Happy Birthday Puppy Dog!

Happy Groundhogs Day!  I am always hopeful for less winter, but alas this year it appears that I will not get my wish.  Every winter I ask myself, "Why oh why did we ever move from Hawaii?"  I of course loved the snow when I was a child, but now that I am an adult I think, "If I move back to Hawaii, I could always visit snow somewhere.  It will always be winter somewhere."  I definitely could live without snow and go back to flowers blooming year round, daily rainbows, and Christmas at the beach.   Oh well, I have to take the path that God gave me and be grateful.  I'll send you pictures of the 2nd big storm that we expect to see next weekend.  
At least my 13 year old Hawaiian dog likes the snow, no make that,  LOVES the snow.  For a dog born in Hawaii, I am always so surprised by how much she loves the snow.  She gets snow, snow, and more snow surrounding her birthday this year.  She was born on Groundhogs day and while I did not know her until she was 5 weeks old, I always try to remember my sweet dogs birthday with a bone and a nice meal.  As she gets older I realize that there will not be as many to celebrate, but as long as she acts like a puppy a little bit, I am hopeful for a few more years.  So Happy Birthday dear sweet puppy dog, I hope that when I'm 91 (her dog years), I look and act as healthy and happy as you!

Navy Lacrosse Hero

Luckily for the kids their lacrosse practices were canceled Saturday and we were able to go to a USNA Lacrosse "Meet the Mids" event.  We had been last summer to the "Meet the Mids" event with the football players and the kids enjoyed it very much.  Due to the late notice of the canceled practices, we did not make it to see the game, but arrived while the parking lot was emptying out.  Great for me since I got a parking spot 3 places from the entrance!!  Since we were late & the line was long, I let the kids get some USNA lacrosse T-shirts and browse the shop while we waited for the line to shorten.   This of course meant that we were literally at the end of the line.  This lasted about 15 minutes until two more families showed up.  

While in line ,  I let the kids play within eyesight while I waited  and chatted with the person in front of me.  His daughter ran and played with my brood and we talked about Hawaii, USNA, and submarines.  He was stationed in Pearl Harbor the same time we were.  I was grateful to have someone to talk to.  It made the 45 minute wait go by a lot faster.  

Once we got to meet the midshipmen, I was very glad that I had gone.  Christopher is a huge fan of #14 Tim Paul's and was anxious to meet him.   The event is set up into a receiving line with tables for the mids to sit and sign their autographs.  Since we got to meet all the mids, Christopher had to wait until almost the end to meet Tim.  In the meantime he was carrying his goalie stick and all the goalies were so nice to him and chatted about being a goalie, what team he played on and other lacrosse topics.  The Plebe goalie RJ Wickham was very friendly and spoke with Christopher for several minutes.  I was personally very impressed with the team; they had lost the game, we were 3rd from last in line, and it was cold, yet the players were friendly and courteous to all the kids.  Elizabeth enjoyed talking with the players since she plays lacrosse and has something to chat about.  When Christopher finally reached Tim Paul, he was very excited and I must say that Tim was very kind and generous with his time.  It made the event so worthwhile to let my child meet his lacrosse hero and have his hero be a real gentleman to him.  The simple acts of kindness from all of the players meant a lot to my children.  I am grateful to have had a great day filled with memories for my kids.

  

Here's a photo with his new shirt signed by all the players.  Here's Rolo ready to play as well.