Our new pet

The girls have been desperate for another pet since the "passing" of our hamster Buddy, so I broke down today and agreed to another pet hamster. We visited two different pet stores scoping out their stock and searching for the most friendly one we could find.

We settled on a dwarf Blueberry hamster. I had never heard of a Blueberry hamster before, but she's a blueish-gray color, and the lady at the pet store swears she smells like blueberries, although I haven't quite noticed that yet!

She is much smaller than our old hamster, so we had to buy a new cage, running ball, and just about everything so she won't be able to escape (hopefully!!!)! She was very friendly and calm in the store, and is a bit skittish here at home, but who wouldn't be with two noisy girls and a nosy dog barking at her! :-) Hopefully she'll be a nice, calm pet once she adjusts to her new home!

The girls are thinking of naming her Princess Blueberry, but we're going to wait for Daddy's input before making a final name choice!

Camping at White Horse Lake

We had a blast camping with lots of friends last weekend at White Horse Lake! The weather, fishing, and friends were the best!

Look Nancy, you made my blog!

We had dinner last night at a FABULOUS little local Italian place with Marc's sister Nancy, bro-in-law Jason, and our nephews Ben and Dominic. The dinner was a belated birthday treat for Marc, but really should have been for Jason too, since he celebrates his birthday on the 12th! Happy Birthday Jason, and thanks for dinner, you guys!

Swim Lessons!

The girls are enjoying another summer filled with swim lessons! This is their 5th summer of taking lessons at the community pool.

Amanda is now in "Level 5," where she is doing lots of laps to perfect her strokes, learning flip-turns off the wall, and making major improvements to her dive off the board!

Isabella is in "Level 4," and quickly working to catch up to her sister's swimming abilities! She's doing laps in the 13 ft dive well, treading water, and has learned to dive this year as well!

The new Mountain Home

On Sunday, we drove north with Marc's parents to see their new mountain home in Happy Jack. It is a beautiful home, and we are all excited about enjoying many adventures in the woods there! Here are a few pictures:

Isabella and Grammie in the family room - look at the views outside that gorgeous wall of windows!

Amanda and Isabella on the wrap-around porch.

Amanda and Papap taking a walk on the property.

View of the house from the street.

Our 4th of July Trip to the Science Center

My friend Lisa and I took our girls to the Arizona Science Center today. We toured an exhibit called Grossology, where we learned all about gross human and animal characteristics. Here you can see Amanda and her friend Arianna standing in a huge nose that would sneeze, blowing a huge gust of wind out!

Isabella had fun guessing which animal produced the most slime, and all the girls enjoyed a life-size version of the game Operation.

Afterward, we visited a live demonstration of the human digestive system, where Amanda and Isabella were able to volunteer acting as the stomach, churning mushed up ravioli in a Ziploc bag much like the stomach churns the food we eat.

Finally, we enjoyed a lovely lunch at a little tea house called the Teeter House. What a fun day!

Puppy Sitting

The girls have been hired to look after our neighbor's little dogs while they are away on vacation. The girls just adore these two little dogs, and are doing a fantastic job of taking care of them!

Here they are with the dogs, "Rosie" the Maltese and "Princess Gracie" the Yorkie.

The girls are also doing a great job of watering the neighbor's plants! :-) That is our house in the background, for those of you who haven't been here before!