April Catch Up

Sometimes the blog has to take a back seat to life.  This month, that is what happened.  Life got in the way and you know what, I'm okay with it.

We started April with a trip to California to visit some of our dearest friends, Herman, Traci and their little one, Emilia.  Well, I guess she's not so little any more.  In fact, she was such a big girl by being super helpful leading Ruby around and playing with her.  Traci got some great pics of the two of them.

And some of Ruby on her own.  She just loved running through their house and trying out all the new things she could get her hands on.  Here she is wearing one of Emilia's hats and carrying an old calculator.

Hamming it up for the camera!

Trying out the motorcycle that Traci had made for Emilia a little while back.  It's pretty cool, especially considering that it's made out of cardboard!

The dads and their girls....one of these days we'll get Ruby to take her thumb out of her mouth for a group photo.

Ruby really bonded with Herman.  She was kind of enamored with him.  I think it's mostly because he gave her food.

Of course, Traci and I are barely in any photos of that trip since we are the ones usually taking the pics. I tried to snap one of the two of us when we went out shopping to a really nice shopping area.  Unfortunately, my short arms made our self portrait look like we were posing in front of a Honda.  Lame!

Anyway, it was a great, albeit short, visit.  I get to go back in July and I'm already super excited about it.

So, other happenings this month....

well, we got to attend the baptism of this sweetie.  Valentina may have cried the whole time, but it was still a lovely event.

I hosted an event at work called a "kitten shower."  It's basically like a baby shower, but for kittens.  We do this event to generate donations (like kitten formula, food, toys, etc) and get more people interested in fostering kittens.  In the spring and summer, most animal shelters are inundated with hundreds of kittens, most of which are too young to be adopted.  So, I arrange for them to be in foster homes until they are ready for spay/neuter surgery and then adoption.  Anyway, the event went pretty well, although the turn-out was not as large as I had hoped.  I made a bunch of cat cookies as favors for people attending. 

Another fun project was making this kitten banner as a decoration.

Here I am, talking about the foster program.  And no, that's not a real cat on the table.  That was our model kitten to demonstrate bottle feeding and vaccinating kittens.

Since the weather's been pretty awesome lately, we've been spending a lot of time outside, going on walks, working on the yard, or just hanging out on the lawn with the dogs.  Ruby loves being outside and usually throws a fit when we tell her it's time to go in.

So, that's pretty much the news here!  I think we are all caught up now.  Sorry for the break, but we're not going anywhere....just taking in a little more of life lately.

Happy Easter!

Easter is always a special holiday for our family and this year was no different.  We were blessed with a  bright, clear sunny sky and unseasonably warm weather.  Our day was full of events, beginning with church, lunch with good friends, visiting neighbors, and chatting with family far away.

Since Ruby was just a tiny thing last year at this time, it was fun to see her explore and learn about some Easter traditions, like discovering an Easter basket.

We had lunch with dear friends and they even provided Ruby the chance to hunt for Easter eggs.  It took her awhile to get the concept down.  She immediately picked up two eggs but didn't want to let go of those in order to get more.  We had a bag for her to put her eggs in but she didn't really understand until Noa demonstrated.  Then she was all over it!  

Ruby found this green, frog-shaped egg and decided that it was the best one.  After that, she had to hang on to that egg.  Any other egg seemed dispensable, but that egg was the special one and she didn't want to let go.

And finally, here's our little family on Easter day 2013:

Okay, truth be told, we had some outtakes, including the moment right after Ruby slapped me (not intentionally) and threw a mean tantrum - gotta love our life right now!  Ha!

Cake Plops

Franchi came over the other day and we attempted to try our hands at making cake pops.

They didn't turn out as expected.

Let's just say that I'm going to stick to baking cookies.  On the bright side, the tasted delish!

Budding Artist

The weather is cold and gloomy today.  I'm not at work today, so I was looking for something new for Ruby to do.  Since we'll probably stay in, I thought that I'd pull out the crayons and take a crack at coloring.  In past weeks, she would color a little, but mostly drop the crayons on the floor or gnaw on them.

Today she decided to use them to color.

She was very focused while she made dots and lines.

She was entertained with this activity for at least a half hour.  

This is the face of extreme concentration: 

Her masterpiece.  This baby is going on the fridge.

Bound to Happen One of These Days

This is Annie.  She's one of the cats at the shelter I work at.  She's pretty new to the shelter.  Annie came to us from a local hoarding situation.

 

Today Annie and I had a little disagreement about whether she was to go in a crate or not.  

In the end, I won and she did go in the crate.

I did, however, have to go to the ER afterwards.

It's standard protocol at my job when an animal draws blood.  Annie beat up my hand pretty good and even though it looks tame in these photos, it hurt like heck and bled all over the place (I'm sure my co-workers appreciated that clean-up job).

In this photo, you can see the swelling of my right hand, especially on the end of my ring finger (that's where the bite occurred).

I ended up getting x-rays (in case there were teeth fragments in the wounds) and antibiotics through an IV.  Thankfully, both Annie and I were up-to-date on our shots.  It was treated pretty aggressively since the ER had recently seen several infected cat bites.  My hand is now all bandaged up and put in a brace so that I'd have limited mobility of the hand (that's been difficult with Rubes around).  I'm also on a course of antibiotics and painkillers.  On the plus side, I got to see Noa during the work day and show my friend and co-worker, Laura, around the Naval Hospital.

I might have won the argument in the end, but I'm sure Annie was pleased with herself afterwards.*



Edited to add: I didn't realize how swollen my hand was until I took off the brace that evening.  Look at the difference!

* In case you are wondering, I don't blame Annie or myself for what happened.  It's just one of those things that happens when working with live animals.  Most of our employees that work directly with the animals get bit or scratched at some point.  Annie is now in quarantine in a foster home and she'll work on her social skills while there.

Mischief

No bag is safe with Ruby around.

Leavenworth Weekend

Our little family took a weekend off to travel to Leavenworth, WA.  This little Bavarian-themed town is nestled along Steven's Pass, just a few hours west of Seattle.  We took the ferry on the way.  Ruby loved walking around, smiling at people, and looking out at the water and boats pass by.

It was a beautiful drive through the mountains, especially because the mountains had snow.  It was plowed so high along highway 2 - the snowbanks were probably 9 or 10 feet high at some points!

Leavenworth kinda sneaks up on you.  While driving, it's all mountains and a few buildings here and there, and then all of the sudden, we found ourselves in a tiny little town with a "Welkommen" sign.  It looked like we had just driven onto a postcard. The downtown was so cute!

On our first night, we decided to dine German-style.  We went to a restaurant called Andreas Keller Restaurant.  It was like walking into a "real" German restaurant. 

The food was fun!  We went traditional and went with the schnitzel, potato salad....

...and beer, of course.  Prost!

We also loved the live accordion music.  Ruby was fascinated.

The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast while listening to the alphorn.

We spent much of the morning walking around and exploring the local shops.  Truth be told, Ruby enjoyed the walking or running around the best.

The shops provided some amusement for her, like the toy shop with the small piano.  Ruby had just taken off her hat and had some crazy hat hair, which made her look like some famous musician of old.

Check out our budding Mozart.

Nutcrackers, from the Nutcracker Store:

Lunch comprised of sausages and beer....again.  We were fortunate to have a warm enough weekend to eat outside.   

After lunch and an afternoon nap for Ruby, we headed out to walk one of the trails along the river, with a pretzel snack on the way.

We were lucky to still see a little snow....

...which made the views so beautiful.

But, this was my favorite view:

We attempted to take a family portrait.  It took a few tries:

Can't wait for the next little Hammer family getaway!