Adventures on Hill Drive

Here are some amazing pictures that I took while on an early morning adventure walk to check out the Coyote dens near the edge of our property.  I've been using our digital Rebel (it's an older one, not sure what model) and loving it!  I'm working on taking everyday photos from artsy angles so they are more interesting to look at.  Like anything, practice makes perfect.  I can already see improvement in my photography!

Molly was playing with some flower weeds.  She was very conscious of the camera though and was giving me some great angles to work with.  She is such a little model!

Bleached snail shells.  Amazing huh!

Mommy and Molly adventure boots.

Welcome, Pup!

This is our new puppy, Pup!  He is about 3 months old and such a sweetheart.  My parents' English Bulldog, Lilly accidentally became pregnant by what they think was an Australian Shepherd.  The mix was amazing.  There were three puppies, Pup, Baloo, and Optimus.  Optimus went to another home, my parents kept Baloo, and we took Pup.  I think Pup got the most of his daddy's athleticism but he is the exact color of Lilly.  Like any puppy he has spurts of pure hyper energy but thanks to the bulldog in him, he tires out quickly.  He is already obeying commands (Down, Out, Stay are his best) and he is practically house trained!  I have kept him downstairs at night and when we are gone by putting up a child's gate on the bottom step.  When we come back he usually has gone to the bathroom right by the backdoor where I let him out (on wood floor...easy clean-up).  So this morning Will installed a doggy door.  I can't wait to see how he does with it!  I did go through a couple of days where I allowed free access to upstairs but I learned my lesson quickly after cleaning several poopies and pees in the same spot on the carpet!  Overall it's been smooth sailing with this sweet guy and we are so happy to have him as part of our family!  Thank you Mom and Dad!

I will miss you, Internet!

The adventures on Hill Drive abound but one thing that we will not have for at least a month is dear sweet Internet.  Turns out we are in the worst spot for Internet.  I was just about ready to sign up for HughesNet which is satellite Internet when I decided to call Rising Sun Company's (and Best Jewelry & Loan's) amazing IT guy.  Seriously, if you are ever having computer problems or need network help, you have to call Ken Wales with Wales Technologies!  He introduced me to a very fast solution to slow Internet in rural areas in the Central San Joaquin Valley...unWired Broadband, Inc.  This Internet is supposed to be even faster than our Verizon DSL!  The test is whether or not we can see Rocky Hill from our house.  Did we pass?  Barely!  Will climbed on the roof and reported that he could see the top of the hill from the far corner tippy-top.  Yippee!  Only down side is that their installation is backed up for about a month.  So, this will probably be one of the last posts you will see for another month till I'm back online.  Blog you soon!

Exeter Fall Festival 2010

Every year my sweet little town of Exeter organizes a festival in the fall.  This includes a parade down our main street (Pine Street), and vendor booths, food, a concert, and this year bounce houses in the park.  We love watching the parade and moseying around the park afterward but this year was extra special because both of my kids were IN the parade.  Molly was on a float with her little dance crew, and Willy got to ride in Gramzy's Woman of the Year car.  I couldn't stop snapping pictures and chasing after the kids as they passed waving like a maniac.  Even though they were both so exhausted the excitement got them through three hours of fall festival fun before they broke down and crashed.

Modeling her little parade dance outfit.

The only requirement for Molly was to wear the pink dance t-shirt and black on bottom.  Since she didn't have black pants and since the smallest t-shirt that they could get was like a dress on her, I decided to actually make it a dress.  We put a ribbon around her waist creating such a cute little skirt.  With her sparkly pink shoes from Mar Mar, she was the cutest one there!

Molly is on the bottom row, third to the right of the girl sitting on the actual float.  The girl to Molly's left is her friend Ella.

How cute is this: crossed legs, watching the dancers behind the float!

So excited to see Daddy after her first parade

 Here are some cute pictures of Willy boy.  He got to hang out with me for a little while after we dropped Molly off with her group.  Willy loved the band across the street (you can't see it but that is what he is looking at) and the baton twirler that was practicing in front of them.

