I know I’ve said this before and before that and before that too! (Enough about the dogs already, right?) But going up north to visit the family is really all about the dogs.

We often sit in the family room talking and before we know it we are playing complicated games of fetch with the long haired dachshund. He’s too smart. He’s attached to this little blue rubber ball as if it’s his pacifier or something. You can ignore him but he will “accidentally” drop the ball on your feet and bark at you until you can ignore him no longer. Throwing the ball is a mistake because then it means the “games have begun” and you will be stuck playing fetch with him for hours on end. So in order to give us some peace from the never ending fetching and barking we hide the ball in places we think he won’t be able to get it out of.

Nothing works. No matter how well you hide it, or ignore it, he will bark and root around until he finds it. Toby’s Dad stacked the ball inside three empty dog food bowls and he STILL found his ball. It took a lot of pushing the bowl around the living room with his nose but nothing comes between the determined little German dog and his little blue rubber ball.

Too bad I didn’t get any action shots and all I have to show you are some cute dogs sleeping.

We did take some pictures of this giant mosquito eater. I’d have to ask my Dad, the bug man, what it’s proper name is. It was so huge! I’ve never seen a mosquito eater that big. Maybe he got so big from eating all the mosquitos! They are out in droves this year. Even in the middle of the day you have to watch it or you could get bitten to pieces.

The sun came out for a little bit yesterday. Actually it was setting and there was a little gap between the fog and the ocean where the sun managed to shine through. I took advantage of the pretty light and got some pictures of my mother-in-law’s beautiful dahlias.

p.s. I finally updated the spy cam pages! Whoo Hooo! Happy Viewing!