Wedding 2 Photos - Chicago, IL

We drove to Chicago. In holy matrimony, Joanna and Todd.Bob, father of the bride, and his little girl.
My entourage of glasses.These two let loose on the dance floor.

With the beautiful bride.

Wedding Weekend Warriors

Back to back weddings starting this weekend. Good times!

Rolling with it

I hope to have an important role in our Finnymac's life.
My current role is chew toy. I'm okay with that, until his teeth come in.

Someone is Jolly in their Jumper

Dysfunctional Wedding Crashers

We are attending RJ's cousin J's wedding this summer. Today we received a link to their wedding website. After reading through it we were encouraged to sign the guest book and include any songs that we wanted put on their play list.

I started typing a standard 'we're happy for you' message when I asked RJ what song we should request. We decided on 'The Final Countdown' by Europe. We wanted to make an entrance into the wedding like G.O.B. from Arrested Development. Then we thought, why should we sign the guest book, instead G.O.B. should do it! J and her family are huge Arrested Development fans, they would love the joke. So we signed the guest book:

"Like the guy with the $4,000 watch is going to sign your guest book. Come on! Seriously though I'm looking forward to The Big Day. I'd like to hear my entrance music 'The Final Countdown' by Europe."

And we brainstormed a long list of other Arrested Development characters that we are going to add to the guest book over the next few months.

Maybe they'll think it's us, maybe they won't. However if it turns out really well we do want the credit for it!! Come on!

p.s. If you have any ideas for Arrested Development guest book entries feel free to leave a comment. Thanks!

He fluffs, a lot!

I don't think there is any question as to what FinnyMac is doing in these pictures (I'll give you a hint, it's not eating or sleeping...) You got it, Pooping! His Aunt Kiki bring out, well, everything in him. I do hope one day I will be able to hold him without all the poop, but I don't think that's going to be for a while. What a cutie eh?

The Wee One

We had a chance to meet our nephew Finn this weekend. He is a wee thing right now so sleeping is his favorite thing. He does wake up now and again to flash his little baby blues. But you've got to be entertaining or he starts to lose interest.

And then the stretch and yawn comes and then.......
he's down for the count. Again. But look at the size of those hands. You know the saying, a puppy will grow into his paws? We'll we've got a big basketball player here. But what do you do with them when you sleep? Cross them pretty?

Use them as pillows? But then you end up with a 'dumb arm' full of pins and needles that just flops all over the place.
But after a full day of family visits little Finn nodded off and started dreaming, moving those eyes and little lips of his. Is this a smile? A half smile? Who really knows, but that's what I'll say it is.

Our Finn

Last night RJ and I took on two new roles, Uncle and Aunt.

Little Finn McCallum was born December 3rd at 5:38pm. Not too many more details are known right now as the new family is spending some quiet time together getting acquainted.

I've had some time to consider my new role and I've decided I want a cool Aunt name. Auntie K or Aunt KiKi. However, as with most nick names they are not something that can be predetermined. It's usually bestowed upon you during your 'not so finest' hour. I definitely have a lot of those. But I think I'll be happy as long as the words 'crazy' or 'loopy' don't make it in.

Congratulations James and Melanie. We look forward to meeting our nephew!
All the love in our hearts,
Karen, RJ and Bauer.

One for the Road

We went to a surprise 40th Birthday party for my Brother-in-Law last weekend. We brought Bauer because he loves to play with my in-laws dog Marlie. However, there were too many people around for a good tussle but there was plenty of new places for them to explore, sniff out and leave their mark on. Over and over and over. There was one Hosta that must have been peed on 6 times. By each dog!
Our party hosts have three dogs of their own so there were plenty of outside water bowls around but Bauer found one on his own.

It was a little awkward when a few of the guests wanted drinks but can you blame him? It was the coolest water in the place! He was tuckered by the end of the night so we didn't need a 'traveller' home.

Meet Tweek

Since our first trip to the Garden Center three weeks ago I have wanted a garden gnome. Why? It could be genetic (one step closer to becoming my Grandma). But I think it has to do with adding a little 'whimsy' to the outside. I'm not big on most garden decorations but a gnome, it's good garden karma.


Last weekend I saw this guy and had to pick him up.He's small enough he'll blend in and he doesn't look evil. Sometimes they can. He's a very Santa/elf like, happy, jolly gnome. With a mushroom.


Now I need to find a place to put him. With out high winds this past weekend he's been camped out inside on the coffee table. I don't want him damaged buy the elements or wildlife (ie: peed on by B). I think he'll stay on the deck with the container garden. If it looks like a torrential storm is on the way, I'll bring him in. Or I could put a small amount of hot glue on the bottom of his foot and secure him to the deck. Just a little glue to fight against the wind but not so much that I can't take him off to put him away for the winter.


Breif Tangent Alert! While writing about securing decorations to decks I remembered the plastic Frosty the Snowman my Aunt and Uncle had. They use to chain poor Frosty to the porch railing. They did it for stability not because there were hoodlums. But we always made fun of the poor Frosty in chains.


Ok, so what I've just learnt is that it's all genetic.

