Introducing Lily!

Here's our new girl, the day she arrived in our backyard. Her name is Kentfield Lily of the Valley. We just call her Lily, of course. Ain't she a beauty?!

Some of you who've been in-the-know about our plans for a puppy are probably saying, "what? that's not a chocolate lab!" Well, the plan was for a chocolate, but the breeder was having problems breeding her chocolate girl. We gave up the wait and accepted an offer for a yellow girl born on August 14th, 2011.

We first visited Lily when she was 7 weeks old. Of the original 9 puppies, just 5 were left that day. As we walked into the puppy room, Ethan said what I was feeling: "Mom, I think my heart is melting." Those puppies were adorable!

All of them were sleeping, except for one (the one sitting up next to Eliza). She showed interest in all of us from the moment we walked in the door. In that way, she chose us! She had a little green collar with two jingle bells on it. We attempted to get a photo of the 4 kids with all the puppies. This is the best we got. Eliza is holding our girl. The puppy by Ethan is peeing :)

Ben picked up and snuggled every single puppy. Over and over again. He was definitely spreading the love. Here he is with our girl.

I got started right away with telling our puppy how she should behave in our family.

And she immediately got to work causing trouble with her little puppy buddy ... and with daddy's shoes.

We said goodbye to our girl and drove home puppy-less that day. Over the next few weeks, we made final preparations for bringing our puppy home. After much discussion, we chose the name Lily.

The breeder sent this photo of Lily and her mom, Jemma. I assume when she grows up she'll look like her mom!

When Lily was 10 weeks old, we drove back to Sebastopol and brought her home. She sat next to Ben and whimpered most of the way in the van, pausing occasionally to climb up on him and lick his face. Ben loved it.

And now we are adapting to having a puppy in the house. It is LIVELY. It seems that we now have twins! I don't know if they are twin puppies or twin toddlers or what, but they are two peas in a pod. A troublesome pod.

Jen and Jeff Escape To Florida

On Sunday afternoon, we flew to Orlando, bused to our not-at-all romantic, very functional hmotel, walked around and around trying to find our room at the HUGE disney resort, then crashed in our separate double beds (say what?!).

We started Monday morning at Epcot's Future World. After picking up fast passes for "Soarin'" (over CA), we passed the wait time on all the mediocre attractions we could find. We'd heard good things about "Mission: Space" so we gave it a go, ignoring all the motion sickness warning signs. Oops. It was no surprise that I was sick after the ride, but Jeff was just as sick as I was! It seriously took us 2 hours and $10 of ice cream to finally start feeling better. The real cure, though, was the Soarin' ride. We love that! We practically bounced out of there with big smiles on our faces. Now we were ready for the day! We regret that we didn't feel up to Test Track, but somehow our lives are still complete without it :)

We left Epcot to spend the afternoon at Hollywood Studios and just REALLY enjoyed all the shows there. We decided we must be getting old - we were passing rides and going for shows! But it was worth it because we got to see Lightning McQueen ...

Beauty and the Beast ...

... and Indiana Jones! It's a good thing we got to our seats on time for Indy, huh Jeff? It's seriously all he talked about all day - making sure we got to see an Indiana Jones show. He's like a little kid! He even seriously considered staying for a second show.

Then we spent the rest of the night at Magic Kingdom: Pirates, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Hall of Presidents, Electric Parade, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear. Did we have fun or what?!

Tuesday morning we went to the airport to pick up our rental car then drove to Epcot to spend the morning/afternoon in the World Showcase. We walked and walked and walked around and around. We sampled delicious food and saw inspiring shows and shopped in shops that made us feel like we were really in the different countries. It was a slower paced day for us, and very enjoyable. We took this picture for Ethan since he loves Percy Jackson books. This looks like Poseidon to me!

While eating some (more) yummy food, we stared at the Aulani booth and wondered if maybe we'll ever go to Hawaii together / as a family - maybe even to this mega over-advertised Disney resort that's now open.

In "Germany," I had to get a photo of me with a stein in the stein shop. The only other time I've been to Disney World was with my mom and my Grandpa Sorensen in December of 1992. It was a special time. Anyway, I have a classic picture of Grandpa in this same spot with a gigantic stein. I just spent some time digging through a box of memories trying to find the photo that I know I've seen recently, but alas, I did not find it. When I do, I'll add it next to mine :)

So then farewell to Disneyworld and hello to our rental car for the 4 hour drive to Ft. Lauderdale. Our Hotel was lovely and romantic and felt doubly luxurious after the functional room I tolerated at Disneyworld. Here's the view from our 19th story window on the beach.

Wednesday Jeff was in conference all day and I filled the time with whatever. I took a walk through the rain and spent a few hours at the indoor mall. It was strange to have so much open time on my hands with no one needing me. I laughed when I realized that I was kind of lonely, actually! That night we cruised on the Ft. Lauderdale waterways with the conference folks. We mingled, enjoyed the views, and ate delicious food.

Thursday morning we woke early for a walk on the beach so we could catch the sunrise over the ocean. It did not disappoint!

This last morning I spent in Ft. Lauderdale was BEAUTIFUL. After overcast skies and rain for the whole week, the skies opened up and the sun shined and it looked like the Florida beach I imagined. As I sat on the balcony make phone calls and searching the internet regarding our plumbing problems back home in Concord (!), I enjoyed the view and wished I could enjoy the beauty with more than just my eyes. The waves were almost lake-like in size and the water warm like a swimming pool. People were kayaking, jet-skiing, paddleboarding on the ocean. It was so not Northern California-like and so inviting. Alas, the plumbing problems took precedent and then I was on the plane to go home. Jeff stayed for one more day of his business conference then came home the following evening.

THANK YOU to Grandma Joan and Granny and Papa for tending our children and our home (with plumbing problems thrown in) while we were away. It's the longest and farthest that we've gone without our children underfoot. It went by in a hurry! We are so grateful for the time and memories together.