Tucker turns 2 [14]

Who's birthday is it? Our one and only furry love of our life...Tucker.

Remember last year, when he turned one, I took these pictures? Well, with him turning 2, I had to do something...

So I took more pictures. He is a year older. A year wiser. A few things about our dog before I show you his birthday suit.

1) He loves his green rubber ball. It's hollow and meant to put treats inside, but Tucker loves it because he can chew it nonstop and it won't get runed AND it bounces super high and sounds cool.
2) Peanut Butter. If I even reach for the jar in the cupboard he is drooling....like, I need a mop drooling.
3) He LOVES hunting. Any time Kyle gets his gun out for clay shooting or the bow out for practice, Tucker is instantly by his side, shaking out of excitement.
4) Water. You know Dory on Finding Nemo. Theme song for Tucker. "Just keep swimming..."
5) He loves to cuddle with me (I'm not allowed to give away his favorite spots) and loves to play rough with Kyle. Its the perfect combo.

It's true. He pretty much runs our lives and is king of the house. 

I know. I could go on all day long about this dog but you just want to see the pictures. Here they are!

King Tuck turns 2!

Can't you just feel the excitement!?! L.O.V.E. this dog.

Summer Favorites

This picutre pretty much sums up some of this summers favorites. 

Bright colored flowers. Grilling. Summer beer flavors. Puppy dog. 

Summer 2012

It's the simple things in life :)

The River...again

I think this summer we have been to the river more times than the lake. Not sure what that really means, but at least we are getting to a body of water.

The temperatures are still in the mid 90s with no short of humidity. I think with the approaching tropical storm we have seen more clouds than normal, but nothing too abnormal.

On Sunday we took advantage of the sunny weather and headed to the river. It was very similar to this river trip, but this time we went to a different location on the river. A different TOWN even. Crazy when you think of it that way.... Anyway. The scenery looked similar to the last location. The only thing different is where we hung out on the river was at the end of a tube float, so if any of the floaters got caught in the current and had trouble standing or getting off their tube, we could watch and laugh help them out. It was very entertaining.

River in San Marcos

One MAJOR difference was this guy. Oh yes. We brought Tuck-Man with.

He LOVES the water!

In addition to dove hunting, Kyle wants to take Tucker duck and geese hunting this fall so he was working with Tucker and a bird dummy in the water. Tucker did not hesitate and lept right in the water every time the bird was thrown. Or the ball. Or his other dummy. Or the frisbee. He basically would stand in the water waiting for us to throw something.

 

Not sure who had more fun. Kyle or Tucker?

It was another fun afternoon in the water and sunshine. We took the trip with a guy that Kyle met through work, so of course he wouldn't take a picture with me (shocking!) so I found the next available guy to pose with me in front of the camera. And he is SO good at it. ;)

Love my puppy dog!

I promise we do other things besides playing with Tucker all weekend. I swear we do. Now I just need to document it so you believe me... ;)

Today was the first day of school here in San Antonio, so I hope Back to School up north is going as well as it can go!

Betty Crocker(s)

Over the weekend I played bake shop-cool aunt-babysitter-wanna be teeny bopper. Did you follow all that? Basically, I had a slumber party with one of our good friends' two girls; 11 and 13 years old.  Whenever I would bring cookies or something baked to one of their pool parties, they were always in awe. So, we planned a bake-date. That is exactly what we did. Baked. 

Before they got to my house I had picked out some of the "fun" recipes I thought they might like to do. Chocolate rolo cookies, Reeses peanut butter cookies, and Pizza Bars. I thought they would want to do one, MAYBE two. Nope. They wanted to do ALL THREE. (In addition to the caramel rolls the next morning!)

Let me introduce you:

This is Nova. She is 11 years old and a firecracker. She knows what she wants and is very strong-willed (note the red hair!) She is also adorable and super sweet when you get to know her. 

This is Jo. She is 13 (in a couple weeks) and loves everything outdoors. She would rather be out hunting next to her dad than getting her toes painted. She recently has found a passion for cooking while her mom was pregnant and has been a huge help in the kitchen.

