Puppy Parenting Update

Sheba is growing everyday like puppies do, heavier, stronger, more coordinated, more inexhaustible energy, curious and quick to learn. She potties outside 99% of the time, sits on command, gets away with jumping and nipping Lydia exclusively, and only goes after the magazines, baskets, chair legs, and rug corners for chew toys tentatively. You say her name and she runs back to her own blanket with its stash of toys that she keeps rounded up possessively.

Sheba's a good dog!

Alphabet Cookies

Gabe and Lydia have these letter cutouts for our own alphabet cookies. Thank you Aunt Janelle from Gabe and Liddy! I found a recipe online here and finally purposed to try them out. We closed our 1st grade homeschool year with celebrating 100. We made 100 letters with some to spare.

When Daddy got home, we enjoyed our names. They were yummy too! Lydia added H to hers and Gabe lengthened his to Gabriel, as they were bemoaning his or her name being the shortest!

Wagons, Boys, and Puppy Dog Tails

Labrador Retriever

No reputable breeder, no AKC papers, of random parentage..., but Sheba strikes a pretty pose for the breed at six and a half weeks old.

Introducing Sheba

Day 1 of puppy madness. This was Marshal madness! I have a happy household with the addition of a six week old chocolate labrador. I cried beforehand with the idea, so I know what I've given into for my husband. But who can resist chocolate. This chocolate is irresistible.Here are three sleepy-heads after our first short night with Sheba! It was a late night to bed and early to rise with wake up calls in between.

Whose house is this? We had to clarify that one!

Tirza and Sheba, nose to nose.

Ahhh....

Transport Homeward

Free Ferry, crossing the Columbia R.

Handsome ruddy whiskers on the mountain man at heart, headed back to the city at the end of the week.

Driving over the Narrows at sunset.

Cabin Living

My Happy Hikers

Tirza looking like a black squirrel in her special spot.

Catch of the Day

After a teary catch and involuntary release of a prize trout, Gabe reeled in a bass out of a still deep hole in the Kettle River.

Quite the sky reflection in this shot with Marshal fighting the slippery sucker in a mud puddle!

Marshal filleted him on the rocks before returning home, and he was a delicious appetizer fried up in olive and coconut oils.

Eve on Lake Roosevelt

We spent the last week of July at the cabin. This was the eve of our first full day, leaving the lake shore after a spot of fishing and swimming.

Man with a mission to have a real vacation! He did!

New Used Bike

This photo was just too cute to pass up. Marshal bought himself a new used bike. We can call it his birthday gift to himself. He had been reading about it for some time, and found a good deal on Craigslist... where else? I can't remember the literal style name of the road bike, but some that know it, affectionately refer to it as the "old man" bike. It supposedly positions your upper body higher and helps you on the hills.

Wild Garden

This garden shot in evening glow, deceivingly makes my garden look mature and filled in. I put some long hours into it, and can "imagine" it has paid off. The bees and butterflies look happy; and as I post, a mated pair of pigeons have flown in and are contentedly pecking around. Gabe exclaimed over their arrival, and they have not yet flown even while he stalked them a bit.

Queen Anne's Lace from seed

Dwarf Butterfly Bush

The garden has weathered the heat despite the drought in our week-long absence. I've lost the new additions of summer blooming heather and another little shrub. The Butterfly Bush blooms have dried, but an abundance of little orange butterflies are fluttering happily around the purple sage and lavender.

Birthday in July

Marshal had trouble blowing the "relight" candles out, but he is not over the hill yet!