First Stop - Travis Air Force Base

A family vacation re-wound:

My parents, Steven, Annie and I had been tentatively planning a trip to Arizona a few months after we got back from California. As the time drew nearer we started to get more serious about the trip, knowing it would be a lot of hours in the car and only a short amount of time to see family and attend my cousin's wedding. Our excitement grew when the day arrived for us to leave...because of Steven receiving unemployment we weren't able to leave until late in the afternoon on Wednesday (he wasn't allowed to be out of the state more than 3 full consecutive week days) giving us 2 1/2 days to drive to Scottsdale, AZ. While we were finishing up packing Cassie called my mom and me and wanted to get together for some coffee as a farewell (with the kids of course! :) ) As we sat and talked about the trip Cassie started thinking how great it would be if Brent could go along with us and meet some of the Hussey family (Daniel and our cousin Rachel were best buds growing up and now they both are married with two children...we thought it would be fun for Brent and Rachel's 5 year old daughter to meet) So one thing lead to another and all the sudden we were rushing out of Starbucks, my mom and I headed home to finish packing and Cassie off to pack Brent's stuff for us to take him. We were pretty excited however, the excitement had only just begun as we received a call from Cassie an 1/2 hour or so later saying that the entire Daniel Morris family had decided to make the trek with us. Whew! With 2 hours to go before our much needed departure we set out to get all the last minute things in place and done and cared for. The tension was growing to get out on time and though we hit some rough spots we made it 1/2 hour later than expected. Our plan was to drive all through the night. The kids did great (slept through a lot of it) and we finally arrived at Travis Air Force Base for a nights rest. Kevin was kind enough to get up out of his comfy bed around 2AM and meet us at the gate to let us in. After everyone, except Annie and I, settled into to the apartment that Kevin secured for us on base; Kevin, Annie and I headed back to his place and we all crashed!

"What you lookin at?"

Lincoln: come to greet us in the morning

Auntie and Maddie: bright and early

Aedan

Daddy and Daughter

Jenn with her 'mini me'

Madeleine takes after her mom in many ways, too cute.

Marybeth and Auntie

Miss Annie and Marybeth

What they do best

10 hours of driving the stang and a few restless hours of sleep = a very exhausted Steven.

Life on the farm

Hannah, showing me how it is done and, Lucy being cute.

A first for me

Oops!
The goat got a little antsy with the newbie and decided to step into the bucket of milk.
A good example of why Frodo, the cat, sticks around during all milking.

Lucy, Me and Hannah
after an eventful time of milking the goats

Goats for sale...anyone want them?
(There you go Tanya, just doing my part! ;) )

On May 14th, 2008 poor little Chiquito Joe (aka, CJ) was put down after a long 15 years of life. CJ was a special dog...he was a father to 12 puppies and before those privileges were taken away from him, he started to seizure. Many of his seizures lasted up to 1 1/2 hours and each time he started into one we thought it was going to be the end of him (the vet. was amazed CJ didn't die sooner, he said most dogs don't last after an 1/2 hour into a seizure.)however, he kept on trucking along for another 10+ years and along the way he lost all of his teeth (hence his tongue hanging out of his mouth in the picture to the above.) It wasn't until a week ago that we even considered to put CJ out of his misery, he never seemed to be in pain before, which is why we didn't put him down any sooner however, last week he lost the use of his back legs, at first we thought it was a temporary thing and we gave him aspirin (after consulting the vet) in hopes he would recover but, the poor guy only got worse, my Dad had to hand feed him and hold him up in order to help him relieve himself, it was the next day that my Dad decided to take him in and put him out of his misery. As hideous as he was, the little guy is missed.

CJ in his prime; with two of his offspring his life-long mate, Molly and his side-kick, Beau

Brent and Alice taking

advantage of the nice weather...

Beau was out enjoying the sunshine as well

Lincoln, The Puppy

*the puppy that is bigger than my 13 year old dog*

He is a beautiful dog!

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His favorite position and place to be.

Trying out the whole fetch thing. I'm not sure how long it lasted.

Precious little boy that nobody loves, but me. He is a very loyal dog.

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In the video I might be posting of their first meeting you will see just who is boss!!! :)

One of Brent's favorite things to do is to pull Alice around in the wagon, and of course, Ali has no complaints! :) They are so sweet together. My favorite is when Brent starts laughing really hard and then Ali joins in because of Brent, I am going to have to attempt capturing the two of them on video. Ali already adores her brother and wants to be around him all the time...Brent loves his sister too however, you can see some frustration on his part when Ali interrupts him in anything. At first Brent would get really mad and yell and hit her however, Daniel and Cassie are doing and excellent job in teaching Brent how to control his anger and frustration and now Brent has learned how to tell Ali "no, nooo" in a nice voice and calmly claim his stolen item. It is pretty darn cute!

Here is the famous trio. It may not look like it but I think Beau secretly loves these two. ;)

Below is the video of Brent pulling Ali and Beau...the funniest part is at the end where you will see him straighten the blanket before he starts pulling again....he is is mother's son!! When ever there is something messed up Brent is there to fix it and make it look nice! What a wonderful natural habit to be blessed with.

Bookcase: Before & After

Bed: Before and After

Yeah for Craigslist...such great deals! Thank you, Kristine, for all your help that day!!!

Brent meets Brego!

Recently our family has been re-acquainted with the Smith family. Twenty years, or so, ago they lived across the street from us and, I remember playing with their eldest daughter and only daughter at that time. Anyhow, Mrs. Smith invited my Mom and I out to their place along with some other families so, we brought Brent with us. He really enjoyed being around other kids but, he talked about the donkey the most! The picture to the left is of Mrs. Smith introducing Brego to Brent. Brent wasn't too sure about the whole thing and though he would talk non-stop about the donkey when inside he didn't want anything to do with him when up close. Even after seeing Sarah Smith ride him, Brent still couldn't be convinced by either Mrs. Smith or myself to just sit on the donkey.

After a little coaxing and, also, seeing that ALL the other kids were able to ride Brego just fine, Brent decided to finally give it a try himself! By the looks of it, we all think he was pretty happy with his decision. It also made for some very cute pictures (thanks to Amber!)

Child #4 Puppy Days

This is Sonic, the fourth child that I take care of. However, he proves to be more challenging than all three of the others put together

Child #4 Present Day

Don't let the puppy dog eyes fool you...He's spoiled rotten.