Another Weekend Up North

Two weekends ago we all headed back up to Mom & Dad's for Charlotte's baptism. My brother-in-law's mother and brother made the trip from Maryland, so with all of us "kids" - and 3 dogs - it was a full house.

Mom of course fed us lots of good food, and we got in some quality time with Sophia and Charlotte.

Amy and I also took care of our Christmas card photos. We'd been waiting for a typical snowy Minnesota scene, and we got it.

They had this idea of them all laying on their backs, looking up at me. This posed somewhat of a problem, as it's hard to get up high enough to do that without having ladder legs or something else in the photo. Fortunately, since Mom and Dad leave the dock sections in the back yard, all I had to do was climb up on one of the benches and lean over a bit.

Since I'm egotistical about my photography, I wouldn't let anyone else even press the button for our Xmas photos. Not even if I'd already set everything up. So, even though Mom was there to make Zada look at the camera, I had the SLR on timer mode :)

I also got some cute "on the side" shots of Amy and Charlotte - who was the epitome of a little Eskimo baby. Pretty darn cute, if I may say so myself (and I do).

Of course, no photo shoot is complete without me taking random pictures of my dog...my dad asked me at one point, "how many pictures of your dog do you NEED?" I dunno...and nobody complains about a mother taking a bajillion pictures of her kid :) That's all it is!

Thing is, this dog loves being outside so much that the picture wasn't posed. I happened to look out and saw her lying contentedly in the snow and snapped this through the window.

In addition to all this, I decided to get the engagement shot out of the way. I originally wasn't going to do this, but Mom wants to run an announcement in the Brainerd paper (sigh) so I obliged. Didn't spend too much time on it, but we're pleased with the results :)

Once again, I didn't want anyone else "taking" the image so I got a little creative with my tripod (thank goodness for pistol grips!) and the timer. Keep in mind he was very open to doing this, even though there was a football game going on downstairs! What a guy...

So, it was definitely a weekend full of posing and image capturing, but fun nonetheless.

The next time we head up - New Year's - I can say won't be nearly as photography-focused, which I'm sure will bring a sigh of relief from everyone :)

Thanksgiving Festivus

Once again we headed up to Mom & Dad's for an extended Thanksgiving celebration. I pretty much love ANY holiday which allows me 4 full days up at the Bernier Spa & Ranch, but Thanksgiving rocks because it's all about FOOD.

(Making it hard to maintain the weight loss I started in Italy...sigh.)

Clint and I arrived up there on Wednesday evening, and the rest of the gang (sister + her brood, and 3 aunts/uncles + dog) came on Thanksgiving Day. There was quite a lot going on up there this time...

Sophia and Charlotte were in fine form - both with their quick mouths. The former was entertaining us with her retorts and the latter was keeping us on our toes with her regurgitation skills. I don't think Mom & Dad figured they'd have to worry about stains on their brand-new carpet...but, such as things are, little Charlotte has QUITE the "reflux" capacitator!

But, you just learn (or, sometimes, have to be violently reminded) to put down a big baby blanket and have PLENTY of burp rags on hand :) She's so darn perfect of a baby there has to be SOMETHING 'normal' about her!

Dad & Clint bonded by acting as mechanics to my car...trying to figure out why on earth there would be oil getting into my radiator. My poor little Honda Accord has passed its 10-year mark (in fact, we're marching towards 11!) and things have been slowly declining.

Mom wanted help with getting their Christmas tree, so she, Sophia and I bundled up and headed out to a cut-your-own lot in search of "the perfect Christmas tree." Sophia's words, not mine. Of course, it's a lot with very pretty trees, but they're also small - some of them QUITE diminuitive, as Sophia found out! I always say you can't take home the first one that catches your eye...but wouldn't you know, after marking it and moving on to look at everything else, we ended up getting it after all.

(The size was a little more appropriate for the house. And, I know it's sprayed...but, once you get it away from all the others, you can't tell :)

The dogs got plenty of exercise, too...they went from hyper-activity on Wednesday night to needing a quick cat-nap (or, dog-nap, as it were) during the afternoon to keep going through 'til bedtime. The old cliché still rings true - A tired dog is a good dog! Of course, having a couple of "new" dogs in the mix certainly helped. My aunt & uncle brought their extremely bouncy/hyper/energetic German short-haired pointer up, plus the neighbors' dog - a 9-month-old black lab - decided to visit a few times and give Zada a run for her money.

We had some good hikes out in the backwoods...lots of snuffling of scents, chasing of sticks, and tongues lolling. Oh, and the dogs had fun, too :) We only had one near-incident where the 2 "nose" dogs (Tesa & Zada) flushed a couple of deer and gave chase for a few bounds before I - thankfully - recalled them. Thank goodness for dog obedience classes!

Of course, it wasn't until the last day that Zada finally realized the lake was frozen, thus offered a whole new avenue of adventure...we'll see if she remembers right away when we head back up the next 2 weekends.

Speaking of Zada, I had quite the hard time relinquishing my spot as "First Master" this weekend. For some reason or other, Zada was entirely focused on Clint. On our walks, she was still well aware of where I was, but if he left the house (we stayed at the neighbors'), she was VERY intent on where he was. In fact, she even missed breakfast one morning because he left for the gym and she wouldn't stop staring out the screen door. So much for shepherds being one-person dogs!!

I feel so betrayed :)

And, last but certainly not least - Clint bought got a "new" vehicle! Evidently my sister was in the market for a new (2008) half-ton Ford pick-em-up truck, so instead of trading in her Durango (2003, purchased new in 2004) she sold it to Clint for a good price. Now at least between the 2 of us we have one rock solid car. It's pretty sweet - tow package, hitch (you know, for all the stuff we haul around), remote start, 4WD, power seats, nice stereo...it's a winner!

Long story short, it was a GREAT Thanksgiving weekend :)