Ooops!!!

How is it that 3 months passes without my noticing that I haven't blogged recently??? Well....

I decided to build a family website. As usual this was one of my manic moments where I thought a) it would be easy, b) I thought I would want to update it all the time, and c) I thought anyone actually cared if we had a family website!!! So, here we are several months later and the website still isn't finished, and I'm starting to think about deleting it back to a single page which is far more manageable than 5.

So my apologies (to those of you that actually read this periodically) that I have not kept you updated on the goings on of our family of 5.

My last update told you all about the boys' birthdays. Since then, Snoopy has returned to training. He's in his second session of level one obedience for agility. He turned a corner last night and really showed progress (finally!) He's starting to actually pay attention when heeling. He does much better than his older brother in sit stay and down stay. And he LOVES agility. He goes through the tunnels and over the A-frames. He LOVES to jump and jump and jump. We haven't started the teeter yet, but like with Joe, I'm sure it will present a challenge. Snoopy has two more sessions before summer break.

Joe is in his second session of int/adv obedience & rally. Joe has now been in training since December. He's made such progress. He heels beautifully (when Snoopy isn't around) and can do a lovely sit stay. Yet somewhere down the line we missed the part about down meaning stay down. No matter how hard I try, the minute I turn his back, little springboard boy is back in a sit. That will be our summer project.

The very exciting news is that Joe earned his first title on Saturday. He is now On the Lamb Ranch Little Joe, CGC. The CGC stands for Canine Good Citizen. He passed 10 tests showing that he is a good dog on leash, does not jump on strangers or me, and he can stay on leash without me for at least 3 minutes. He was not his usual self during testing. We think the crowds, noise, and distractions rattled him a bit, but our evaluator (who is also his trainer) gave us a little grace, and he passed. We now have to move on to either formal obedience (working on his Companion Dog title) agility (novice agility title) or rally (novice rally title) in the fall. My guess is that we'll start on Rally and go from there.

Snoopy will test for his CGC in the fall.

Kyle has one short day of grade school left tomorrow. He's no longer a grade schooler, he'll be officially a junior high boy! It feels very strange to say goodbye to the place he's been since Kindergarten (seven years of driving, seven years of volunteering...) I'll miss everyone there. Edu-Prize was a wonderful experience for us. Such a great staff and parents and kids.

He'll be attending Greenfield Junior High here in Gilbert in the fall. Greenfield is 1.2 miles from our house, so for the first time, Kyle will be able to walk or ride his bike to school. He's very excited about it. Last month we visited the campus and registered for classes. Also, for the first time in 3 years, he'll be attending school all day. That will be a big adjustment for him (the last 3 years at Edu-Prize he's been in an alternative schedule program that had him attending school from 7:30am-12:30pm every day - no lunch, no recess.) Going to school from 8-3 is going to be strange for him, but they have a great cafeteria with lots of food choices. Plus, he'll get to have PE every day - and the school has a pool! They also have a club golf team, chess team and other athletics he can try out for.

Summer officially starts tomorrow for us when Kyle gets out of school. We only have one vacation planned, but maybe will take some short trips if time (and dogs) allow. Next Weds we'll head down to Tucson to stay at Loew's Ventana Canyon resort. Kyle is bringing his friend Kyle. They'll be attending skateboard camp every morning. Ron will be playing golf. And me, I'll be relaxing. It's only a 4 day trip, but it's a trip. We will enjoy the time away. Although Loew's will let us bring the dogs, Nana & Pa have offered to stay here and dog sit. That should be a story in itself!

Right now it's a cool 105 degrees outside. That's on our patio in the shade. I hope wherever you are, you're cooler than we are!

Happy summer!