Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Homecoming

On Saturday, my nephew, M*, turned one year old.

I don't think I am biased at all when I say this is the cutest little kid in the whole damn world. See for yourself:


Those curls! Those cheeks! THOSE CHEEKS!!!!!!!

Thought it was a helluva lot of driving for one weekend, A. and I had a great time. It was really fun to see the little guy, to visit with my sister and her hubby for a bit. We played cards that night and just enjoyed giving each other a hard time.

I wish we lived closer to each other.

It was really hard to pull myself away from M.


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A new tradition has been born around Mason's birthday. The majority of our drive to see him is in the path of the huge spring migration of MILLIONS of snow geese and sandhill cranes. So freakin' cool. A. and I pulled over a few times to listen to the geese.

We've come to really look forward to the migration and witness something bigger than us and timeless. Amazing.

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We boarded the dogs over the weekend, as logistically that seemed the best thing to do this time around. The pups did great and I was very happy that was the case. (On a side note: Boy, is it hard not to get all excited when we are reunited with the dogs! I just want to swoop them up and hug them and coo and snuggle. But, A. and I do a good job of acting like this is Totally Normal and No Big Deal. It seems to be working; the dogs are adapting to being boarded pretty well, I think.)

As we were driving on the dirt road out to the house, the car hot and steamy with delirious dog breath, we saw the first Mountain Bluebird flit in front of the car. The year's first sighting! Hallelujah! (Apparently, this little guy brought with him 60-degree weather. Good job, little one!)

Both A. and I gasped and pointed at the same time. I exclaimed, perhaps just a TAD melodramatically, "We just saw our first Mountain Bluebird as a family!!"

A. rolled his eyes and sighed. Then said, with all sincerity, "What a wonderful homecoming."

8 comments:

  1. We are planning to board our dog when we are out of town, too. I think it's better for them--not alone all day, social interaction with other dogs, etc. And since ours will likely come from a prison training program she should already be used to the environment.

    P.S. I think you used M.'s real name one time. You might want to change that.

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  2. Thanks, Jess! Mason isn't really his name - I had been trying it on while writing the post...and was sloppy about it!

    I think introducing boarding to a dog early on in the routine is best. We still love to take our dogs with us whenever we can as they are AWESOME travelers and well-behaved, but sometimes it just doesn't work out.

    I can't wait for you to get a dog!

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  3. What a cutie!

    I've seen (experienced?) the spring migration along the Platte once, and I will never get over it. It's AMAZING how many birds there are. It made me think that even though we've fucked things up a LOT, there's still a lot out there that we haven't wrecked. You know, yet.

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  4. Wow, he IS cute. I'll say he's the cutest little boy I think I've seen yet.

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  5. Happy Birthday to a cutie!

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  6. ZOMG, what a GORGEOUS baby! GAH!

    I always feel bad about boarding the dogs, even though they always LOVE IT.

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  7. He is a very cute little guy. I love that he has that giant cake in front of him!

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  8. OMG CHEEKS AND CURRRLLLLSS *dies*

    i want bluebirds and 60 degree weather..!

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