Wow, seems like a lot of pictures have been taken, fun things have happened, etc. since I've posted! So in no particular order, here are a few shots I'd like to share.
On President's Day, we took a nice day trip over to Leavenworth, Washington. It's about a 2 hour drive from our house, so we went there and back in one day. The town of Leavenworth is modeled after a Bavarian village, it's so quaint and has cute shops and restaurants - easy to fill an afternoon walking around. The snow was lightly falling which made it even more special - the kids had a great time! I am such a bad photographer in that I never remember to take pictures by picturesque spots... so all of my photos are of us when we're sitting somewhere and the thought finally occurs to me. Oh well. Here we are at lunch and at our coffee stop at Starbucks.
We had a sunny week (rare for Seattle in February) so we hit the park a couple of times. Jack attempted and succeeded at his first trip down the "big slide"!
Today, I took some shots of Brooke because she was so cute. She kept repeating a line from the Horton Hears a Who movie (which we watch several times a week in our house) and it was making her crack up. I wanted to capture her natural smile while she was laughing so hard. Usually I get her fake smile when I get out the camera!
Jack will most certainly kill me for posting this picture someday, but he is so darn cute I can't resist. Note: No actual "work" was accomplished (or has ever been accomplished by Jack) on the potty, but he likes to be like his big sister and try now and then. How cute is he with his truck book on the pot?
Last but not least, our other boy, Leo, spent a few hours at the vet being sedated and X-rayed yesterday (cha-ching!) because he's been limping and we need to find out why. I had done some research and was afraid it was hip dysplasia. Since he's a purebred lab and this is somewhat common in labs, I got very nervous about it. The vet agreed that he shows some signs so that is why they did the X-rays. Fortunately, he does NOT have hip dysplasia, which is a huge relief - the surgery to correct it is rather gruesome involving cutting off the ball of the thigh bone and allowing scar tissue to form a new "joint" and the leg (or legs) being shorter and the dog limping forever. Ugh. And it costs $2-3,000 per leg so needless to say, we're all relieved he doesn't have bad hips. But we still don't know why he's limping. Our vet took X-rays of his knees and sent them to a radiologist for consultation and we'll hear back in a day or two. We now suspect it might be a foot problem. Poor Leo was one unhappy camper last night, he came home heavily sedated and he was groggy, didn't want his dinner, whimpered all evening... poor bud. Thank goodness he's back to his normal self today! I hope we find out that the limp is something not too serious. He's only one year old for heaven's sake! Too young to limp around.
And finally, under no particular heading, I've lost 17.6 lbs. since mid-January! I am so excited. Weight Watchers is magic. What's really great is that we're all eating better - tons of fresh fruits & veggies, less meat, more whole grains and dramatically less sugar and butter... it's so good. I've actually discovered that now when I eat something "off plan" (like the Thai takeout we had the other night) I really don't feel very well afterward. I'm thrilled to have recognized this fact because it makes me want to keep eating well (and feeling great). A few of my pants have been moved to the "donate" pile and I'm hoping to be solidly into the next size down pretty soon. Wish me luck, I have a lot more to lose!
