Category Archives: Family Life

Jonny was supposed to get his braces off on the 11th, but since they had a snow day today the dentist called and switched his appointment to today.  He was fitted for a set of invisible retainers and has to wear those for several more months, but you can only see them if you look real close.  He will have a nice handsome smile for all the pictures that will be taken around Christmas in the next week or two.

We got about 5-6″ inches of snow on Saturday and Zoey really likes the snow. She asks to go out all the time to play in it and eat it. She tries to catch the snow flakes as they are falling. She also enjoys running around with the kids as they throw snow balls at her. She’s brought a few snow balls back in the house and eats up them up quickly.

We got another several inches of snow this morning and it seems to have caught all the snow removal personnel off guard as driving in this morning was a lot worse than it should have been if they had any plows on the road. The kids started off with a two hour delay that turned into a cancellation of school.

They should be able to have some fun with Zoey out in the fresh snow again today. Maybe they can take her sledding this afternoon!

We ended up travelling to Michigan for Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving day at the Barkers and then Saturday with the Lukins side. It was the first long trip with Zoey and she traveled much better than expected for a five and a half hour trip. We had a nice visit and got to spend some time with family which was nice. Zoey got to meet all the dogs and family members for the first time and swim in the lake, even though it was very cold with ice on the shore. We got back on Sunday and Monday morning we all got right back into our routines of school and work.

Nikki and Jonny headed towards Cleveland Friday after school to attend the 19th annual Ohio Cichlids Extravaganza held in Strongsville, Ohio.  It is touted as the world’s largest cichlid event. The convention was held at the Holiday Inn and it was packed with fish breeders from all over, including Europe.  A couple of the speakers came in from Europe as well, one from Denmark and another from the Netherlands. 

Jonny bought several fish and they all made it home safe.  He was still excited when they got home Saturday late afternoon and immediately started to set up a new tank he purchased before the convention to take with him. Because he is a young man in the hobby with such in depth knowledge, people kept approaching Nikki and telling her how wonderful it is to have young people so knowledgeable in the hobby and thanking her for bringing him. 

They both enjoyed the speakers who educated their attendees about habitats, genetics, and history of cichlids in the wild.  They both enjoyed their overnight trip so much they are already planning on attending next years 20th anniversary event.

The Ohio Cichlid Associations official website can be found here.

Jonny and Zoey have become best friends and you can see each of them light up when they see each other. Jonny has taken the time to play with her a lot and now you can tell she thinks of him as the fun person in the family. The rest of us do play with her and have lots of fun with her as well, but the two of them love to rough house with each other.

Zoey says, “I see you Jonny”

You can’t catch me

Jonny isn’t quite quick enough

I can be as tall as you!

Jonny catches her

Let’s go this way

Now back this way

Do you think you can get me this time?

Not quite a long enough reach

Tonight is the Granville High School Homecoming Dance. Stephanie and Marcus are attending and Nikki was able to get some pictures of the kids before they went to dinner at Kanji’s Japanese Steakhouse in Newark, OH

Arriving for pictures

The girls are ready for a fun night.

Stephanie placing Marcus' corsage

Marcus puts on Stephanie's corsage

Homecoming 2013

Stephanie and Marcus

Ready for Homecoming

We decided to take Zoey on her first walk at the Denison Bio Reserve. She had never been on a leash before and we weren’t sure what to expect. She was very well behaved on the 30 minute walk and probably only tugged once or twice. She was very content walking with Nikki and Jonny and keep pace with them or them keeping pace with her.

Zoey at the Denison University Bio Reserve

At the end of the walk we wanted to give her a drink. At the shelter they have a dog bowl and a hose to fill it with fresh water. We turned on the hose to fill the bowl and someone was having too much fun with the hose.

Zoey playing with the water from the hose.

A video of her at the end of the walk can be seen here.

Zoey running in our back yard

So has bonded well with everyone and loves to play. We are all enjoying her very much. She goes on rides all the time and travels very well in the car.

After Phoebe passed, Nicole start to aggressively look for another Golden Retriever puppy. We were thinking the process was going to take several months as we would find a breeder who was going to breed for a litter. Instead Nicole found a breeder that had one puppy that wasn’t claimed yet. After a couple of weeks of talking to the breeder it was decided that she was going to be a good match for our family. The Breeder was going to be Ohio this weekend, so Nikki and I made a road trip up to Toledo to meet her. We fell in love at first sight and decided to take her home. She rode in the car very well and is very confident and friendly. She even slept well the first night. The entire family loves her and she will be a welcomed member of the family.

New Puppy!

She's definitely a retriever.

Here is a short video of her playing with Jonny this morning.

The Hamilton family, Stephanie’s boyfriend’s family, had found a litter of kittens while they were preparing to move a couple of weeks ago. They have been taking care of the kittens, but last weekend was move day and they are temporarily moving to a condo while their house is built. They couldn’t take the approximately 10 week old kittens with them, so Stephanie asked if we could foster them while finding them new homes.

Kittens we are fostering

We started with three kittens 1 male and 2 females. The male found a new home almost right away. Stephanie, of course, has grown fond of the dark tourtoiseshell kitten. Our neighbors, who like cats as well, had recently lost their 19 year old cat and were looking to get a kitten or two for their young daughters. I think Stephanie has convinced them to accept at least one of the kittens. Stephanie is happy about that as she will be able to visit the kittens often and watch them grow.