Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my father-in-law, Pedro! Last night we celebrated with his favorite, chocolate cake. 

Make a wish!

My brother-in-law, Adrian.

One of my favorite things! Pedro's espresso! YUM!

This morning it's Thanksgiving! Yay! We woke up well rested, turned on the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade, and had some coffee. I love family and holidays! 

Emma loves her uncle Adrian

Miguel and I took Emma and Scottie out to play.  Emma did HUGE puppy circles. I'm thankful Miguel's parent's house is not on a busy street!

Emma is that tiny dot in the distance

Poor Scottie has to stay in the front yard while Emma does circles around him, rubbing in the fact that she doesn't have an electric collar

Then I took some pictures of the landscape. I am loving the overcast, fall-like weather!

and check out the orchids that my mother-in-law grows!

Beautiful!

Family Ties

Yesterday Miguel and I met up with my family in downtown Duluth to take some family pictures. Miguel and I got there a little early so we goofed around a bit. 

They were setting up Christmas decorations! Yay!

So we took Emma to the park to kill some time. Emma conducted a train and went down the slides!

My sister and brother-in-law run a photography business the two sparrows. We are so lucky to have photographers in the family! I will post the pictures after they get back to Seattle and are done with the editing process.

When we returned home, Chester had gone to the store and picked out a bone. 

Emma quickly took advantage of Chester walking away for a moment and stole the bone. It was quite comical watching her try and move that thing around!

 This went on back and forth.

"But mommmm.... He STOLE my bone!"

 Eventually Chester tired of the bone and retreated to the couch where he was less likely to get picked on.

Scottie still found him though. These are Ken and Charlene, Miguel's Aunt and Uncle.

Vanessa! 

Tuesday Morning at the Amadors

So we made it to Atlanta safely last night. Emma did okay. She was seat belted in for about two hours before I couldn't stand her crying anymore. Then she spent the remaining five hours (yes, FIVE, we got stuck in horrible traffic) in the lap of Miguel, who, of course was driving.

We got to the Amadors around 11p.m. . Emma was happy to see Chester, Andy's dog, again. Chester was pleased to see Emma too, but wasn't in the mood to play. To try and distract Emma I gave her and Chester a rawhide. Emma finished hers in a matter of nano seconds and bounded back over to Chester to play.

Chester and his rawhide

 Chester, however, did not feel like playing, so retreated to a 'safe spot' between Juan and Miguel.

This morning Miguel and I slept in till 8:30! Miguel got up and took the dog out so I could continue to sleep a little bit. He is so sweet! No one else is up in the house yet. It's nice because then we fed Emma in peace. No other dogs trying to get to her food. It's rainy so exercise for the dog outside is out. So we've been playing with her in the house. She played keep-away with some of Scottie's toys. Miguel also got down on the ground and played with her. He's such a good puppy dad!

Look! Scottie has a duck toy too! Just like my favorite!

"Mom, why do you keep sticking this thing in my face?"

Even though we're on vacation, Miguel still has to work on grad school stuff... boo.

Emma likes to think she helps with his studies

But he takes breaks to play with Emma and the Amadors birds.

Rocky.... she's so mean. She only likes Teresa, Miguel's mom. Rocky fussed a lot while I was trying to get a picture of her!

Emma snuck in and found she likes to eat bird seed

Then she got put up and sadly wanted back in.

Hamlet is a little more friendly!

The rain let up a bit so I took Emma on a walk.

She got a new collar in an attempt to get her to stop pulling. The harness we had for her helped only a little... if she really wanted something she would pull so hard she would end up walking on her back two feet alone. This is called a Gentle Leader. 

Emma doesn't like it. She tries to take it off... unless she gets distracted. Like when she is actually walking. 

I love the weather outside this morning! It feels like fall to me! I'm getting really excited about the holiday now!

Fall weather!

Yay! Leaves on the ground!

The Amadors beautiful house!

Okay. Enough for this morning!