New family member: Clyde Patrick Sampson Shea

After a few months of NOT having a dog (and not planning to get a new dog) I had a change of heart.  I can't say I had a very valid reason for wanting one.  The house just felt empty without a fur ball around.  Luckily my husband knows when I'm not going to give up on an idea so he humored me and agreed to go look at dogs.

After checking out available beagles on petfinder.com, I found this guy at the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation.  Here's what their website said about him:

Sampson is 5 years old and 25 pounds. Sampson is a gentle, quiet and sweet beagle. He is friendly with dogs and people and very gentle with children. Sampson enjoys sniffing in the grass, walks with his humans and plenty of nap time. He will make a wonderful family pet.

Who could resist that write up and those brown eyes?  Not this gal.  So off we went to meet him at PetSmart.  And after meeting him we just had to bring him home.  Turns out he's a really sweet guy.  He loves the kids -- even Colin (who pulls on his ears and gives him hugs that a less-friendly dog wouldn't dig on).  He's mellow.  He doesn't make much noise (except for the snoring, but that's cute).  He chases the squirrels off of Phil's bird feeders in the backyard.  He wags his tail and asks for belly rubs.  And every day he makes sure that he's still not allowed on the sofa.  Apparently one can never be sure when that rule will expire so it's prudent to test it out every day.

The shelter gave him the name "Sampson" when they found him wandering in the wilderness of West Virginia, so we didn't feel too bad about renaming him.  He shall henceforth be known as Clyde.  Isn't that much better than Sampson?  Yeah, I'm not sure it's better, either, but that's what happens when I let Phil have naming rights.  Claire picked the middle name "Patrick" and Madeline thought he should retain "Sampson" as part of his name.  So he is "Clyde Patrick Sampson Shea". But he's not a fancy dude so he usually just goes by "Clyde".

He likes to sniff the backyard.  A lot.

Trying to find a place to escape

Is there a dog on the other side of this fence?

Daddy-daughter fun

Maddie's preschool put on a "Dad's Night" for the kiddos.  Madeline was so excited to pick out a pretty dress to wear on her date with Daddy!

And thankfully Claire didn't have to feel left out, because the very next week Claire had a Daddy-Daughter Dance with her Girl Scout troop. 

Hey Tooth Fairy...

Hey Tooth Fairy - don't miss our house!  Our big-girl Madeline lost her first tooth.  It was very exciting.  And then she lost her second tooth -- ON THE SAME DAY!  Luckily, the tooth fairy was able to pull through and fill up her tooth fairy pillow in exchange for those teeth.  Doesn't the Maddie-girl look cute without 'em?

First tooth

Second tooth!

Easter at Arlington

We managed to talk some friends into coming to see us over the Easter weekend.  After Mass we decided to take a trip to Arlington Cemetery.

We saw the changing of the guard...

took a little stroll through the grounds...

and saw JFK's grave (with Robert E Lee's house in the background).

It is such a sad place, but so full of beauty in the spring.

Cherry Blossoms 2012

The cherry blossoms in Washington DC are really something to see.  We took a quick jaunt on a Wednesday evening after school and work to check 'em out.  It was really crowded - I'd hate to see the crowds on a weekend - but it was definitely worth the trip.  The tidal basin was beautiful with all of those blooming trees!

Crazy hair

The girls wore their Mexican braids for almost a week before we took them out.  Ever wonder what hair looks like when it comes out of tiny little braids like that?  Well, wonder no more:

Mexico photo montage

The slide:

The drinks (OK, it's just a chocolate milk, but it looked awesome!):

The relaxation:

The pools:

The ocean:

(photo credit to Mom and Dad D for lots of the photos seen here!)

Mexico!

Nothing takes a mind off of sad circumstances like a vacation.  If that vacation involves margaritas (for the adults) and swimming pools, lazy rivers, and water slides then all the better!

Yep, we visited Puerto Vallarta with Grammy and Grampy AND Grandma and Paw-paw AND Phil's brother Sam!  It was so nice to have an entire week to just hang out with our parents and Sam and enjoy a nice, relaxing trip.

Our days pretty much went like this:

Wake up, drink coffee on the patio
Send two representatives from our party to put towels/book on enough lounge chairs at the pool of our choice to save them
Eat breakfast, meet down at the pool
Order adult beverages from the pool bar whenever it's happy hour and the drinks are two-for-one
Eat lunch together in one of our rooms
Go back to the pools
Order more drinks, if desired
Get cleaned up
Drink margaritas
Go out to eat dinner (with margaritas or cerveza, if desired)

 Thanks, Sam, for the super-awesome photos seen in this post!

Doesn't that sound awesome?  That's cuz' it was.

And here's a big montage of beautiful Mexico pics from Uncle Sam:

Catching up

It's been a loooong time since I last blogged!  I'm going to catch this place up on our happenings, but the format for posting blogs has changed.  This is bad for my catching-up process because I've definitely reached the age at which I fear technological changes, and I confront them with both skepticism and contempt.  But I suppose I'm going to have to figure this out.  Bear with me!