Contrasts

Abby is such a contrast. She escehews things deemed too "boyey" and lectures me constantly on not understanding girls--which is true as some of you can attest. Yet today when we were in Dick's she pointed out the fishing pole she wants to get when she's older, insisted on looking at kayaks and canoes, and camping equipment and even stated that she wants to go on a backpacking trip some day.

Flash Mob

Puppy Story

As you can see in the post below, we finally have a dog! Abby has wanted one for a while and truth be told so have I. Angel is a Shih Poo a cross between a Shih Tzu and a poodle, though from what we understand she's mostly Shih Tzu. She's now 2 1/2 months and weighs just a bit over 3 pounds, and will eventually be between 10-12 pounds.

Grandma and Grandpa Peck got Angel for us, after Uncle Ray found her at a breeder in Brownsburg, IN (the hometown of Mark The Shark Titus of Club Trillion). We were a little apprehensive at first but after checking Google, it would appear that a Shih Poo is pretty much a perfect dog for us. They are supposed to be very intelligent, very good with kids, and hypoallergenic which is important since Sam has issues with allergies as do I. Over Easter weekend Grandma and Grandpa picked her up from the breeder and trained her for a week. Last Friday Cindy drove over to Indy to pick her up and brought her back on Saturday and she was an instant hit. I somewhat expected her to be fairly skittish given than in the span of a week she's had 3 homes (the dog, not Cindy) but she's remarkably calm. She's been very good with the kids, rarely barks, and has only had a couple accidents. So far, so good. But then again, it's only been 2 days.....

We chose name Angel after much debate. My original idea was to name the dog Indiana to pay homage to her home state, as well as serve as a reference to Indiana Jones. My other choice was Scarlett for obvious reasons (GO BUCKS!). The name Pupcakes was also introduced as a possibility but I quickly spoke out in defense of the dog's dignity and squelched that notion. Eventually we settled upon Abby's suggestion of Angel.

Puppy

A few pictures of our newest family member:

Angel playing in the grass.

Abby is quite happy to finally have a dog, as is Sam. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get a good picture of Sam with the dog.

Sledding and Other Adventures

One would think that given how much the kids like fishing, hiking, swimming, and just generally being outdoors in warm weather, that Abby and Sammy would be somewhat depressed at the colder temperatures and falling snow of winter. One would be wrong.

The bacchanalia of Christmas passed with much fanfare and shortly thereafter the gray and snowy skies of Winter descended upon us. And in this case descended is a literal since we got about 2-3 inches of snow just before New Years. Being basically a (too) large kid I promised Sam and Abby that we could go sledding on New Years day. Unfortunately, what I hadn't counted on was that the sledding hills at the closest golf course were closed; evidently 2-3 inches wasn't enough snow to open them. Undeterred we ventured to a hill close by our house where we had seen kids sledding before, but what we found was simply a huge patch of sheer ice on a very steep slope. And while that would certainly be fun to go down, Cindy and I weren't so sure about Sam and Abby making the climb back-up. Thus we opted to return home and have a monumental snow-ball fight, during which I somehow ended up on the wrong-end of a slush ball. After hot chocolate and a resounding and glorious Rose Bowl win for the Buckeyes (incidentally, I 'm not sure OSU has ever faced a more arrogant team recently than the Ducks) salved some of the disappointment, but nonetheless I felt obliged to take the kids sledding, if for no other reason than so I, er they, could use the sled I used as a boy.

Thus on Sunday after a couple phone calls we found a golf course that was open. After another couple hours of getting people to go potty, put on long-johns, and whatever else (Why is it that ventures out of the house seem to require more planning and execution than the Normandy invasion?), we, along with our kids' friend Katie, were finally able to make our way over to the Gahanna Golf Course where a glorious time was had by all, as can be seen in the pictures below:

Abby making her way back up the hill.

Katie and Sammy get ready to go

Aren't you a little old for this?

We were a bit worried that Sam especially may have difficulty with steering and such, but the little guy proved to be quite adept at it. At one point he took off in the vintage sled and looked to be heading for a tree. However, with skill that certainly would impress Danica Patrick he steered the sled away from the tree and almost certain calamity.

About the only downside to the day was the lack of manners or common sense among some of the folks there. The hills were fairly crowded and unfortunately it was far too common for kids to walk back up the middle of hill which resulted in long delays at the top as we waited for kids to get out of the way. We also had issues with kids jumping in front of Sam and Abby in the queue at the top and then taking off before we could say something, which delayed us even further. But perhaps the biggest annoyance were the number of folks with little to no control over their sleds. Poor Sammy got whacked about 5 times by kids who had no clue how to steer their sled.

Still it was a good day, and I'm glad to report that the latest in 1950's sledding technology is pretty much faster than anything else out there.

In other activity Abby's soccer team is playing indoor soccer this winter, which for her is probably good in that she'll get some exercise and develop her skills further. However, her team is playing an age group up because they've been asked by their outdoor league to move up an age group in the Spring. The upshot is that they're playing against bigger/faster girls which should help them prepare for the outdoor season. The downside is that they're playing against bigger/faster girls and drubbings like the one they took on Saturday (6-0) are likely to occur. The game itself might have been more tolerable had it not been for an overly enthusiastic father on the other team yelling encouragement at his daughter Maddie every 10 seconds or so. By the end of the game Cindy really wanted to punch him. As for Abby, she took the loss pretty hard and was pretty depressed about it all weekend. Sadly, I think she gets that trait from me.

Sammy is again taking ice-skating lessons and seemingly having a good time. He was very excited when we went skating Saturday to wear a pair of hockey skates for the first time. They were a bit beat-up but seemed to fit him better and are a bit more comfortable than figure skates. He was very excited to wear them again for his skating lesson on Sunday and had a good lesson until he fell down and hurt his knee toward the end. Unfortunately, that sort of ruined the whole experience for him. But still he's doing well and manages to stay up pretty well and more importantly gets up immediately after falling.

Christmas Playlist

As if there was any doubt....