Whirling Dervishes

We did it at a trot.
We did it at a gallop.
We sat in the dog barn all day, just for the halibut. (You know what I mean).

Yep... we did the Puyallup.
We also celebrated Alexia's birthday.
Then we did the Puyallup... again.

Lots of Birthday partying. Dog theme, complete with stuffed animal outdoor dog show using the agility course. Look at that poodle jump! Aargghh - ye landlubbers be walkin' the plank next yar!

From TEAM Rolfs

From TEAM Rolfs

Lots of dog showing and awards.

From TEAM Rolfs

From TEAM Rolfs

From TEAM Rolfs

Lots of dogs (well, they were in the dog barn so I'm assuming they're dogs).

From TEAM Rolfs

From TEAM Rolfs

From TEAM Rolfs

Lots of family time.

From TEAM Rolfs

From TEAM Rolfs

From TEAM Rolfs

From TEAM Rolfs

Congratulations to Alexia for surviving the multi-week birthday parties to celebrate her 8 years of spiritedness. Hopefully you enjoyed your 'on the road' birthday party / hotel continental breakfast with the solitary birthday candle in her Belgium waffle. We reminded her about how she woul sing her own embellished Birthday song when she was younger: it always ended with "ezzzzry buddy blow"! Using the cursor you can highlight the area within the following quotes to see the secret translation: " Everybody Blow ! "
Congratulations to Mikayla for all of her success and dedication that allowed her to win the Junior Showmanship Reserve Champion award during her first year of 4-H. It was a long and trying few days that I think she also found to be very fun and rewarding.

Congratulations to Tanya for putting up with the rest of us through all the good times and the not-quite so good times (and believe me, there were a few).

What we learned:

• Alexia learned that the 4-H Leader of our club did not actually write the "Do The Puyallup" song. She probably feels the same way I did when I learned that our Pastor was not actually God.
• Mikayla learned that it's tough work to train dogs, but it's also rewarding and fun (most of the time).
• I learned how to follow directions from the 4-H judge... and I got to publicly prove that I do know which way is left and which way is right. I figured I had at least earned a red ribbon for my performance, but apparantly not.
• I also learned that you can't put a folding chair in front of a fire extinguisher. Actually, I learned that you can't even think about putting a chair in front of the extinguisher because the Dog Barn Nazi watches me like a hawk. That chair hadn't even hit the ground before she was on the public address system reminding everyone "YOU CAN'T BLOCK THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER!".
• Also, courtesy of the Dog Barn Nazi "DON'T STEP OVER THE CHAINS!! IT'S A SAFETY HAZZARD!" C'mon... I was just stretching my leg - I wasn't really going to step over that low chain to save myself 25 steps.
• Mikayla learned that just because a smoothie costs $4 doesn't mean it's going to taste good.

Thanks Dad, Margie & Rachel for taking the time and effort to join us at the fair. Too bad you didn't get to see Mikayla perform live.

Thanks Nana & Poppy for visiting and entertaining Alexia for a few hours and I hope you had a great Birthday Steve!

Thanks Tory, Dawn Gavin, Aleigh, Sarah, Nick and Alyssa for also coming to see us at the fair.

Thanks Sarah (the 4-H Sarah) for entertaining Mikayla throughout this event.

Thanks Tanya for finding my sunglasses. Woo Hoo! Another crime solved before dinnertime!!

Hopefully things will start to slow down a bit now so we can stop running around like Whirling Dervishes.

I may be able to get some related videos up in the next week or so.