Goodbye, Puddy

We said goodbye to Puddy this week.  He hadn't been acting himself this summer and a couple weeks ago we found out he had cancer on his spleen (which is very common for older goldens).  The vet said he only had a month to live.  After watching him suffer through a few episodes of internal bleeding, we knew we had to put him down.  So this week we said our goodbyes, took him to the vet,  and then buried him in our woods, one of his favorite places to be.  The kids are taking it quite well.  They immediately asked when we get to have a puppy!  However, its a bit harder for me and Andy since we had Puddy for over 10 years.  We will probably get a puppy some day, but it will be a while.  Puddy was a good dog and will be hard to replace.  That, and I dont think I can handle a puppy just yet!!

North Judson train ride

We drove up to North Judson for a little train ride.  We met Andy's parents and we all went for a ride on a diesel train.  There was also a little museum of sorts.  They have a large steam engine, but it needs a few million dollars worth of work to get it running again.  They also had some Pullman cars (which were manufactured not far from there) to go inside and check out.  The green building is the switching tower.  Inside were all the levers which when pulled switched the tracks, even switches many miles away.  On our ride, we sat in an open car that was right next to the engine.  The engine wasn't nearly so loud as the whistle.  And boy, was it loud. And boy, were there lots of roads to cross.  Adam pretty much just covered his ears the whole ride.  :)

switching tower

view of train station from switching tower

old steam engine

old steam engine

July 4th at the Lake

We spent the holiday weekend at the lake.  We invited Andy's family to come join us for the day.  It was lots of fun to play with Case, go fishing, and relax around the lake.  Although bug spray was a must unless you wanted the mosquitoes to carry you away!  With all the rain this summer, the mosquitoes are a force you can't ignore.  

Asilomar 2015

We had a small group at Asilomar this year.  But it we had a few sunny days and lots of fun!  Our kids call the volleyball court the "sand box."  It is there favorite place to be.  They like the beach too, but sometimes it's a little chilly!  If they are going to go down by the ocean, they prefer to walk the trail so they can throw rocks.  We made one trip to the tide pools down towards Spanish Bay.  We saw a few star fish and crabs.  But we saw a few dead animals washed up on shore too. ..yuk!   The boys favorite activity was playing soccer against the "dads."  Phil and Matt (and sometimes Kelly) played against all the little boys.  They had a blast playing on the volleyball court and it was quite entertaining for those of us watching.

Our "Diggingest Dog" 

Asilomar beach to left; boardwalk we took to tide pools

View from our room's front door.

Digging down to find water

Caleb- Elijah- Erin- Rachel- Zeke- Alex- Adam