Vacation Time~

Well, now that I have done an overload of updates, that really has only scratched the surface but we are about all packed up and ready to head out the door at four in the morning!

We haven't taken a family vacation in quite awhile and although this ding-dong won't be able to go because of his work schedule it will be comforting to know the house will be guarded and the animals tended too!

I even think that he may have chosen to stay behind to watch after his little girl Mookie the Chinchilla. These two are too funny to watch together, Levia gifted him with her when he graduated from the academy six months ago and have they ever bonded!

This is Kaa, Donnie's Ball Python. He is Mookie's close neighbor, he is actually quite a bit bigger now than this photo, he is shedding right now so didn't want to disturb him while he does his thing so will just use an older shot of him! We have aged him to how long we have had him which is about 3 years now.

And he has found ways to escape every now and then and since Mookie moved in we all tend to check around her cage to make sure she isn't getting a nice neighborly squeeze from him.

About two weeks ago he got out and we couldn't find him anywhere, started getting a little nervous when two days went by, then around midnight I hear Scottie holler out to Donnie, not by his nickname either, it was the full blown including middle and Jr! Kaa, was cuddled in his dirty laundry and startled him, too funny! But he was able to sleep comfortably knowing that he was back in lock down.

And this represents a favorite birthday meal! The chops cook on low all day in the sauerkraut then we make a ton of potato dumplings to enjoy along with.

This is the pot loaded up and I wish I had a scale to measure it on, the pot itself weighs at least ten pounds, then there was ten pounds of kraut, and those two huge packages of chops, I kept a close eye on the oven rack just knowing it was going to cave!

The celebration was for Blake, who 12 on November 16th, he is such a sweet boy! He is the one in this posting with his nose in the pumpkin pie, not really, he was just joshing around!

We will have the meal again mid January as we have a slew of birthdays coming up and we will do a one big celebration when we can schedule everyone together. It will cover five birthdays, Scottie is the end of December, the Donnie, Levia and Chad are in January with DH coming up February 3rd.

Which leads to our trip, it is going to cover Christmas and all the birthdays, except for Scottie, he wants a satellite radio system for his unit that we are going to get him. We are heading to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada via the Love Boat! It is something we have planned since the beginning of the year and everyone is beyond excited, the boys are looking forward to the all you can eat and we will enjoy watching them put it away!

The cameras are charged and I have two projects to work on. I am also very excited to be visiting the Fat Quarter Quilt Shop that is in the area and maybe even possibly Rosie's, oh yeah!!

Until next weekend!