Fredericksburg Christmas Parade

We had quite the turnout this year for the annual Fredericksburg Christmas Parade. We had 40+ hounds attend this year with a handful of non-grey siblings. Parker would have been sad if he missed out. He had to rest up if he was going to keep up with the greys.
We still had Elsa and Pippi with us. Hard to get a shot of the kids when they are so excited to be in the parade. We put their coats on in the parking garage, but saved their hats and antlers for later.
Not sure who this is, but she makes a cute reindeer. Author's note 12/14: Found out this cute girl is Gracie.
Allie and Sandy are all lit up. They had just made a cross country trip, but made it back in time for the parade.
Stanley does his best caribou impression.
Doing impressions is hard work. Even though it was lightly snowing, Stanley thought he better grab a cat nap in the staging area of the parade. Maybe we should’ve just put him in the wagon behind him.
A shot from the back of the parade. I had Stanley, and he wanted to be up at the front. Usually, I’m holding on to mulitple dogs, but we had lots of extra hands this year, so even though we came with 6 kids between the two of us, we only had one dog each.
VAGA representin’ at the parade.
Even though the snow was changing to rain, the kids were happy to be out since the crowds were cheering them on.

Stanley the Chicken Wing & Pippi Makes Three

Stanley sometimes looks like an eel out of water when he roaches. Just wriggling around. Maybe he’s scratching his back. To me, he ends up looking like a chicken wing.
Time to change sides. Loads of fun when he does this under the covers at night. That’s why I need a nap the next day.
After switching sides he notices something is missing? Daddy, what happened to my tube sock?
Meanwhile, over on couch, Jaime poops out a MiniMe.
Time to man the giftwrapping station at our local Borders. Tempest was our Therapy dog for the morning session. My guys would have loved to have gone, but none are therapy dog-certified yet. While the women discuss how cute Tempest looks in her donation jacket, Ted is already looking for things to giftwrap.
What is better than having two fosters? How about three. Pippi is a return through no fault of her’s. She a very sweet girl. She’s on the skinny side and needs to be fattened up.
Elsa and Pippi practicing their tag team hunting tactic.
Parker is on alert. He heard there are stalkers around.

Elsa Comes To Play

Edie went to meet her new family last week. Her new brother, Murphy (German Shepherd mix), was ecstatic to see her. He looked quite sad when we left. Because of the hectic schedules around the Thanksgiving Holiday, she will stay with us for another week. What’s better than having one foster? Two of course.
Elsa is a bounce-back. She is a little wild child who just turned 3 this month, so maybe she is just busy celebrating. Edie’s level of activity made our guys look like slugs. Elsa makes Edie look like a slug. Elsa takes a break from eviscerating some stuffies.She loves doing zoomies in the yard. She definitely needs a home with a fence. Not sure she can be tired out by just walking. Just look at the mischievousness in her eyes. There’s a whirling dervish hidden in there.
Kris went to the Tech vs. UVa football game on Saturday. Arch rivals. Tech won the game and goes on to the ACC championship game next week. Her dad dropped off Murphy. Elsa couldn’t get enough. Finally a dog that could keep up with her. They went at it for 30 minutes nonstop while the rest of the gang just watched in awe at their stamina. Like watching gladiator fighting at the Colosseum. Stanley played the referee and did a 10 count. Elsa was down, and Murphy is declared the victor. Murphy might not be as fast a greyhound, but he’s a little terrierist and can go all day long.Just a cute pic of Jaime and Stanley sharing a pillow.

5 Year Anniversary

Boy how time flies when your having fun :) This past weekend was our 5th anniversary. We had Meagan come stay with the kids while we went to D.C. to visit some of the newer monuments and museums we hadn’t seen yet. The weather was a bit wet and dreary, but at least it wasn’t pouring the rain.
We first visited Arlington National Cemetery before actually crossing into DC. Stopped to see the eternal flame at JFK’s gravesite, and made our way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Once in downtown DC, we were kindly reminded why we don’t visit often. Traffic was bumper to bumper, confusing one way streets, policemen blocking off roads for various reasons which caused my GPS to perform ‘recalculating route’ a lot. We checked into the hotel, then walked to the National Mall to see the new World War II Memorial. Kris admires the memorial, with the Pacific side on the left, and the Atlantic side on the right. The Lincoln Memorial is at the far end.
Doing a 180 turn from there shows the Washington Monument. Stayed pretty foggy all day.
We spent most of our time in the Holocaust Memorial Museum. We couldn’t take any pictures inside, not that I really wanted to. We spent about 4 hours walking through the three levels. Kinda crazy to see what people are capable of.
We had a nice dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill. We had eaten there once before, and man, do they have great oysters! After dinner and a nice bottle of wine, we hit a bar on the way back and had a bottle of champagne. We stumbled back to the hotel only to hit the bar there, where the bartender kept giving free refills on our drinks when he found out it was our anniversary. We slept in late and barely made it out by checkout time the next morning.
We had big plans for our Saturday in DC. The Newseum, Spy Museum, and Crime and Punishment Museum. We went to the Crime and Punishment Museum first. After 4 hours, we didn’t have time to hit the others. Kris is being punished for spending too much time in one museum.

