The Sweet Start of Summer

Monday marks the official first day of summer, at least in my book. Why? Because it's opening day for the soon-to-be World Champion Chicago Cubs! Yes, "soon" is a relative term, so what?! Go Cubs Go!

New Friends!

wow, i made a lot of new friends on saturday. dad and grandma and grandpa (did you know i have six of them?!) took me to a park for some sort of doggy egg hunt. something called EESTUR. it was lots of fun and i met some new friends. they were all very nice and i didn't bark at any of them, just smelled and played (and tangled up the leesh). i also got to run up and down a big hill, which was fun, and i got to get muddy and dirty, which i LOVE. at the end I got a big bag of huge dog biscuits. dad says they are too big for me though and he's going to make them smaller. look at the picture, i don't think they are too big. mom sure missed out, because she had to "work."My big buiscit

Kentucky in the Snow

This weekend was an adventure. To celebrate John getting married, a few of us decided to take a weekend away in the backwoods of Kentucky to hang out, hike, drink beer, eat steaks, watch basketball, play poker, and do other manly things. The plan sounded great until the forecast called for blizzard and icy conditions from Indianapolis into all of Kentucky. Lacking better judgement (and not wanting to eat the cost of the cabin), we ventured to Rogers, Kentucky, about an hour southeast of Lexington. When I say "we," I mean one car containing myself, coming from a work trip in Evansville, IN, and another car of Andrew, John, Russ, and Sean, coming from Indy about two hours later. I missed most of the bad Friday weather; the others weren't so lucky, but after having to get out to push Russ up and down a hill, they made it safe and sound. The cabin and area were spectacular and definitely someplace we all hope to make an annual trip (maybe with the women as well). As the ice and snow continued to come down Friday night and all of Saturday, it didn't look like we would be able to make it through the hills to depart on Sunday, but it warmed up a bit, the sun came out to melt the ice, and (sadly) we headed home. It was definitely a great weekend with the guys, but it took another couple days just to recover. We didn't get in as much hiking or state park/national forest time, since we couldn't move our cars, but we still had plenty of fun throwing snowballs and sledding down the road. Congrats John, and thanks for planning the trip Andrew!


The cabin, "Big Ron's House"

Otis' Newest Friend

So we say that Hayden was Otis's first friend since she stayed with us right after Otis arrived and as of this weekend Hayden has a little sister, Emerson! She weighs in a little over eight pounds (just like Otis), and he is excited to get to meet this new play-toy, I mean play-mate! We were able to see the new addition this weekend and pray that the Hults family has an easy (if that is possible) adjustment from one amazing child to two. We can't wait to get to know her more.

Proud Father Shot.

Playing around

A Smiley's Adventure

Ericka, who is Kirk's cousin and a college friend of mine had a great year of around-the-world travel which can be read about on her blog. We were able to spend some time with her and her family over the holidays for her welcome back party. If you want to hear what can happen in a year if you go out on a limb and trust the Lord to provide read some of Ericka's story. We are thankful she is back and can't wait to see her soon.