Fat Camp

Well, the vet finally stepped in.....

"your dog is too fat.....he's actually considered obese," the vet said gently to my father.

"okay, so I'll stop giving him doughnuts," responded my dad.

"its going to be even harder than that to shed the weight.....here, take a measuring cup to make sure you are measuring his food properly."

In order to jumpstart Jake's weight loss Sydney and I hosted him at our house for Fat Camp over our spring break. We have a very fit, active dog and thought Jake could benefit from all the activity.

At first Jake wasn't sure about exercising.

Sydney found the largest stick she could throw for the dogs to play with.

A large part of the activity this week was the dogs play fighting whenever we had downtime.

They really are the best of friends. (I love this photo of them sharing a stick while swimming!)

Sully wasn't jake's only friend....

Doesn't he look like a bear?
We had fun with you Jake, hopefully you burned some calories in the process.

Sammy

Our Dog Sammy (my parents' dog, really) is ancient. We brought her home on my 14th Birthday and she's lived with my mother ever since. She's seen 4 highschool graduations and watched all 4 of "her" kids go off to college. When she lived in Townsend with my mother there was no leash law and she used to run in a pack of dogs. Her best friend, a black lab, would come over and scratch on the door for Sammy to come play. That same black lab later stole a neighbor's thanksgiving turkey that was cooling on the porch!

Sammy used to run with Erin and me and was very protective of us. I remember being out on a walk once when I was pregnant and a man started to walk towards me to "chat" but Sammy wouldn't allow it. Honestly, I had gotten a weird vibe from him and was so thankful that Sammy was with me.

She moved to the Southshore with my mom and survived the training of their second dog, Jake (an "energetic" golden retriever).

Sammy wasn't doing so well last week (she's over 100yrs old in dogs years!) and my mother asked us to come say our goodbyes. Sydney and I were able to spend a nice morning visiting with Sammy which is where the above pictures come from. True to form, though, Sammy bounced back and is now at baseline. She's somewhat crippled by severe arthritis but is back to wandering around and being affectionate. She has earned the nickname "Lazarus" from my parents.

We will definitely miss Sammy when she finally decides to leave us - what a wonderful family dog!

My birthday

We celebrated with Roberta and Juan at "Samba" in framingham then with my mom and sister the next morning.

Babysitting Baldy-bean

When Erin and Darcy asked us to babysit we jumped at the chance!

Sydney and I had a great time babysitting Ciara - she is such a sweet, funny baby. Some pics

from the night are above.

PS Ciara, where is your hair?

Tisdell Baby Shower

We are very close to being an aunt/uncle/cousin again!

Jim and Maureen are expecting their baby in a couple weeks and we can't wait! Sydney and I were able to attend Maureen's baby shower a couple weeks ago. She looked great and the whole affair was really lovely. It was hosted by the grandmothers-to-be and definitely the nicest baby shower I have been to.

Sydney Turns Nine!

This is how far behind we are in our blogging: Sydney's birthday and party were almost a month ago. This year we had a "Grease" themed event where the partygoers dressed in 50s attire - very cute. We limbo-ed, hand jived, had a dance off, and croaky-okied, not to mention ate pizza, cake, ice cream and opened gifts.

Happy Birthday Syd!

My mom created an awesome 50's pink/choclate cake. She and Sydney put the finishing touches on the cake together.

The pink ladies and their cake creation.

Some early arrivals. Of course, there was only one "greaser" but plenty of pink poodle skirts.

Pizza, cake, ice cream and not enough chairs.

Ciara's Christening

Darcy's family came over from Ireland to meet Ciara (she had already met her grandad but not the rest!). Erin and Darcy were able to schedule the baptism for the same week. It was a nice gathering at parents house thereafter (The only part that I made it to!).

The Seymours.

The other half of Ciara's Family (aunt, uncle, cousins and Grandpa) - Lovely people! Wish they could have stayed longer!

Above is Darcy's father (Gerry), Darcy, Erin and Ciara and godmother Roberta.