Saturday, July 31, 2010

Sammy's World

Sammy got a package today! Can you believe it? Sammy...Package?! Ok...it was my doing. Surprise, surprise.

Actually it's really cool. We were lucky enough to be part of the first 10,000 voters of Wag World's Dog Park Make-over contest. One of the finalists is from Omaha (we live in Omaha, for those of you who don't know that) and we would totally love a new and improved dogpark. I love our dogpark now, but having a little make over would be really great. The finalist suggests easier walking paths for people who have a hard time walking. My grandparents have told me several times that they would like to go and watch Sammy run wild. With the crappy heat now, it's inconcivable, but maybe in late fall weather-wise it would be ok. It would still be a big hurdle, but that just rang very close to me!!! Our dogpark has some flooding issues with rain, and it's the midwest...we get lots of rainy days. It would be nice not to hafta pack a towel to go to the dogpark 4 days after rain. The fianlist submission has great ideas, and I really hope she wins.

I was all excited at the chance for Omaha to get a dogpark makeover, but when I was filling it out, it asked for our address to send a free toy. Actually, the first couple times we entered it asked for our address (we were good, we only submitted for one free toy). But after filling it out, it said it could be up to 10 weeks until we recieved our toy. To my surprise...it came today!!!

Sammy loves to get the mail, and was bounding when there was a box. And somehow was able to realize it was all about him and waited patiently at my feet. For a few moments. Then, he became impatient and whined at my feet. We got a squeaky earth that says, "Wag World."
To Sammy's dismay, he had to wait for me to snap a picture of it. (Honestly now, Sammy, like any true corgi, will kill any squeaker quickly! I needed a nice picture for the blog before he could kill it!)

We have continued to vote, and hope that if anyone else feels inclined to vote...vote for Omaha's here: http://www.dreamdogpark.wagworld.com/ViewIndividualEntry.aspx?contestantid=1068
Voting ends August 11th, and there is 1 vote a day per person!!! Winner announced in September.

We are very grateful for our new toy. Sammy needed one after, Operation Destruction: One Toy at a Time! His toy box was slimming down. A new fun one rejuvinates his playing needs! Haha. For the first two hours, this is how it went. Then he ate dinner, went potty, and now he is passed out on the floor, head on pillow.


Thanks Wag World for our new toy!!! Please pick Omaha!! You will make this corgi a vv- vv- vv-veeery happy!!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Girls Are Dumb

Sammy here. First, I wanna say I love my Momma. I do. AND, I love my cousins (ok, it's my mom's cousin and her cousin's kids. what does that make them to me? ...Cousins!), all of them. They are all so fun, and they all love me, too.
But there is something about girls that make me do this:


See that...that is my mom and my littlest cousin (pretend) feeding me with a bottle! The bottle that came with the BABY she just got as a darn present!

They aren't at all like Dad who just holds me up so I can see better. (I'm short, ok!)


Dumb girls!

....But then again, Momma and my girl cousins like to cuddle with me more than Dad and my boy cousins. Maybe it's an ok trade off. Just don't tell them, they don't need to know that!


In other news, my Momma got a hair cut. I was quite confused by it at first. I sniffed and sniffed her head to see if it was a trick. Who knows where she could stuff it. Girls are tricky. I like it now, especially since it takes her less time to deal with and wash, so more time for ME!




She looks different, but she is still the same. Still loves to give me kisses. Yet another girl thing. But it's ok, 'cause I love to give her kissies, too.


Oh, can you not tell her about that either! Thanks.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Beat the Heat

Sammy HATES the heat. Ok, proabably more of the humidity than the heat. It's kinda funny, in a way. He gets soo excited to go outside, then once the wall of heat and humidity hits, his head hangs a little lower. A little bitter disappointment each and every time. Poor pup. Doing our fun hikes, dogpark trips, big walks, even the lake isn't too feasible when you have multiple days in a row of heat advisories, and heat indicies around 110. Just not good for doggers.
Moreover, Sammy has yet to learn from the turtle...he is still the rabbit. He has NO idea how to pace himself. He goes right to fun, and goes and goes as fast and hard as he can, til he can't go anymore. Another reason, we're camping it indoors. Just not worth it with that mentality.
I try my darndest to stay a step ahead of him. We have a schedule, usually 2 days in advance of his activities centered around our work schedules and temperatures. IE: when we take walks, when we plan to go somewhere, what yummy things may lie in the freezer...etc. We only walk him at the ends of the day...early morning, late evening. With our schedules, it's not perfect. We plan bigger trips when we know our work schedules align and he will be alone alot. Then we try to entertain him while we are here.
His toys and bones are getting boring to him. Sammy pulls out each and every toy out, one by one, then looks at me like, "uh...more? These suck." Unfortunately I don't think anything will really be too much fun for him right now. He just seems so miserable being trapped indoors more. (I tell myself he understands, but I'm not sure. lol)
Anyway, I came home to find that Sammy had found a super fun game to beat the heat!


