Puppy Fun Day 2018

One of the funniest days of the year for Guide Dogs for the Blind volunteers and staff is Puppy Fun Day when we honor the selfless puppy raisers.  These devoted people love and train a cute little puppy knowing that he will eventually leave them to be trained to be a guide dog.  This day is all about them.

Last year 1000 puppies were born at Guide Dogs for the Blind's campus in California.  Of those puppies, 300 went all the way through their training to become guides.  50 more were selected for the breeding pool.  The rest were career changed to become therapy dogs or search and rescue dogs or service dogs or autism dogs....or really wonderful pets.

They say it takes about 251 volunteers to raise one Guide Dog!  I'm glad I get to be one of them.

Each year has a theme and this year it was "SPACE ROVERS"

The vet clinic where I volunteer each Wednesday morning was "Sick Bay 3018" featuring lots of Vulcan doctors and various aliens!

Darth and Yoda were the welcoming committee to the pedigree area where puppy raisers could get information on their dog's blood line.  

I talked to one raiser who had raised 15 puppies.  Some of her puppies were the grandchildren of others that she has raised.  There is an entire department devoted to the breeding program.

A fun new attraction this year was the chance to make pawprint art! The puppies just looked at the volunteers like, "Humans are so weird!"  But they are cooperative and didn't seem to mind too much.

George and I manned the "Poo Toss" game.  Participants could throw bags of 'poo' into buckets for a prize or into the monster mouth for a 'grand prize.'  And less you worry, no real 'poo' was involved! One funny thing was when I was talking to a mom and her 8 year old son and mentioned that my wig was itchy.  The little boy said, "That's a wig????"   I so badly wanted to tell him that it was my natural color!

Post World Cup Post!

It's over!  After 3 weeks with multiple games most days, we are all suffering from a bit of soccer withdrawal!  

The winner wasn't our 1st choice - Argentina nor our 2nd choice Spain or even our eventual favorite tiny little Croatia. France has a fantastic team with super stars in every position.  And while my head said that they would win, my heart surely wanted Croatia with a population of 4 million to win their first ever World Cup.

One of the reasons I cheered for Croatia was this man right here - Ivan Rakitic..  Yes he is a Barca player and that is one reason I like him but the other is that he looks so much like our son, Scott.  It's his coloring and hairline and general build.  Even Monica's family in Argentina agrees.   Scott says that sometimes soccer savvy customers come into Starbucks where he works and mention how much he looks like Rakitic.

When he stepped up to take the 5th shot in not 1, but 2, overtime shootouts, I was as nervous as if it had been Scott.  I didn't need to worry as he rifled both shots in to help Croatia advance.  

  

Estimates are that 550,000 people showed up to welcome the Croatian National Team home to Zagreb!  That is about 10% of the entire population there to celebrate their 2nd place heroes!

I can't imagine what the celebration would have been like had they actually WON the World Cup!

I am sure that this eased some of the pain of the loss.

And it was a Croatian player who won the Golden Ball for the best player of the entire World Cup - Luka Modric.  He's a Real Madrid player but I can't hold that against him, can I?  This was the money shot....Luka Modric and Kylian Mbappe, who won the award for best young player.  He's only 19.  What a future he has before him!  The next Messi/Ronaldo??? Maybe?  I say, "Lets get a Barca shirt on him."

Oh, and in case you are wondering, Matt won the family predictions game with 13 of the round of 16 predictions right on and 7 of the knock out round games correctly placed.  Way to go Matt!

Four years from now the World Cup will be in Qatar! Eight years from now in the US!  Maybe I will finally get to got to a World Cup game in person!

The Road Less Traveled

Years ago when Mary was a baby, George and I both read a book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  I don't remember a whole lot about the details but I do know that this quote stuck with us both.

Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive.  

In 1979 we had planned a trip from our home in Colorado to the Canadian Rockies.  Instead of going the quick, easy way on the 4 lane roads, we took the 'roads less traveled' and boy did it make a difference!  As we were driving on a 2-lane road somewhere in Montana, we came over a hill to see a group of cowboys moving their rather large herd of cattle right down the middle of the road.  Of course we slowed and planned to follow but the cowboys encouraged us to drive into the herd and assured us that they would part for us.  They did but we still had several minutes completely surrounded by cows with 1 year old Mary loudly 'mooing' in her car seat.

