Sorry, Zoe - your puppies would be absolutely adorable, but I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with the mind-numbing amount of work involved in raising them.) The first shot is of her with her ball, and I think she was posing - the second is just there so that you can see some of her markings.

Guitars, beaches, and very sweet notes

Pictures of my kidlets are long overdue. Here, in no particular order, are the following photos: Collin playing his new guitar after Christmas; Collin asleep with a note that he'd written on his doodle pad for me (I was out at a rehearsal, and was all misty-eyed when I found this upon returning home); Collin and Willow at the beach/playground visiting Grandma Kathi and Grandpa Mike.