"Hi Momma...I had fun today!!"

And another video just for all the Sammy fans. He is such a good listener!! :)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Toughest Job

Sammy has many jobs. Many tough demanding jobs. Seriously. For beginners, he has to be cute ALL the time! He has to put up with everyone telling him he is adorable, and do it with a smile on his face. He has to watch for pesky ground squirrels getting too comfortable on our patio, as well as anything blowing in the wind. Terrorism comes in all shapes in Sammy's point of view. But, by far Sammy's toughest, most excruciating, worst job in the whole entire world.....waiting. Sammy's life is a corgi dream (I think). He has tons of expierences. Sammy is a very intergral part of our life. He gets to go on lots of car rides (everywhere! bank, grocery store, pet stores, gas station, fast food), basically whenever possible. He is always part of any family gathering (lots of visits to my grandparents assisted living home even!). He gets car trips for the sake of a car ride if he hasn't had one in a while. We also get guests. The kids around our complex love Sammy, and stop to say hi to him. He gets walked once a week by our neighbor girl. As well as people we invite over. Sammy has built up an intuition of knowing when something fun is coming up. Don't know how he built the whole thing, but I'm pretty sure a big part of it is my cell phone. He knows Erik's cell phone ringer for sure. But it seems like now he listens more to the other voice, and if it's my mom, he thinks she is on her way over and we are (all 3) gonna do something really fun. And he loves her van because the windows are way easier to stick out of than our dumb cars! Well, all this anticipation builds up in the little pup, and he is NOT good at controling it. This week my cousin, her husband and 3 kids are in town. Her middle child's birthday is the beginning of next month, so we had a birthday party for him last night at our grandparents. Sammy, of course, is among the attendants. (Last summer we brought Sammy home on the 7th, and my cousin's bday party was the 8th, so it was fun to have Sammy go again knowing everyone and more sure of himself!) Sammy, of course, figured out that something super cool, involving him was going on. He was on high alert. I took him out to potty, and my mom called to say she was on her way to pick the 2 of us up. Sammy was probably nodding to himself, "Just as I suspected!" When we got back to our door, I left Sammy's leash on him, helping out his excitement thinking the moment I take it off, my mom will get here. So Sammy chilled by the door watching every little motion and listening to every sound awaiting a visual of my mom, or a sound of her squeaky brakes (yes, Sammy knows that distint squeak!) After a few minutes of it, he was driving me nutso and I thought if I hafta put up with his whines, nose slobbers, pacing, etc. I might as well take a darn video of it to share with everyone. So without further ado, here it is: **note**we (the fam) calls my mom, Nanny-poo, and that is how Sammy knows her!**
PS..Sammy had a blast with the kids. He loves them, and now he is beyond exhausted today! Although he is putting up a grouchy front!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Get Your Smiley Cup

Does your dog suffer from bumps under the chin? Are you worried that it is itchy or ouchy for your pup?
If you said yes, we have your answer....A Smiley Cup!!

Take it from Sammy, just look at his his before picture:



That was before Sammy got his Smiley Cup! Sammy's chin was being irriated by his plastic food bowl. With proper cleaning and this special Smiley Cup, you can help relieve bumps from your pup's chin!
Look at Sammy's chin after just 8 days:



The best part, is your dog will love his new food dish as it's sure to put a smile on everyone's face! Smiles should be contagious...not bumps!










****Note. This is not an actual advertisment. This was just meant to be funny!! We aren't promoting the smiley cup, just trying to express our story as a pretend advertisment.*****



Ok, so we don't know for sure what is helping his bumps the most, the medicated wipes, the warm water washclothes twice a day, or the bowl but we are just happy to see a difference. We had been feeding him on a plate from our cupboard, as you may have seen on the previous blog, which was making a big mess. My mom had this smiley cup we used for soup when I was little and asked if I wanted to try it with Sammy before getting him a "real," non-plastic food bowl to see if it would work before purchasing it. We are thinking that it's a combination of all three factors, so we are going to keep him away from plastic dogbowls now. But we have really grown to like our Smiley Cup and we are keeping it. A Smiley Corgi needs a Smiley Cup!!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Me Misses the Snows

Apparently Sammy isn't the only corgi missing the colder days.


http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8592598159168102338


Wonder if he remembers how fewer and shorter walks, dogpark trips, swimming fun, and car rides there were when the snow was falling??

