Stars & Stripes!

Our Fourth of July celebration started Saturday, June 29th.  Lila was asked by Hilltop Ranch, where she is taking riding lessons, to ride Bud in the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival Parade!  Can you imagine her excitement?!  The weather outlook wasn't great for Saturday morning, but the parade was going to go rain or shine! 

We got downtown around 9:00, the folks from Hilltop were busy getting the carriage and other horses ready for the parade.  We sat patiently and watched as they got the horses out of the trailers, saddled all of them up, decorated the carriage with red, white & blue, all while wishing the pesky rain away!

 

Rain, Rain Go Away!

 

 

Bud waiting patiently

 

 

At 9:30 it was time to stage everyone for the parade, so up she went on Bud and her and Mike took off to go wait in line, their number in the parade order was 65, so I wandered off to find a spot to watch as they came through the downtown streets!

 



Lila all saddled up and ready to go!

 

 The rain eventually let up and the parade was in full swing.  We waited patiently for Lila and the Hilltop Ranch horses to make their way to where we were.  As they got closer you could see the excitement pouring out of her while she rode confidently!  While she was a bit shy at first, according to Mike, it didn't take long for her to warm right up to waving at all the spectators! 

 

 

Here comes Hilltop Ranch!



Spotting us in the crowd!

 

Parade Pro!

 

 

Mike said that he heard so many people make comments about how little she was riding that big horse and a lot of people say to their kids, "look, you could do that, too!"  It was really awesome to see her enjoying herself so much.  We are so grateful that Hilltop Ranch thought of her and asked her to be a part of the parade!

On Wednesday, July 3rd we packed up the family roadster, including the dogs, and headed towards Guttenberg for the remainder of the week.  We were pretty excited to get some time away, but I must admit, while packing the car with everything we needed, plus the three of us and the two dogs...I wasn't quite so sure we were going to make it!!!  It seemed like A LOT!  We weren't planning on taking the dogs with us, but due to lack of space at the kennel, they were loaded up and coming with us!  Once we finally got on the road it was smooth sailing!

With the dogs riding in the back everything else had to go in the backseat!



Welcome to G'berg!

 

We finally pulled into town around 4:00 on Wednesday!  Every time we start to get close to Guttenberg and you see the river as you top the hill, I get a twinge of excitement!  This place has been a part of my family for 3 generations and I don't know life without spending my summers there, so it is such a great feeling to know that as a family we are carrying on this tradition for Lila!

 

Thursday was the 4th of July!  We woke up to a beautiful morning and enjoyed sitting under the covered porch, even Tag thought it was a nice way to wake up!

 



Good morning!

 

I was a bit disappointed to learn that the fireworks were shot off the previous weekend, it is always fun to watch the fireworks while sitting on the river, but it would be no such luck this year.  It was okay, we had a full day of boating, trampoline jumping, and spending time with extended family ahead of us!

 

 

A morning jump!

 

 

Little firecracker!

 



Two ol' boys relaxing!

 

 The river is really high and has a pretty strong current due to all of the rain we have had this Spring & Summer, the boat traffic was rather light considering it was the holiday weekend.  We took advantage of the quieter back waters and got some tubing done!

 



Mississippi River Rats!



Tubing with the girls!



Hold on!



Tubing with Daddy!



Borrowing Mommy's sunglasses!

After we came off the water we headed to my Grandma's cabin to have dinner with our extended family who were all up to celebrate the Fourth, too! 




Happy 4th of July!



Swinging!



Goofing around with Grandma!

Once we were done eating and hanging out we headed back to the cabin where we enjoyed a homemade fireworks display.  The airstrip is right at the end of the driveway, many cabins around the airstrip had the same idea, so we were pretty spoiled with all of the firework activity going on!

With all the fun and sun, we had a very tired little girl and two very tired puppies!  Lila was sleeping on a little cot by our bed and Tag was happy to snuggle up right next to her to get some shut-eye!

Tuckered out!

 

 The weekend following the Fourth is generally dubbed, "Riverfest!"  Historically Friday is designated for family, we have family come in from all over the US and even had cousins come home from China to visit and make Riverfest part of their trip!  We spent another day on the water and then made our way back in to welcome family at the cabin that evening.  We had great food, live music, and great company!

 

 



Fun in the sun!



Loving the weather!



Tubing w/ Uncle Jason

Tubing pro's at this point!

Ruby's planting a few plants before the party!



Family night!



Audra & Lila



This bed isn't big enough for the two of us!