Playing with a leaf after we dropped off Molly

Willy got to ride in a cool old Mustang convertible with cousins Erin (left) and Annie (right), Gramzy and Aunty Lauren.  He really hammed it up for the crowd with waves and big smiles.

New House Camp Out...or In

Get ready....get set...JUMP FOR JOY!  We are new home owners!  Escrow finally closed on Wednesday. So, last night we decided it would be fun to camp out at our new house.  Actually we camped in.  I brought over a blow up mattress for Will and me (courtesy of mom), sleeping bags and a little pop tent for the kids. I also grabbed all our DVDs, our mini TV/DVD player in one, some cozy blankets, and a TON of pillows.    I can't believe I actually remembered toilet paper too.  I did forget a couple important things like socks for Will, trash bag(s), and food.  The food part was ok though cause the kids and I added to the adventure by stopping at the gas station in the morning and getting a roll of donuts and some chocolate milk (mommy got coffee :).
I thought it would be fun to re-cap some events from our first night camp in:

Mommy wolf carrying babies on back

1. Upon arrival, we were greeted in our kitchen by a giant mommy wolf spider carrying her babies around on her back.  Luckily I've seen this before at my parents house so I wasn't too freaked out.  Plus, I know that our house is full of spiders and insects because it has been vacant for a while so I was already planning on having it sprayed before we moved in.  So after we had fun ewwwing and awwwing at the poor thing, I told Will to somehow take it outside please.  Thankfully I wasn't around for this next part.  He told me later that when he went to try and move it into a bag to take outside, the mom must have panicked and the babies all jumped ship!  I remember hearing Will stomping around in the kitchen and then wiping the floor down for what seemed quite a while.  He said that when they all started running everywhere he decided to just squish as many as he could and he could actually hear them popping under his boot.  AHHHHH, gross!  So, that was visitor number one.  Actually, to them, we were the visitors so I should call them inhabitants.
2. Inhabitant #2:  Mr. Scorpion.  Yes, a real scorpion with the tail
   
    and front pincers and everything.  Now this was a small little guy (as you can see from the picture on the right) but, HELLO, it's a scorpion.  I mean, aren't those things really dangerous?  Anyway, we ewwwed and awwwed at this guy too and once again, we decided to take it outside (Will told me quietly that he was going to "crunch" it as soon as he got outside).  So, Will grabbed a McDonald's french fry box (did I mention that our camping food was McD's?) and scooted the scorpion into it.  As he brought it near the kids and I to inspect, I noticed a little movement on the bottom of the fry box.  Genius idea.  The little guy was wiggling his way out of the bottom hole.  He was half way out by the time Will decided he better hurry on outside and do his business with it.  Crazy.
3. Inhabitant #3 (yes, #3!):  Lizzy.  Little Lizzy was locked in the loo.  She looked something like this.  I was very happy to see her there since they eat bugs.  You know, I just realized while typing this that I have no idea if they really eat bugs or not.  In any case, as far as my little brain wants to know, they eat bugs.  So, we all teamed up to sort of herd Lizzy out the side door where hopefully she will be fruitful and multiply and (hopefully) eat lots of bugs.
4. Adventure #4 of the evening.  Although this last character in my rather long saga was not an inhabitant in the house, he (they) sure made themselves known.  I woke up in the middle of the night to an awful noise.  I couldn't really decided if it was a baby crying/screaming (keep in mind that it's the middle of the night and I was half asleep), a dog dying, or a pack of rabid wolves.  Turns out it was a little of both of the last two.  Adventure #4 was:

A pack of coyotes howling/tearing up the neighbors dog...I'm not really sure.  I woke Will up and we sat there listening to the ruckus for a while and then went back to sleep.  It made me a little nervous about getting our new puppy (next post!).  I decided that I will be getting him a dog bed for the house and letting him stay inside at night for sure.  My mom told me that the best protector against coyotes is a llama.  So, as you might have guessed, a llama is definitely in our future plans.

More adventures to come as we begin the move and explore our new home so stay tuned!