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Swimmy Swimmy With My Jacket

This past Saturday we were able to go to the lake just as we had hoped, allowing Sammy to wear his life jacket in the water for the first time. It was a perfect time since it was our fifth day straight in the 90's, with the humidity it was pretty ridiculous outside! We got up early, made Sammy eat his breakfast and tried to keep him from playing too much, to allow him to digest but not waste too much energy! That was the toughest part of the day, let me tell you!
"Look mom, cleaned mys plate, ready for swimmies!"
**We are trying a plate to get him away from his plastic bowl to see if that helps his chin bumps, before buying a new one.**

We got to the lake about 10:30 in the morning, at which point it was 89 degrees already! There are a few beaches to the big, main lake and the first was pretty busy already, so we drove down and found, what we thought was a secret beach. Actually, it was an awesome beach! It was very shallow for a long time, so Sammy could walk out into the water a good 20 feet before needing to swim. He got to play with his tennis ball alot there, since he could just splash through the water for the ball. There was a pretty steep drop off after that, so we could also get into the water, as well. Not too long into our beach fun, a dead, bloated fish came floating by!!! I freaked out and made us go to a different beach!
We went to the next beach down, which was alot less busy that the first, so it was still a positive. There were a couple families, so Sammy was somewhat distracted by the kids. We were able to get him over that with long swims! The water got deeper much faster, which was too bad, but the bouys were way further out, so each swim was much longer than the other beach, which was more fun for us. We put Sammy in his life jacket, and he was just so darn cute. We took him out of it, and we noticed a difference in his swimming attitude. Less messing around, and more swimming back to the beach. That made us feel pretty good about the life jacket. In fact, we are vocally pro life jacket for short dogs now. Haha.

The best part, is taking him out to deep water, he hasta paddle in the air, just to prepare!

Our big objective was to see how he would do, since my cousins will be coming into town next week, and we wanted to invite them to go swimming at the lake, but not before we tested Sammy in the water. Growing up I had a dog who loved to swim, but would attach to people in the water, and I didn't want Sammy to do that to any kids. Sammy is all business in the water, not clingy at all. But also doesn't mind being picked up in the water, although he still paddles! Haha. So we are even more excited now, that before.

After a while, we gave Sammy a little breather, and took him back up the beach to lay out for a little while with us. He wanted to lay down, and we brought him his own towel for it, but...he just couldn't get settled. When two brothers were wrestling in water, he barked at them! It was funny! And, he had to get drinks from his water bowl every couple of minutes! He kept rearranging his towel to get comfortable, then he decided he needed to get underneath my legs, probably to get in the shade!


We didn't lay out long, just enough to get some sun. We went back in the water for a cool down, then we carried him over the sand back to the car. Almost made it. He had to get back in the sand once more to roll around! It's so weird that he loves to roll in the sand. He accidentally (I hope accidentally) eats sand when he rolls around, which worries me, so I'm the mean Mommy who won't let him just enjoy his day at the beach!

After coming home, he immediately got his bath. (Which clogged the drain a little...fun fun), then he got to go see the kitty-cats at my mom's! He even got to stay with them while we went to dinner! But once we came home to stay, he was passed out! Completely done for! And now he knows the word, "swimmies." He is totally excited to go "swimmies" again! And so are we!!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Spaghetti Night!

So yesterday, I passed my day off time during our heat advisory by watching Rachael Ray on TV with Sammy in front of the fan! Haha. Rachael made, what I can only imagine is, the best fish tacos! They looked so good. I think Sammy & I drooled in unison! Today I HAD to get online and try to find the recipe, so when we do our next shopping spree, I can load a couple of these items up and make them! While on Rachael Ray's website (rachaelray.com) I was beyond over joyed to find a link to recipes for...you might have guessed it, DOGS! Oh man was I excited.
For other people who enjoy making a little something special for their puppers, I thought I would share these cool recipes! My most inticing is the "K-9 Ingredient Meatballs" (http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=2688). Sammy's 1 year anniversary of his homecoming is coming up in less than a month, and we are now planning on having Spaghetti Night to celebrate!!! We are gonna double check a couple of the ingredients I'm surprised are used, but then we are off to celebrate!!!