On Saturday we woke up and headed into town to Esser's, a clothing shop where you can screen print a custom t-shirt.  The girls were super excited to get their own Mississippi River/Guttenberg t-shirt!  After we made our shirts it was back to the cabin to get ready to welcome family and friends back to the cabin for Riverfest!  Once again, we had beautiful weather, great live music, good company, and Sam's Steamed Caboose Burgers catered the event, it was delicious!



Yum!



Dylan & Lila



Henley & Lila

We packed up the car and headed home on Saturday evening to allow us to have the day on Sunday to recoup from being gone.  We had a tired household on Sunday with a little girl who was exhausted and two dogs that barely got up all day!  We enjoyed spending time with our family and friends and carrying on the tradition of summers on the River!




 



Growing up on the River!

Second Act!

Lila is a born performer with a huge imagination!  She is always dressing up, singing, dancing, playing her guitar, playing make believe, and the list goes on!  So, last summer we were told that a local dance company had a great session for 3 year olds called Tinies, we figured it was a shoe-in for our girl considering her mantra really should be, "life's a stage!"

We ordered all the leotards, the tights, the ballet slippers, the tap shoes, and a cute skirt or two for good measure...we were ready to get our dance on!  Boy how wrong could we be?!  The first class she was shy, the second class she was even more shy, the third class she basically cried the whole time, which left Mike and I asking what we were doing?!  She required one of us to be in the studio with her the whole time and even with us there, she wouldn't really move from our side, so as the classes ticked away with very little participation on her part, we decided to talk to her teacher and ultimately made the decision to be done for the summer and try again next year! 

Her teacher, Charlie, was so good to us and shared that many kids are very shy the first time, especially if they haven't done preschool yet, so he was confident that we would see a completely different girl if we just waited until the next summer.  The time came for us to register for class again this summer and Lila was super excited!  Both excited to get back to dance, but even more excited because her good friend Henley would be joining her this summer!!!

Once again we ordered the leotards, tights, a few skirts, ballet shoes, and tap shoes in hopes that she would be more excited about dance this time around! 



Summer 2012 Dancer and Summer 2013 Dancer - what a difference!

We got to class and it was the big moment where we shipped her off into the studio while we watched from the windows out in the hallway.  Confidently she trotted right into the room and sat in the circle.  It wasn't until they stood up and had to spread out that she was a bit unsure, but one of the assistants grabbed her hand and lead her to a spot and the rest was history...she loved it!!!


 

Getting to know Charlie & the other dancers!



Tap shoes on!  Making soup!

 

Lila and Henley enjoying themselves!


 

Little ballerinas!



This is more like it!



On their tippy toes!



Ending class with some tumbling!

As close as Mike and I are to our friends, it is moments like this where I am so thankful that we have kids the same age!  Watching Lila and Henley together in class is so fun and I know as the parents our hearts burst with pride, not only because they are so brave to try something new, but that they are making everlasting memories together from such a young age!  Who knows if either of them will end up dancing well into their lives?!  Either way, they are having a whole lot of fun doing it now!

The Long Way Home...

I am going to first introduce you to the newest member of the Eddins family...

Now that you have met our new dog, Tag, I am going to back up and tell you the story of how he came to be a part of our family! 

As you know, we lost our beloved Baxter in April.  Losing him was one of the hardest things in our lives thus far.  Both Mike and I still shed tears over the loss and we all, including Lila, often talk about how much we miss Baxter.  The one family member that isn't able to verbalize how much she is missing her brother is Luca.  I must say, she has really done a remarkable job adjusting, but we could tell that things just weren't the same.  You could especially notice that she missed her brother when we would return from being gone.  She would meet you at the door in an almost panicked manner, greeting you as if she thought you might never return home for her.  It flat out makes you feel terrible every time you walk out the door knowing that she is anxious until you return home.

We talked very little about another dog right after we lost Baxter.  What we did say was, if Luca seemed to act like she wasn't handling the absence well, we would consider it, but we weren't interested in running out and getting another dog immediately, it felt as if it was too soon.  Those that know us well know that our dogs aren't just "pets," they are truly family members, so with that being said, we wanted to be very careful that we also didn't get another dog to replace Baxter.  There isn't a way to replace him, he was a one of a kind dog, one that we will always talk about, always remember. 

As the days turned into weeks and we observed Luca and her behavior the discussions about another dog started to happen more often.  We loosely started looking at adopting and stumbled across a handful of dogs that we were interested in.  After a few adoption applications submitted and for one reason or another, no dog, we decided to just chill out and take it as a sign that we weren't ready for another dog just yet.  It wasn't until I got a text message from my dear friend Racquel about her Dad's dog in Texas, did we start talking seriously about another dog.

