A Sad Announcement

I went back and forth on whether to post about this, but I leaned for posting in the interest of full disclosure, and in order to avoid questions when we have family over at Christmas time.

On Saturday our sweet puppy, Sherlock, passed away. We found out a couple of months ago that he had a growth on his liver that only had a slight chance of being removed through a risky surgery. My brother decided to forego surgery, and was told that Sherlock only had a couple of months left.

Many of you know what a big part of our lives Sherlock was. My brother got him as a puppy and trained him himself. He lived to be 11 and a half years old, which is pretty average for his breed (German Shorthair). My parents' house seems so quiet now, and I miss Sherlock a lot, but I'm so glad he isn't in pain anymore.

I know this is all over the place, but I feel like if I tried to be more eloquent it would just come out trite. I'll just wrap up with this picture of our whole family last fall.

Disneyland: Day Four - Part Two

After Tomorrowland, we spent some time in one of the stores, which involved trying on these fantastic hats.

We went to New Orleans Square for lunch, which is one of my favorite places in the park. I love the old-fashioned look and the jazz music. I even had the opportunity to try something that a friend at work had been raving about: the Disneyland (read: virgin) Mint Julep! And it was so good. The potatoes were also amazing, as was the band we listened to while we ate.

After lunch, we took a train ride around the park (even catching a glimpse of the famed Lily Belle car!) and got off in Fantasyland. The girls got to meet Tinkerbell and her friend Periwinkle, and we even caught Peter Pan spying on Pixie Hollow!

We were sure to ride King Arthur's Carrousel (including a picture of Kyra with Walt Disney's wife's favorite horse) and stopped to take pictures by the sword in the stone.

Disneyland: Day Four - Part One

Day Four started with Tomorrowland! While in line for Buzz Lightyear, Kyra and I took these lovely photos amongst the fake rocks.

 We then went to Innoventions, which basically doubled as the Marvel building. They had all the phases of the Iron Man suit.

After the Iron Man suits, we got in line to see Thor, and I took all these awkward photos of various Asgardian weapons, etc. It was really interesting because they were on display like historical artifacts, complete with little plaques to describe how they'd been used.

Please note Darin's appropriately chosen shirt; Captain America was also in the building, but we didn't have time to wait in line for both.

Disneyland: Day Three - Pictures I Missed

I was going through my pictures in preparation for Day Four, and realized I didn't post some great pictures from other peoples' cameras.

There were barrels under this bridge on Tom Sawyer's Island, so it sank when you walked across it. We walked/ran over it several times; it was so much fun!

Back to Mickey's house.

And Minnie's house. I love this vanity.