Easter

Happy Easter to all! So I'm slightly late in that wish, but that's because we spent our Easter doing what Dixons/Powers do. We go camping. Ok, so we haven't gone on Easter before, but there IS a first time for everything!

Day 1: We arrive in Payson near Camp Geronimo. Beautiful weather! Emma burns off pent-up car drive energy by racing around like an insano with Missy the insano dog. We are going to meet three other families there (people Chad went to Iraq with the first time around and we consider members of our own family) but we are alone the first night. Using my sharp Power family pyro skills, I start the fire. All. By. Myself. All that fuzz stick practice from girl's camp as a teen pays off. (Click on a photo for a bigger, better view.)

Day 2: The place becomes a dog park as the other families arrive. Good thing we're all dog lovers. (Especially Chris, who keeps french-kissing all the canines.) Sadie works on being the most filthy by rubbing every surface of her fur with ash. Dog slobber, begging and dog hair abound. Emma and I explore the stream and find some exciting (and not so exciting - those caterpillars and I got a tad too friendly with each other when I nearly walked headfirst into their little web-house) wildlife. The rest of the day is spent reading smutty cosmo magazines and Dean Koontz books by the fire. Emma's buddy Kendall shows up so I am relieved of the every-five-minute whine of "I'm BORED!" as they further explore the nearby water. Emma falls into the stream; her shoes are set by the fire and subsequently burned to a crisp when left unattended. RIP, white converse. (I have no clue why I let her bring WHITE shoes on a camping trip anyway.) Good thing we brought a spare pair. (Not my first time camping!)

Day 3: The Apocalypse. WHO ORDERED SNOW?!!! And not the fun make-a-snowman-snowball-fight kind. The entire day is rainy/slushy/hail-y/snowy. It SUCKS. I am NOT a happy camper. (Ha ha! I made a funny.) The car picture was taken EARLY in the morning when I ventured out if the camper (THANK YOU KENDALL!) and promptly ran back to my warm sleeping bag. The evening is redeemed, however, by the Army Men's mad turkey cooking skilz. Fried turkey and stuffing = awesome. Best part? No cooking for the women-folk! (Come to think of it, we didn't do any of the cooking. Chad insists that the MEN cook on these trips, and since Chris seems to have a knack for it and I can't seem to keep from burning grilled cheese in the fire, I'm all for that.)

Day four: Easter. Easter egg hunt in the woods begins. Winston, thrilled that it is again sunny, plants his tooshie on the soft and squishy dog bed and refuses to budge. His pockets are determined to be a great Easter egg hidey hole. I snap the obligatory Chad-with-his-finger-in-his-nose shot. Then we all pack up and go home! As my grandma used to write in the yearly Family Reunion scrapbooks: A good time was had by all!

The Dixon zoo animals

For my second post, here's an intro to our (mostly) friendly Dixon Zoo beneficiaries.

Heiko, the retired attack/drug dog. Chad was his original handler way back when he was active duty. When Heiko retired almost two years ago and Chad found out, he drove to Texas to get his boy. (The army will only let a former handler or a PD take a dog they are discharging.) Heiko won't leave Chad's side and won't listen to me whenever Chad is around. Unless I have cheese. Or ground beef. I have done a little "training" of my own in his last two years here and he has learned quickly, being the intelligent army boy (*cough cough*) that he is. He now knows how to drool and stare just like a proper house-dog should when dinner is being cooked. (Not because I share or anything, because I would NEVER do that.) He also knows how to pop a pool float with one tiny bite, knock over the kitchen garbage in search of tasty morsels and he loves oatmeal cream pies.

Missy, the baby dog of the family. (She's actually around seven years old, according to the rescue we got her from almost five years ago.) Emma has claimed her as her own and tries to sneak her into her bed. (Dogs are not allowed on furniture or beds at the Dixon zoo!) She loves car rides and often goes along when Emma is dropped off or picked up from school. She's a clown and a lovebug. She also has a touch of doggie tourettes (according to her therapist) and never shuts up if a lawn is being mowed, a vacuum is being run, or if anything resembling a knock at the door is heard.

Winston, the geriatric poop eater. Also a rescue. Was heart worm positive when we took him in three years ago and was scared to DEATH of people. Now he searches out any available sun spot in the house, or any spot that could possibly make a good resting place for his old man tooshie. Even if it has a hole in the middle. Winston, in a word, is weird. (He fits right in here!)

Sadie, the seven year-old spoiled brat of the family. She's irritating, hilarious, disobedient, and neurotic. She has two focuses - SNACKIES and her tennis ball. The original dog of the family, I bought her as a puppy when I was still single. She's kind of awful but we keep her around anyway. She's tried to go toe-to-toe with the attack dog over said tennis ball with disastrous results. We'll continue to keep an eye on this one!

Bailey, the sulcata. He's only a year or so old but he'll live for about a hundred and grow to be around 100 pounds. We'll put him in our will. We're taking applications.

Salt and Pepper the zebra finches. *Beep beep beep!* They're both girls and lay about a zillion eggs every week, which they sit on religiously. I'm constantly throwing away adorably tiny eggs. (I just realized how GROSS their sticks are! Ewwww!)

Emma's year-old cockatiel, Trixie. (I think it sounds like a stripper name but don't tell Emma that!) She's crabby toward everyone but Emma. When Emma gets home from school she'll screech for her until Emma comes to visit. She lives in Emma's room and is freakin' loud. We're glad someone out there invented doors that we can shut.

Dolfy the cichlid (named by a two year-old Emma), the guy who eats all of his tankmates and has destined himself to a life of solitary confinement as a result of this rude habit. Dolfy is the fish who never dies.

Danny, the siamese fishing fish. He's Emma's - named after her cousin, actually!

Fred and George Weasley, our most recent additions. They're kinda dumb. They're orange. They're awesome.

Growing up I was the kid who found homeless dogs and begged to keep them and fed all of the stray cats in the neighborhood. Chad puts up with a lot from me. I still desperately want to live on a farm and someday I hope to have a few horses and a herd a fainting goats I can honk at every time I drive up to the house. So stay tuned for photos of future additions! Right honey? :D