Anyway...in case anyone is interested, her complete listing is:
http://www.rachaelray.com/food_results.php?kID=72

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Teenage Years

According to the dog age chart we got our first vet visit, Sammy, now 15 months is 16 years old in human years. Boy is that easy to tell! I mean, Sammy isn't driving or needing a tux for prom, but he is getting yucky pimples and wooing girl dogs!

Sammy has been plagued with dog acne. I didn't know they had it either! Apparently it is most common in big dogs, but Sammy is just lucky enough to be an exception. They are disgusting! From what I understand, it can be a phase for younger dogs while their hormones settle between puppy and adult dogs. I'm hoping it will be a short phase. There isn't much we can do. We need to keep it clean and if it proves to start to be irritating (itchy or sore) we can get him an aloe vera skin lotion/gel to soothe it. I have pictures on here, they look awful, so BEWARE!! He doesn't seem bothered by it too much. When we first noticed it, there were quite a few little ones, and now there are just 3 big ones. The one popped, which concerned us quite a bit, so now we are using medicated wipes to clean it.

Has anyone else's dog had acne? I've never had a dog with acne, at least that we knew of.

On a much cuter, happier note, today Sammy seemed to like a girl dog at the dogpark today! Omaha has been lucky enough to have some mild temperatures lately. Starting today we are starting a warm, above 90 degree, high humidity streak for the forseeable weather. I had today off, so since we were unable to go swimming (rainy) yesterday, I made it up to him by going to the dogpark this morning before if got too warm. When we got there, there were only two dogs in the all dog side. So we gave it a shot. Sammy had fun running with them, but once they wanted to play, they were a little too much for him. We were going to go for a nice long walk instead, when on our way out, we saw two dogs in the small dog side. Both Italian Greyhounds. Sammy loves all greyhounds. They love to run, and Sammy loves to chase and herd. They are gentle and can calm down easily. Perfect combo. Immediately he ran right for them. He chased them a bit, then all three ran back to the picnic table where we were sitting with the greyhounds' owner. Two other dogs entered and we thought it was strange as can be that Sammy didn't feel the urge to go and introduce himself and greet them. He usually MUST greet every dog and person to come through the gate. As well as when he first comes in, he must make the rounds to each dog and person and introduce himself then, too. He's so silly.
After a couple minutes, we noticed Sammy wasn't so much infatuated by the greyhounds as much as by the one, girl greyhound! He licked her face and stood right next to her. If she went to see her owner, Sammy sat right next to her while she got attention. If she came to get lots of petting from me, he was not jealous, totally fine sharing attention with her. If she took off to get water, or run with her "brother," or see a different dog, he ran with her. When they would stand, he stood right next to her. We have never seen him act this attached to another dog in this way. He has followed older dogs in his puppy days, as well and stand guard to puppies and dogs way smaller than him, but this was more of an equal partnership between them. AND, she didn't seem to mind at all! When talking to the owner, we were very sad to learn that they don't live here in Omaha. Apparently she is preparing to move to Omaha, and was up seeking job opportunities. Hopefully they will be able to meet again someday, because it was just so darn cute! When it came time to leave, he was absolutely exhausted, but he was unhappy at the prospect of leaving! As we walked out, he looked back every few steps. I think my baby is lovesick! :(
We shared ice cream this afternoon! He is just getting so grown up!!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Life Saving

Does this make my butt look big?




"I's readies to go boating or canoeing now!!"


Sammy even got squeaky little tennis balls to take to the lake!! He carried them all around the store, even to the car. He was sooo happy!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Yummies!