Racquel sent a text message with a few pictures attached encouraging us to look into this breed of dog as she was absolutely smitten with how good he was, both with the family, but with her little girl, too.  I asked her what type of dog he was and she responded, "a Black Mouth Cur," to which I quickly thought her autocorrect on her phone must have messed up whatever it was that she was trying to type!  But, nope, she was right, I Googled it, and this dog was indeed a Black Mouth Cur.



Racquel & Tag - our first introduction to Tag

 

Sloan & Tag

Racquel told us all about how sweet her Dad's dog was, so immediately, I was intrigued.  We went straight to the internet and searched and searched.  We wanted to learn as much as we could about the breed, trying to understand if this is what the breed is really about or if Quel's Dad just has the exception to the rule?!  We loosely joked about Quel bringing the dog home to us, but it wasn't an option...so we did the next best thing, we found someone with puppies!  Within a week of learning about the breed, we placed a down payment for a puppy that was to be born in early June.  So, according to that we would have a puppy early-mid August!  We were pretty darn excited!  I would be lying if I didn't share that there was that nagging at my guts that a) I am a volunteer for a local humane society, how would it look if we didn't adopt a dog and b) do I really, really, really want to do potty training again and potential chewing on furniture, etc?!  However, all the other indicators said that this is what we should do, so I was willing to go with it!

We quickly started making plans with the breeder to pick up the puppy.  It was going to work out rather nicely, Mike has a break in late August between summer classes and the fall semester, so he would fly to Mississippi, one-way, pick up the dog, and rent a car to drive back to Cedar Rapids.  Did I just say Mississippi?!  Yes, I did.  As ridiculous as it may seem, the breed is only found in the south, I am not really all that sure why, but it is the case, so we were going to have to travel to Mississippi to pick the puppy up.  Which again, I shared with you that our animals aren't just our pet, so it didn't seem like that big of a deal to travel to get the animal that we really wanted.  Now it was just sit and wait!  The puppies were to be born in early June, predicted sometime around the 3rd, but no guarantees on the exact date. 

On the 7th, I get a call from my girlfriend Racquel and she opens up the conversation like this, "I have something to tell you, but I am rather sure you will be frustrated," (or something like that).  She preceded to tell me that her Dad is looking to prepare for retirement which ultimately meant that they needed to sell their acreage in Texas.  They were fortunate enough to sell their property quickly and found a home that they really like and as they started to think about preparations for their move, they quickly realized that it wasn't best if they took both of their dogs.  So...she was calling to ask if we would be interested in taking Tag.  As I was sitting on the phone with her all of that apprehension I had about getting a puppy melted away.  I didn't want to speak for Mike and I, but I was rather convinced that the minute I called him and shared the news with him, we would be making plans to bring Tag home.  I was right, that is exactly what happened, we began making plans to bring Tag from Texas to Iowa.

It just so happened to work out that Mike could leave the following Thursday after class and be to Russ & Cathy's by mid-day on Friday.  So, we booked him a hotel in Joplin, MO and off he went to retrieve our new family member!  It was a long drive back and forth, but Mike got to Whitesboro, picked Tag up and then traveled to Oklahoma to stay with my Mom and Terry to help break up the trip a little -- and have some human interaction, it can be a tad boring driving like that by yourself!  While Mike was traveling, Lila and I were busy at home preparing for their arrival! 


Snuggling in his bed at Grammy & Terry's

Testing out the dog beds @ PetSmart

Mike & Tag pulled into town at about 5:00 on Saturday evening.  We were very sensitive to the fact that this is Luca's home and we wanted to be sure she didn't feel threatened in anyway, so we had Tag meet Luca in the backyard to start.  They did the traditional sniff down and the rest is really history!  They got along famously and have done a wonderful job of adjusting to each other, we couldn't be happier with the way the two are getting along.

"Why, hello there!"

Hi, I'm Tag!

Curious little girl!



Hanging out together!

Tuckered out meeting my his family -- it was a big day!

And then there is that darling little girl of ours, who loved her Baxter so dearly, well, it is safe to say that Tag has wiggled his way right into her little heart, too! 

Lila & Tag

We are beyond grateful to Russ & Cathy for asking us if we would be willing to adopt Tag.  The way he has slid right into our family is almost uncanny.  He is a perfect fit!

While we are still mourning the loss of Baxter, we have opened our hearts wide open for another sweet soul to climb right in and stay forever!  Welcome home, Tag!

The End or Just the Beginning?!

You may remember a few posts about Lila going off to preschool.  First there was the post about picking the best option for her and our family - click here.  And then there was the post about her actually taking that huge first step and becoming a preschooler - click here.  It honestly feels like I just sat down and wrote both of those posts...however, I am here documenting her last day of her first year of preschool.  Talk about time flying!!!!