For 5 hours on Saturday we baked and baked. They became experts at rolling dough. They got antsy waiting for the pan to bake in the oven and kept Tucker busy in the meantime. I think Tucker was just as happy and excited as they were!

I haven't baked like this since I was in MN, and I can't even remember then why I would have baked so many sweets. It helped me remember though how much I love being in the kitchen. Here are our finished products:

They were SO proud and excited to share with their mom and dad!

Thats me in my messy kitchen. Thanks for the aprons, Jill and Amy! They came in very handy :)

In addition to baking we watched lots of movies, played cards and board games, listened and danced to Justin Beiber and Taylor Swift (painful, but I got through it!) It was a super fun weekend but I was ready to put my feet up when they went home. ;)

Moving Day

Seems like it was only last year when I was moving into college and starting my independence. I seriously can't believe that it's been 4 years since a GRADUATED from college, let alone start it! Where does the time go?!

Tomorrow my little sister is hitting the road due north. (She will be asking the SAME question I asked myself numerous time..."WHY did I go NORTH for college and not south!?) She is headed to Freshman move-in day at Bemidji State University. Tomorrow, she will be a college student....living in dorms. Is it really happening?

Since I am stuck in South Texas, I am sending all well-wishes, happy thoughts, and doing all I can from 20 hours away (which isn't much). I wish I could be there to help; to see her dorm, to give her the biggest hug ever, to carry box after box up and down flights of stairs like she did for me, but I can't. It's hard to accept that I can't help her when she was there every year, helping me.

Anyway. Sending happy moving thoughts to the family as they move my lil sis to college! Hope they enjoy the lines, the confusion, the rush, the anxiousness, the nervousness, and hopefully, the happiness.


Happy Move-In Day!

The Intern

I can't believe I haven't officially introduced you to the Intern yet and he is already gone for the summer. Did we even have a June this year? I don't remember it. And July? It felt to me as if the month was 3 days long and now all of a sudden it is August and Back to School is here. Which means back to school traffic, which means my commute will double in time. So where did the summer go?!?!

Anyway- the intern.

His name is Luke. He came down from Kansas. His family farms and has a large hog operation. He already owned Wranglers and boots before he came to Texas, so he fit in just fine. He was a hoot, and could play the guitar and sing. A good ol' country boy. He is finishing up one last semester at college and then who knows! Maybe we will see him again.

Here he is! (He also went with us to the Sublime concert, too) We went out on his last weekend here to celebrate an awesome summer.

The PCI boys: Jason, Dan, Intern Luke, and Kyle

Our group of the summer enjoying some live music at Tycoon Flats

This shows his personality totally. He was so nice and could strike up a conversation with anyone, he ended up getting the number of  a cougar in pink pants. Leave it to Luke. haha

Now I need to go wrap my head around the fact that it is already the middle of August and the year 2102 will be over in a few short months. Yikes.

Life.

I need to learn how to spread all my travels out along the year, not in just 2 months time. I came across this quote and it REALLY hit home. Kyle is SUCH a routine person. Everyday he likes doing the same thing, in the same order, at the same times. In a way, his job is really good for him. It keeps things different; there is always something different every single day. On the other hand, that makes his life at home messed up, hence messing up his routine. It's a constant battle. We did SO much traveling in 2 months all I wanted to do was be at home, doing nothing. Now that I am doing that, all I want to be is out traveling and doing things.

I REALLY like this. It correctly displays my thoughts and feelings at this point in time in words and a picture.

And then I stopped and thought just what that really means. I realized that I am truly and completely blessed in my life and I have nothing to worry or feel depressed about. I have an amazing family, wonderful friends, a great job, too many hobbies to count, a roof over my head and a husband and dog that love me unconditionally. So what am I worried about? Sometimes we just need to step back, take a breathe, and look at our life and realize all we have.

Life is short. You  never know what is going to happen or what He has in store for you, so you might as well enjoy it :)