With Sammy and the fish, we are at the petstores, alot! We just stopped by for more fish food and we always stop by the dog section just to see what kind of sales are going on, and if there is something we are close to needing on sale. To my happy surprise, there is a new exciting dog food!!
We have Sammy on ScienceDiet Small Bites. When we got Sammy we had a free bag of ScienceDiet Small Bites Puppy from our vet, so of course we started him on it. He really seemed to like it. I decided to look up some information on it, as well as other brands of dogfood. I was really inclined to stick with it because it seemed great for him. Lots of the small dog dog foods just don't seem to have as much ingredients that seem important for active dogs. And Sammy may be in the small dog category but he is active. I think the difference is, there isn't just small dog, under 35 lbs or whatever it is. But there is a small dog, and then there is a toy dog dog food as well. So it seems much more specialized for his actual size. In the first month, we got Sammy set up at Doggie Daycare at the humane society here in Omaha. When we were talking to them, they explained that they used ScienceDiet and wanted to tell us about the pros of ScienceDiet.
That was pretty much all we needed! It's a bit more expensive, but it seemed like a good move for him. One month we ended up trying another food for a few reasons, but anyway it didn't work out well. He never seemed full. He was always looking for more food and began begging at the dinner table. We quickly got him back on ScienceDiet and within a week, he began another growth spurt! Since then we haven't even considered changing his food.
The reason I'm telling you all of this is we got soo excited when we saw that ScienceDiet has a new food!!! Healthy Mobility Small Bites! http://www.hillspet.com/products/sd-canine-adult-healthy-mobility-small-bites-dry.html
This is very important to us because he still limps alot after too much activity. We are running out of ideas of how to help him, so I was super excited. Unfortunately we have a nearly full bag of his regular food. So for now we grabbed a couple of cans of the wet food as a supplement to this dinner. We have done the dinner can supplement, just so he gets a treat and a little extra nutrition. It has come in a chicken or liver flavor, and this Healthy Mobility canned food comes in beef flavor!
We gave it to him for the first time last night, oh man he was excited! He pushed his little dinner bowl around the whole kitchen, dining room and living room making sure he got every last bite! We only give him about a tablespoon of canned food in his dry kibble, but apparently it made quite a tasty dish!
We just wanted to share our find in case anyone else uses ScienceDiet. We are hoping that it helps with his joints. We are disappointed there isn't a corgi on the Healthy Mobility Small Bites like there is on the regular Small Bites, but that is ok. We can get over it. Sammy is cuter anyway! haha.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Paddle, Paddle, Paddle

I don't think Sammy expected to have to have another full day of excitement and new things. I think he was quite happy with the weekend, and could have just napped the next couple days away. That isn't what happened, and I think in the end he is ok with it!
First, he was waaaay less than pleased about my 5am alarm for me to be to work at 6. If he had opposable thumbs, he would have grabbed my cell phone and thrown it. Apparently he was quite the stinker pants this morning, grouchy and lathargic. It didn't help that by noon, the temperature had risen above 90 degrees already. Well, I got off work a little after noon and came up with, what I thought was a brilliant idea. It's hot, Erik's off, I'm off, it's a weekday, and it's not showing any signs of raining (like it said in the forecast!)...lets take Sammy to the lake today and not wait til next weekend!
I hurried home, got in my swimsuit (tried to convince Erik to wear a swimsuit, but failed), got beach towels, bug spray, water and the camera and we were off to Fremont Lakes. Sammy was, of course, very excited, and for once, didn't fall asleep on the car ride. He usually passes out when we hit interstates or highways, and we had mostly highway driving. I think he was just too excited for what may be coming to stay still!!
Oh and we got soooo excited because as we were driving by, we saw a family of dogs, and one was a CORGI!! But by the time we got our day pass, car parked and got over there, the corgi was nowhere to be found. We were sad. Well Sammy had no clue about any of it, just excited about the smells, sounds, and new sights! We took a little walk around the park so he could truley enjoy the water. He was plum tuckered out by the time we hit the beach, but that was probably for the best. We had to keep him on a leash for a couple reasons. One: we saw a sign saying to keep your dog on 6' ropes and there were lots of state park people there doing flood monitoring, landscaping, and clean up from the holiday weekend. And more importantly, two: we didn't know how he was gonna react and chasing him down did not sound like fun in mid 90 degree temperatures.
He waddled right up to the water without any problems. The last time we were at a lake fishing, I kept him away from the water because the flooding was really nasty, so he was probably unsure if he was allowed to. Plus, there were jetskis making waves, he was concerned about them coming towards him! Lol. Once I went in, he kinda staggered in. After getting in, he seemed ok. We slowly went forward and finally I just got tugging him a little so he would have to be afloat and see how he did before he had the chance to get scared, meaning too stubborn! He did great. It was a little surprising to him, but he doggie paddled like he had been doing it for years!!
He swam right back to where he could stand and looked at us both. I persuaded (tugged) him back to swimming and to my (and Erik's) amazement, he just swam right past me and around me, back to the shallow water! He looked like a pro!
He was distracted by other people and stuff, but seemed to be having a good time with it! I had to kick it up a notch, of course. He had been great with the little short bursts of swimming, but I really wanted to know how he would do in a longer swim (see if life jackets are in our boating future, so I picked him up and took him out to water about 6" below my shoulder. He didn't struggle getting out there, swam right out of my arms back to the beach. Looked up at Erik mostly and looked proud when he got back. The next time we went a little deeper. He was so funny, when I picked him up out of the water, he kept his little paws paddling in the air! He paddled the whole way out to water up to my shoulder!
He swam back, and that was just about enough for him. He was all out of energy. He rolled in the sand, then came out a couple of inches into the water where I was laying down (well on my elbows in the water). He definately had fun. Erik wished he had brought his swimsuit (duh) and I can't wait to do it again! I really want to bring a squeaker tennis ball and see if he would play with it or not. Probably not, but you never know!
Today was most definatley a success, couldn't have gone better. And we will be finishing with a very thorough bath!! He smells very fishy! As do I.