When we got into Canada we took a gravel, forestry trunk road that took us deep into the mountains.  It was incredibly beautiful and we felt totally alone much of the time.  A wonderful memory!

On our way home from Boise after our 4th of July celebration, George again decided to have an adventure.  Normally we just get on Interstate 84 fairly close to our home in Eagle and stay on it until we arrive in Portland.  This time we took the small US highways through rural Oregon and were treated to more of the beauty of the state.

I often say that heaven will look like Oregon on a sunny day.  I picture the beautiful coastline, the majesty of Mt. Hood, the tall trees and abundant flowers of Portland but the high deserts of eastern Oregon have their own kind of heavenly beauty!

First stop was the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument where we were able to see well preserved fossil plants and animals that lived millions of years ago.

I've never been much of a rock hound. I blame it on an extremely boring geology teacher in college but these fossils were quite amazing to see because the imprints are so clear!

The visitor's center is right below "Sheep Mountain".

Next we stopped at an area known as 'The Painted Hills'.   It is easy to see how they got their name.

They are billed as one of the "Seven Wonders of Oregon".

George and I agreed that this was worth the extra hours in the car! Sometimes it is all about the journey!

Isabella 4th of July 2018

Total Grandma post....I just can't help it!

Here she is rocking Uncle Scott's vintage denim jacket and her new backpack!

Every time she walks by George's Chinese dragon she says, "Yah" and karate chops him.  That must be something she learned from her Daddy when she was smaller and scared of the dragon.  It makes me laugh. 

I love this face and how cute her Mommy dresses her!  That hair!  What can I say? It is just an adorable mass of curls which is so totally different from my kids hair! 

Two happy Grandparents!

Celebrating the 4th in Eagle

What a perfect 4th of July week we had in Boise! I really love my family and spending time with them gives me so much joy!

We enjoyed ice-cream and relaxing at the Village in Meridian.  It is a nice shopping, entertainment area. 

Matt grilled for us.  He says that I take a photo of him that looks just like this every year.  He does a great job on the grill.  If you don't want to do something, don't be so good at it!  He is definitely our designated barbecuer!

Isabella loved the little wading pool and we loved watching her 'swim'.

Sidewalk chalk was a bit hit for quite awhile until she decided that the most fun was throwing the chalk on the driveway and watching it break! 

Our attempts to teach her how to play hop-scotch didn't go too well but she did get the idea of jumping and jumping HIGH! 

Bubbles provided a lot of entertainment both for both Bella and the 'bubble makers'!

Sparklers were fascinating with frequent cries of 'fire' and 'stars' and 'hot'!  Isn't it fun watching a little one discover new things?

Last year she was not a fan of loud fireworks but this year she loved them!

This year there was no fear at all!

My guys, who are not excited by crowds, were willing to go down to Ann Morrison Park where we had a great view of the fireworks.  Happily the traffic wasn't too bad getting home either!

Isabella loves ice cream and shaved ice!

She takes after Uncle Matt in her climbing abilities.  I can see him taking her rock climbing in a few years. 

And she loves the slides, the bigger the better, and will do them over and over and over again.  I loved when she went down one of the small slides, got off and looked back at it and said, "Baby slide"! 

Car Dreaming

When you have a son who works at a car dealership I guess it is normal to do a little 'window shopping' and 'car dreaming'.  We spent a fun hour at Petersons on our recent trip to Boise.

Here I am with my dream Honda CRV.  My choice is influenced by the fact that Matt is still driving a CRV that has 240,000+ miles on it.  If I get a new one, it will probably be the last car I ever need to buy! 

Matt dreams of this tough truck which would be perfect for his woodworking business and his snowboarding adventures.  It's a Chevy Colorado, fully loaded. 

And all three of my 'boys' are drooling over this Cadillac CT6 which is self driving.   

I reluctantly rode along when they took the CT6 on a test drive.  It is just weird to be zipping along on the interstate with the driver's hands not on the steering wheel.  There is a safety feature that detects if you don't have your eyes on the road so you do have to pay attention.  That makes me feel somewhat safer!  I still can't imagine the day when everyone has a self driving car.  Makes me think of the Jetsons!!!  Of course their cars also flew and I think we are a long way away from that.  But who knows!