Back to Monday

I'm home from a wonderful weekend at Grandma's. But I'm very tired. Lack of sleep is another side effect of drinking caffeine after 4pm. I took about 50 pictures with the new camera. I'm not sure what Ii think of it yet. The Panasonic always wants to put the flash one (in Auto Intelligent mode) and I am not a big flash person (I found out how to deactivate that quickly.)

I'm going through the photos and will send them for developing soon. That will be the true test. But for now here is the little gnome that greeted me at the top of the stairs. Grandma's pretty sure she didn't put him there. The little guy wants all the attention.

Another one converted

After our Sunday dinner we introduced Rj's Mom to the ever addictive ROCK Band. It didn't take her long to get the hang of it. I think it took longer for her to decide if wearing her glasses helped or hindered her score.

Here is the serious concentration look. And the we are really rockin' look.

Notice dear Bauer in the bottom left. He always naps when we play. It must be true that music does soothe the beast. It's not 'soft rock' we are playing AND for the record RJ does not tap lightly on those drums. I've heard him playing/banging on them as I've walked down our street.

Jingle all the way ... I mean 5K.

On Saturday RJ, his sister, his mom and I ran in the 'Jingle Bells' 5K in Burlington. I use the verb 'ran' loosely. We didn't set any records that day. However, it was a perfect day for the run, sunny and cool which is perfect when you are covered head to toe in a Santa.

RJ, Carolyn, Jo. Mr and Mrs Clause (The Mr. has some beard issues) Up the street .......and down.

Over 1,500 Santas participated this year. I think we will make this an annual event. We didn't bring the pups this year but there were quite a few with reindeer antlers so I think they will participate next year.

Found it!!!

Nic, I found the snow!! Uncle Donnie has it. Needless to say, he's not thrilled about it.

It sure seems like an awful lot. Are you sure you want it?

Photos courtesy of the 16 Island Lake Weatherman Donald Smithers.

Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day Parade

The Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day Parade started at 8:30am and there was a huge turnout. I read that the Food Bank of Waterloo Region and Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest raised 21,220 lbs of non-perishable food items and $18,429.83 in cash donations along the parade route. That's amazing. We ROCK!
To start the Parade we have Onkel Hans???? What the....Poor Onkel Hans had a bit of a rough morning. It's too early for all of us. Put on your happy face Hans, the kiddes are watching.
Yeah! Onkel Hans is back on track. Maybe if they got him a smaller-than-his-head beer stein he wouldn't have so many reasons to fall down on the job! The horse drawn carriage was very pretty and I loved the fall colours. Especially backed by the LCBO signage. Get use to it, I didn't have much space to move around.
Then the Police Marching and Piping Band came through. A wonderful autumn day to be wearing a kilt.Then the Burlington Teen Tour Band. Considering RJ is a 'you've seen one, you've seen them all' when it comes to marching bands, he went on about how this band was good and travelled all over and was very well known. Could it be because it was from his home town? Nah!

The Grand Marshall Onkel Hans (this one more up-right) gave us a little wave. BTW Onkel Hans got a new look for the Oktoberfest 40th Anniversary. He's a little slimmer and promoting more of a healthy lifestyle. I guess that's on the other 355 days of the year.Bauer did really well with the crowds and sirens and kids and horses. However, we were not expecting the traditional German whip cracking. That's when the cookies came in handy. He ignores the whips if there are cookies nearby. He was a very good boy and let all the kiddies pet him. Last but definitely not least was this very flamboyant fellow. 'Who could that be I?' asked RJ. Without missing a beat he answered 'He's the Liberace of Oktoberfest.' You can't see the gold sequins and bejeweling on his pants and vest very well in this picture, but trust me, it's an accurate description of this outfit. That or a life preserver in feathers.

We didn't stay for the end, we ran out of cookies. I did wonder how the parade would end, what would the last float be? For those of you wondering it's the Horn of Plenty. Doh! why didn't I think of that?

Another family tussell

Saturday Bauer and Cousin Oscar got some built up energy out of their systems. With all the rain this past June Bauer hasn't been getting his two-a-day walks and his energy level has been escalating. I don't think there is another dog that Bauer rumbles with as intensely as Oscar. It can get a little heated sometimes but they are both good puppies and stop when told to. It's definitely a dominance thing bewteen them but the action shots always turn out great.Here's Bauer trying to apply his signature head lock which can sometimes look like a hug.In turn Oscar responds with the famous Ka-ra-te Chop! Bauer now goes in for the full on tackle.
But wait, what's this?Attack of the Golden-Doodle Triceratops? How can he be so cute but look so fierce?

Father's Day 10K

For the third time we took to the streets early Sunday morning for the Father's Day 10K. This year RJ's sister Jo and her husband Steve joined us and so did RJ's friend Craig. It was really great weather, not hot and muggy like the first year. Jo and I stayed in the stadium with the puppies and waited with cameras in hand.

Here are 'The Runners Three' at the start.Craig was the first to run by smiling and waving. He's always smiling.Steve was next. No time for waving, Steve is a professional. But I got the thumbs up!And closely after was RJ. He knows the drill when it comes to photo opts, turn to face the camera, smile and wave. I've taught him well.A great race by all three. And of course there was the annual nap-fest that afternoon.