"Can we come back soon, Momma? This is sooo fun!"

Monday, July 5, 2010

Happy Fifth of July!

We had a very fun Fourth of July Weekend! Sammy was able to play with kids and dogs! He got to see and play with his doggie cousins; see one of his bff's, grant as well as 2 kids at the bbq; he got to hang out with my mom and chase kitty cats; he got lots of tasty treats snuck to him; he got lots of attention; AND he got to see fireworks for the first (real) time! What does this mean for a nearly 15 month old corgi?

Happy Fifth of July! Enjoy your naps!



Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy Fourth of July

So far our Fourth of July weekend has been really fun! Although Sammy was alive for Fourth of July '09, he was in the petstore, so he was unable to expierence it. So, I'm calling this his first Fourth, even though it is not. Surprisingly, he is less than concerned about most fireworks! Shocking since he hated thunder at first, and for a long time after. As well as say our neighbors being loud. But as long as we are with him, no biggee.
In Omaha, we like our fireworks. We have a big concert and fireworks on the Friday before the Fourth at our big park, Memorial Park. It is practically across the street from main campus, so we had planned on going to campus and watching from there. However, parking was opened to the public rather than just permits (ugh) and we ended up at the golf course/park between main campus and South campus. It was Sammy's first time on a golf course, he really enjoyed the green for some reason. There were other dogs and tons of kids so Sammy was pretty much in his element, except for that darn leash that drove him crazy. Once the fireworks began, he sat right in between Erik and I, and that silly dog, it seemed like he watched part of it! Can you believe it? He was taken off guard by the echoing of the booms, which was kinda cute. But no barking, no whining, no upset-edness (did I make that word up?), just calm and sweet.
Yesterday (Saturday, July 3) was Rosenblatt Fireworks. Usually on a Saturday, but can fall midweek if the Fourth is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, the Omaha Royals take on another minor league team and afterwards we have a humongus firework show! I've heard before, although I have not researched it myself to be certain, that it was "The largest firework show this side of the Mississippi." Seriously, about the only reason to care about baseball sometimes. Erik's parents got everyone tickets to the game (AKA fireworks) since this is the last year of Rosenblatt Stadium. (Rosenblatt is also where the College World Series is, but Omaha is building a larger stadium to keep the CWS. The Royals don't get enough people for the Rosenblatt, so the Henry Doorly Zoo (also amazing, seriously top 10 in the world) will be taking the land to expand. It's a whole big thing.)
First, however, we went to Erik's sister's house to help with their outdoor renovations (Erik's brother and sister-in-law have a business doing this) to improve the house and they came in town for it). Sammy got to play with both his cousins, Bella and Max. Sammy was about over his limit after about an hour, but was able to hang in there for about 2. He just doesn't have the energy for all that! I ended up separating them so Sammy could lie down for a while. We came home to take showers and Sammy passed out to the point he didn't even wake for the hair dryer! We left for the game, so Sammy got picked up by my mom to spend the evening with her. I wanted him to have someone around for the brunt of the fireworks, but moreover I wanted to have him covered otherwise I would NEVER have any fun worrying about him with fireworks and long time...etc.
We had a great time at the Blatt, amazing fireworks (we have it recorded I just don't know how to upload that big of a file :( ), but I don't think Sammy was quite as excited. He apparently was unable to sleep soundly. Kept jumping. We got to my mom's to pick him up around midnight, and home around 12:30. Then the poor baby had to wake up at 5 this morning since I had to work at 6! He has lots of plans for this evening still, and I think he is concerned about it because when it came time for his photoshoot, well, he was WAAAAAAAY too tired to help!

"This Fourth of July business is hard work, Momma."




"Ok, Mommma, I'll do it. .....Happy Fourth of July Everyone!!!"



"When I grows up, I wants to be a sailor, jus like my Dad!"



"'Specially the nappy part!"









"Have a Happy Fourth of July! Sammy out."