 

August 2012 - May 2013

 

To say we are happy with her preschool is an understatement.  There have been so many moments in her short life that I have worried, but I can't tell you how blessed I (we) feel that in the case of her in-home daycare and, now, her preschool/childcare, we are beyond comfortable with the care that Lila is receiving when we aren't with her during the day. 

 

Every time we get an invitation to attend an event at All Saints I get a twinge of excitement.  They are so good about involving the parents and the other neat things is...the parents are so happily involved!  Today was no exception as we all gathered to watch our little ones receive their preschool certificates for their completed year! 

 

Welcome to the Blue Room!

 

We walked into the room where the kiddos were all lined up ready to welcome us and sing us a song about how wonderful All Saints Preschool is! 

 



Happy to see her Mom & Dad!

Before the song, Mrs. O'Connell said a few words...thanking us parents for giving them the gift of teaching our children.  While that sounds like what every preschool teacher should say to the parents of the children, it was sincere, it was even said through some tears. 

Proud girl!

Our performer!

Click Here to see their cute song!

 

After they sang their song the kids were invited to sit on the rug while each one was called up to the front of the room.  The teachers had asked the kids a few questions: 1) What was your favorite thing about preschool?  2) What are you going to miss?  3) What are you going to do this summer.  They read each of the children's answers and then presented them with a brand new book and a certificate stating they had completed a successful year of preschool!  Finishing up with each kid getting a hug from both of their teachers!

 



Waiting patiently to hear her name!

Finally it was Lila's turn!  She trotted right up to the front of the room while Mrs. O'Connell read the answers to her questions.  Lila's favorite thing about preschool was playing with play-doh and making cupcakes!  She is going to miss playing with her friends the most!  And this summer she is going to play with Connie!

A hug for Mrs. Rosencrants

A hug for Mrs. O'Connell

 

 

Our preschooler with her amazing teachers!

Mike and I both left the school today with our hearts bursting with pride!  What a fantastic day!  We couldn't have been more proud of our little girl and all she has accomplished during her first year of "school!"  As you can tell from the picture at the very beginning of this post, she has grown up a lot since August of last year.  Beyond the physical growth, and just as importantly, she has also grown emotionally and mentally and it has been so much fun to watch!

As parents, it is bittersweet for our children to spread their wings!  There is the anxiety that riddled us as we anticipated her first days and weeks at a new school, yet there is the pride that swelled in us today, and many days during her first year, as we watch her become more and more independent!

Celebrating a very special day!

\

Giddy Up!

You may recall that for Lila's birthday we got her horseback riding lessons.  We live less than a mile away from Hilltop Ranch and they do riding lessons starting at four years of age.  Lila has always loved horses and enjoyed pony rides when given the chance, so we thought this would be something fun for her to do.  Today marked her very first lesson and she was super excited for this day to come!  We pulled into the ranch and met Cindy, the owner, she got us started on our paperwork and got Lila engaged right away, encouraging her to come with her to get everything ready for the lesson. 

 

Meet Bud...

Hi, Bud!

 

Bud was Lila's horse today!  They started her out very slow.  She got to help brush him all down, pet him, and just familiarize herself with him.  She picked out the saddle, picked out her helmet and then it was time to climb on!

 



 

 

 

Carrie, Cindy's daughter, is actually the one who gives the lessons.  Lila warmed up to her very quickly, but wasn't all that sure what to think once she was high up there in that saddle.  She was a bit nervous and we had a few tears, but was quickly calmed when Dad said he would walk around the ring a few times.

 



 

Are you sure about this?!

 

 

Daddy walking alongside his little (cow)girl!

I am not sure Mike even got around the ring more than once and she was cool as a cucumber.  It was pretty awesome to see her get so confident so quickly!  Both Mike and I commented that she looked so big up there on the horse, she was relaxed, smiling, and chatting up Carrie!

Thanks for your help Dad, but I can take it from here!

They spent time in the barn talking about how to get a horse to go and how to get a horse to stop, so Lila would say, "Woah!" and Carrie would help her get Bud to stop.  It was very cute.  They did quite a few laps and then she had Bud go over a little bridge and they decided that it would be fun to ride outside and enjoy some of the beautiful weather we are having.

 

Off they go!



Meeting some of the other horses!

More horses to meet

Enjoying herself!

Happy girl!

 

We were both unbelievably proud of Lila today.  She can be a bit fearful in new situations, but she quickly put her fears aside and embraced the opportunity and had a fantastic time!  She was relaxed and confident and is so excited to go back next week to spend some more time with Bud!  Who knows if this will be a forever thing, but I can't say I would complain if we needed to live somewhere with a little bit of land to accommodate a horse!