It's a boy!

We picked up Frodo from the vet on Tuesday afternoon after he was neutered. The poor little dog was so drugged and sluggish. Pippin seemed to love him, even if all they were allowed to do was to take a nap with Gary while I was at class.

Wednesday, Frodo learned where NOT to lay in the kitchen while I got ready for Gary's birthday party. We had invited a bunch of people over for a BBQ with hot dogs: his immediate family, my parents and grandma, and some of his friends. Well, everyone was supposed to show up around 6:00. At 6:00, Gary, the dogs, and I were standing in the garage watching it POUR outside. We had quite the thunderstorm. Gary barbequed the hot dogs in the garage, and we all had to be in the house or in the garage. Not exactly what we had planned; we wanted to be outside around the chiminea. We still had fun!

So what does Frodo do? He wants to be held, so this means that if you're on the couch or in bed, he wants up too! We don't let the dogs in either place (yes, we're heartless) so we've been pushing him and saying "down" a lot. Okay, except for those two times when, each of us, alone in the house with the dogs, has given in and let Frodo nap with us on the couch. Gary said the only reason he gave in was because it was the day Frodo had surgery and also his first day with us, and if Gary was holding him while Gary napped, he knew the dog wouldn't be pooping or peeing anywhere in the house. I did it because I was watching Oprah and taking a half hour rest before Gary's birthday party, and I had shoved him down about 7 times, when Frodo made a flying leap and landed right on top of me, where he instantly layed down. I couldn't help it. He likes to jump onto the couch when I'm on the other end and he's instantly curled up along the back of the couch and burried in all of the pillows. I DON'T give in to that, because I know how hairy the couch will get. (We used to let Pippin on the couch when he was a puppy, but then changed our minds.)

Pippin and Frodo are getting along very well. I can't say that they love each other yet. Frodo loves people better than he loves Pippin, and Pippin is a little ticked with Frodo being such a naughty little listener. They love to play together, but it's hard to let them go for long on full speed, because Frodo is supposed to be on "restricted movements" for 7-10 days with his stitches. He apparently doesn't care, but mean old Kim does. I came back from class yesterday and Gary was watching Caddyshack and letting them go full at it after I worked so hard to keep them relatively calm all day. While I was writing this blog, they were playing "toy keep away" with a stuffed dog that Jim brought over for the birthday party. I went to check on the toy because Pippin destroys toys quickly, and sure enough, they had pulled out about half of the stuffing. At least they were working together.

Honda Camping

This weekend we took the first vacation trip of our marriage--to Warren Dunes State Park to camp with some of my friends. Angie and Brian brought their CRV, Carrie and Matt brought their red Civic, Carl and Jessica brought their CRV and their adorable 3 year old Aaron, and we brought our red Civic.

Wine tasting was a blast--Gary had never been before, and it's something that I love to do. We found a wine that we both like, Gewurztraminer. I learned to pronounce it for the first time ever, and we bought a bottle for Gary's big birthday bash this week.

We DID plan to have a bit of alcohol at the campground that night, but when we were making dinner after wine tasting, our neighbors got kicked out because they were loud and had alcohol. It was really surreal--there was one DNR truck, two police cars, and about 6 or 7 officials total watching this poor family pack up. Needless to say, we were too scared that we would have to break camp in the dark and drive 3 1/2 hours home that night. The beer stayed in the cooler.

My favorite part of the trip was the beach. Gary is laughing at me because I made him wear sunblock (all we had was 45) but I claimed that I would be fine without any myself. The fact that I had a base from tanning before the wedding was aparently untrue. I'm a bit red.

We also climbed the huge dune for which the park is named. When you got to the top, we could see Chicago. It was also a great calves workout!

Pippin stayed at the kennel. He probably had more fun than we did. We saw a cute beagle-basset hound mix that is up for adoption. We had been discussing getting a second dog, and we want this one. We applied!

Click here to see Carrie and Matt's online photos of the weekend.