Helping to keep the city clean.
When we got back, everyone was very happy to see us. But then they went back to their usual spots in a few minutes.
Edie giving me the stinkeye! Like I want that nasty old Loofa dog.
I have added two new greyhound blog links. Please check them out. Beau and Belle and Treasure What You Have.

Stella G4, More ETS, and Ms. Edie Divine

Well, this past Thursday was Stella’s 4th Gotcha Day. Hard to believe it’s been four entire years. Two girls were brought up during her haul, and we were asked to choose. I was loving on the other one when Stella (Carol’s Wheel) bulldozed her way in and started giving me kisses. Sometimes we wonder how different our lives would’ve been if we had chosen the other one (i.e. Stella had not chosen us). We’re glad she did.

Here are a couple of pics from her first year with us. Stella was not always the charming lady she is today. Here she is introducing herself to Parker. Parker is beginning to wonder if mommy and daddy always make the best decisions.
One of my favorite pics is of Stella and Lucas on the couch.
For those of you with the Celebrating Greyhounds Desk Calender, Stella is actually picture for the last week of October. Stella is always a Witch for Halloween.
For those of you who can never get enough ETS pictures. Kinda like puppy pics. No matter how many times we see Stanley with ETS, we always point and laugh. Straight up.
Or roaching.

Synchronized head-to-butt roaching on the couch. A very efficient use of couch space.
Our latest foster is Edie. We actually call her by her full name, Ms. Edie Divine. Is that a stripper name or a porno star name? She’s been a great girl. Got more energy than all our guys put together. Sometimes after we let everyone out in the morning and go back upstairs for a little more sleep, we can hear her downstairs pummeling some stuffies to within an inch of their lives.

She’s got some ears on her. You can actually read her tatoos.
She loves just ripping around the yard. Here she is resting long enough for me to get a shot. She's enjoying the crisp Autumn weather.

ETS hits the Park household

        This is a usual site at our house. Stella just wants to hog the blankets because the couch itself just isn’t soft enough for her needs. Jaime waits until Stella is settle in, then just wants to snuggle up with her.

        Since Jaime has to always being touching another greyhound, she tried this with Stanley. The results are not quite as comfortable and resulted in Stanley getting reverse ETS. Looks like a fight between narcoleptic greyhounds.
        It turned out to be a night full of ETS. Maybe it was a full moon or a high pressure system rolling through. Stanley gave us a snarling ETS.
        This is why girls don’t like you to see them when they just get up. She quickly pulled it back in, but it was too late.
        Jaime wanted to join the ETS club. She looks sad because this was the best she could do.

Bye Bye Ponytail

        I’ve been growing my hair out for a bit over two years. Locks of Love requires 10 inches, and I had 14-15 inches of ponytail. I figured it was time, and donated 12 inches. It’s now shoulder length. I think I will go another round before going back to regular short hair. Or maybe even shave my head. Never done that.
        We watched Ana and Blue for a few days. Usually they stay at Trina’s, but Casa de Stumpf was booked up. We fostered Blue when he first came up. Twice. Here is the brindle and black parade. It’s Stanlely, Ana, Stella, and Blue. Jaime, Parker and Beamer were off doing their own black and brindle thing.
        Hey Ana, can you do that ear thing so I can get a picture? Sure, no problem. This good enough?

        Blue giving me a little stinkeye. You better be taking a pic of my ears and not my bald butt.
        Beamer was back again from his second home. Let me out, he says. I need to find my forever home. He is now with a family where he seems be quite happy. Keeping your fingers crossed for him.

        Stella gets jealous if I just take pictures of the fosters and visiting dogs.

        What about us daddy! Stanley and Jaime in sibling solidarity.
        We watched Sunny over this past weekend. It’s been brindles and blacks for so long at our house, it was nice to have a fawn.
        She does not have a fenced in yard at home, so she took full advantage of her time here.