Dachshunds On Parade

This past Saturday proved to be a busier one than originally anticipated! When my alarm clock (a.k.a. Jayden) went off at 5:45 a.m. the only plans we had for the day were: 1) go downtown at 11 a.m. for the Dachshunds on Parade event, and 2) have John and Chantalle & fam over for dinner at 6 p.m. Okay, pretty easy breezy day.

Then around 10 a.m. I get a call from one of my all-time bestest friends on the entire planet. Kristi Waite!!! The most spirited, adventurous, admirable girl you'll ever meet. (That's her with Joanna in the picture above.) She and a coworker were on their way from Seattle to Coeur d'Alene to watch an Ironman race, so she wanted to swing by and say hi. Which, of course, I didn't mind. I would drop what I was doing at 3 a.m. to see Kristi!

Around 11 a.m. my mother in law called to say that her, Josh's uncle Steve, and Josh's cousin Caleb, were coming through town later that afternoon on their way to Yelm and wanted to stop by. Sure!! The more the merrier. It was great to spend time with them, even if they were only able to stay a few short hours. Sorry, no pics from their visit. We were too busy chatting and preparing/eating yummy turkey & bacon wraps to think about picture-taking!

Kristi met up with us at Ellensburg's annual Dachshunds on Parade. It is quite the spectacle. Imagine hundreds of "wiener dogs" paraded around the historic downtown streets of small town America. Some doggies donned the latest doggie fashions while others were forced to wear the most humiliating costumes ever inflicted on an animal. ;-)

Whatever the case, Dachshund enthusiasts bring their dogs from all across the Pacific Northwest to compete in the dog races, the talent competition, the costume contest, and the parade.

Here's Joanna petting an unsuspecting Dachshund wearing Hawaiian garb. There were actually two other dogs with this one, each wearing a different colored lei.

See what I mean by humiliating costumes?! Ha. But at least they were adorable. And you have to admit, wiener dogs dressed up like hot dogs is pretty clever.

This handy pooch can lick himself and fix your leaky faucet all at the same time!

A wiener dog race judge. His job is taken very seriously. No, seriously.

The kids had a great time seeing all the dogs. Now you see, this is one reason why I love Ellensburg so much. Where else can you see hundreds of wiener dogs brought together by their fanatical, and of course, doting and well-intentioned owners, to see them paraded down the street in the most creative of costumes? Talk about quality free entertainment.

Grandpa Teeters' Birthday Weekend

June 6th was my dad's birthday so we made plans to go to the "west side" for some good ol' fashioned family fun. We had planned on all 5 of us J Crewers making the trip but at the last minute Josh and Jayden got sick. (Well, Jayden was teething and so he had the nasty runny nose plus the irritability that comes along with it. I don't know what Josh's excuse was. hehehehehehe) So the girls and I decided to depart into the wilderness without our men for a little girl bonding time. And Josh and Jayden held down the fort all weekend and bonded as only a father and a 9 month old son can; son waking DAD up at 5:30 a.m. for his morning feeding and son having multiple blow out diapers all weekend for DAD to take care of, and son knocking over a full garbage can all over the kitchen floor so his DAD could clean it up. (Once again, hehehehehehehe)

The picture above was taken just minutes before the girls and I hit the road. They were super excited to get to grandma's house, as demonstrated by Jaclyn's enthusiastic head-banging. The trip was going quite well for an hour or so. Girls had a movie going. I was listening to my grown-up music. (well, how grown up are the Black Eyed Peas?!) And massive amounts of Twizzlers were being consumed by all aboard.

Then things took a turn for the worst. Jaclyn started whining about her tummy hurting. I figured, okay, time to cut her off from the Twizzlers, right? Wrong. She was getting carsick. (My kids get carsick unless they take Dramamine before long trips.) We were coming up on North Bend when I heard the sound no parent ever wants to hear in the car. Huuuurrrrrrl. All over the place projectile style. Ug. Poor thing. She was crying, "I all yucky mom, I all yucky!!" Thank goodness we were near a gas station where I could hose her and her car seat down. Knowing that my kids are prone to motion sickness I always pack towels, washclothes, garbage bags, etc. for just such an occassion. Good thing I came prepared that day!!

Anyway, after all that drama, we pressed on to my parent's house where we were welcomed by their usual warm hospitality. A hot dinner, warm baths, comfy beds, and pop up books for bedtime stories. Oh yeah, and chocolate ice cream in their freezer. ;-)

On Saturday afternoon we (my parents, both my brothers, and I) took the girls to see Pixar's new movie, "Up". If you haven't seen it yet, what are you still doing sitting there?? Get up!!! Go!!! Now!! It was so good. The first 20 minutes will make you cry. Guaranteed. And the girls behaved themselves remarkably well in the theater. So did my brothers.


This is my brother Dylan and the girls right before leaving for the movies.


Here's me and my girls right after the movies.


After we got back to my parent's from the movies, the girls went down for naps. Later that day we celebrated my dad's birthday with a BBQ and cake & ice cream. Sorry this is the only picture I took of my dad blowing his candles out. Not a very good pic. The girls assisted in the blowing. Or in Jaclyn's case, the spitting.



Then on Sunday afternoon we took the girls to Pt. Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma. They were in heaven.







Here's my parents with the girls. Jaclyn was letting us (and everyone within a 2 mile radius) know that it was time to see one more exhibit and then go home!!

The last thing we did was take them to the kiddie activity area of the zoo. Kids can play in the sand, climb a roped web like a spider, crawl in and out of huge play sea shells....









It was a fun weekend!!

Visitors!!

Last Friday around 4 p.m. I got a call from our bestest pals, Tiffany and Jeremy, saying that they were in town and wanted to stop by. You see, they used to live in Ellensburg but then they had to be all cool and move to Moses Lake on us. ;-)
We were very excited for them to visit us because the last time we'd seen them was clear back in January when they blessed their beautiful baby girl, Sierra. We had dinner together--good ol' Papa Murphy's pizza--and chit chatted while we watched the final Stanley Cup game. It was so nice to see them again!

Here is Jayden flirting with Sierra. He crawled right up to her the minute they walked through the door. He stared at her at first and then the two mauled each other's faces in their cute little baby way. It was precious.