Spring Break & The Reunion

We're finally back and settled in a bit after a sorely needed and fully enjoyed break from our daily routines.  We're lucky to have family in Florida who are gracious enough to host us during the peak season and we all really enjoy our visits there.

Tim got lots of time with Grandma & Grandpa and I seem to recall more than one giant ice cream cone.

And, thanks to Grandma, Tim got to meet the easter bunny by the pool!

Grandma & Grandpa also arranged for a little private egg hunt in their yard and Tim discovered the thrill of the hunt (and the joy of the jelly beans!)

At the end of our trip we were able to squeeze one day in at Disney's Blizzard Beach.

If you've not been there, I strongly recommend it.  Tim absolutely loves it and comes home absolutely worn out.  Plus, being a Disney park, it's very clean, very safe, and very, very family friendly.

This year Tim was big enough to ride some of the bigger water slides and took his Dad for several trips down the runaway rapids.

Of course, what's a trip to Disney without a million dollar popsicle!

Oh, and did I mention the countless photo opportunities they have at Disney?  I had a heyday with my new camera!

We made one quick visit to the HUMONGOUS Lego store at Downtown Disney and visited the Lego Dogs.  Tim promptly renamed them Charlie - each one of them.

  

Our break wasn't all about travel experiences.  Look what happened on the last day of our break:

All these wonderful fun things aside, the most heartwarming had to be the reunion between Tim and Charlie.   Our flight left Florida at the unGodly hour of 6:55 am which meant leaving our hotel room at about 5:00 am.  Throughout the 6 hour flight Tim constantly talked about picking up Charlie so when we landed at SFO by 9:30 am, I dialed up Wendy the Trainer (and part-time dog hotelier ... can't ask for a better place to send your mutt than to Camp Wendy ... still not entirely sure that Charlie wanted to come home!) and we arranged for the collection of our beloved Chuck.

The reunion was sugary, syrupy sweet!  Both Tim and Charlie seemed to be running in circles around each other and all sorts of noises were emanating from each of them.  When we loaded into the car with Charlie in the "way back" and Tim in the back, Tim kept calling to Charlie and throwing his arms over the seat reaching for his pal.  When we finally got home, all suffering the effects of full blown jet lag, Tim and Charlie curled up together on the floor and just snuggled for a while.  It's good to be home.

An Award & Missing Charlie

One of our most favorite bloggers has given us this lovely award!

It's called the Premio Dardos award.  Premio Dardos apprently means "prize darts" in Spanish and it is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. (Please ignore the fact that I basically plagiarized that description from Blog Dog's post!)  Being a relative newcomer to the blogosphere, I'm not even sure what it means to receive such an accolade but we're very grateful and send much love and thanks to our Irish BlogDog Friends!

In the meantime, we're preparing for our spring break trip to visit Tim's grandparents and that means Charlie is also heading out for a few days.  Fortunately, Wendy the Trainer also runs a dog sitting service and I couldn't be more comfortable with someone caring for the wonder dog.  

We've only left Charlie behind one other time and for that trip I was able to deliver Chuck to his care taker while Tim was in school.  Not today.  Today, after Charlie and I collected Tim from school we headed straight for Wendy's house to deliver Charlie and all his necessaries.

I wasn't sure how Tim was going to react to this scene.  We'd been talking about it for days but you just never know how things will unfold.  Tim knew Charlie wasn't going to go on our trip and he knew that he'd be staying with his friends Renegade, Zach and Jasper but when it came time to say goodbye, Tim lost it.  

Of course it's horrible to see your little boy so sad but in some ways I'm so, so thankful for his reaction.  He loves Charlie.  Really loves him.  And I love that he feels that way.  While I'm really looking forward to our visit with my in-laws and enjoying some family togetherness, I will also look forward to Tim's reunion with his best friend.  

Roller Derby

So this spring has been all about roller skating for Tim.  We've been skating just about every day after school, most days on the weekends, and sometimes we'll even go for a second skate in the evenings when Andy gets home from work. 

We've skated around the block, at local playgrounds, and at many of our favorite nature parks.   As a result, Tim has become a fairly accomplished skater.  In fact, he's confident enough now to skate unassisted (took a few weeks for this to happen) and we're finally able to have Charlie join us on our skate sessions.  (When Tim was really wobbly on his skates I simply couldn't handle Tim and Chuck at the same time.)

Of course the addition of Charlie to our outings pleases Tim (and Charlie) and the two of them seem equally thrilled when Tim zips around on wheels.

So, I should have been happy with things the way they were, right?  Here comes bad mommy again.  I don't know what would have possessed me to allow Tim and Charlie to have their own little Iditarod there at the park.  We all know how this is going to end, right?

Fortunately, no bones were broken and nothing was scraped (thank goodness for pads!)  But even more important was the fact that Tim didn't hold it against Charlie in the slightest (or Charlie against Tim) and they continue to be the best of skating partners.