Big News!

We left Corvallis and headed towards our destination for the day; Sweet Home, Oregon. Another "I could live here" place. A small town, but big enough to have a McDonald's, Dairy Queen and other fine amenities. It looks like a great town to raise a family. We were there to see Eric and Amy from Foster Lake Frenchie's. This is the breeder that we got our precious Zoey from almost 6 years ago and have stopped to see them several times since then. 

This year was a little more special than the previous times however as they just had a litter of puppies! Born on the 24th of May, they had been posting pictures of this litter online since their birth. As a matter of fact, we have been following this litter since momma (Ivory) was bred to a stud in New Hampshire several months ago.

As many of you know, Frenchie's are a somewhat high maintenance breed often requiring c-sections for births. This was the case this time as well. Ivory gave birth to 4 adorable pups; 1 girl and 3 boys. Eric and Amy are super cautious when it comes to their pups. We had to remove our shoes and wash up before we even got into the house. Even then we were not allowed to touch them, they are only a week old, eyes not open yet and weigh just over 1 pound.

Barb was able to hold the girl for a few minutes; it was wrapped in a towel, enough to see how adorable she is.

We visited with Eric and Amy for about an hour before saying our goodbyes and telling them we would be back in 8 weeks to pick up our new puppy! Meet Maisie, the newest addition to our family! 

We have actually been talking about a new pup for over a year, talking about what breed and when was the right time. We will probably always have dogs, they bring so much joy to our lives, but when is the right time to get a new dog? With Daisy, we waited until she passed before thinking about another pup. For us, this was very, very difficult. Even though you know the day is coming, the depression and sadness is real. The other consideration is our age. It seems so weird to say that in our heads we are still in our 40's, but the reality is that if Maisie lives 10 years, we will be well into our 70's when she passes and the older we get, the harder it is to deal with that. There is also the best time to get one based on our lives; based on what we have going on the rest of the year, the timing was right. So, for these reasons and several others, the timing was right. We are so excited!

Once we decided the timing, we started talking to Eric and Amy in early April, it just so happened that they were planning a litter for this summer and were going to take a break for a year. We asked them to put us on their list, and it just so happened, we were the first to ask and were at the top of the list! 

We only wanted a female, so we had to wait and wait, and wait. Finally on May 24th the day arrived.

They named the girl Dolly, she is blue and tan and was the largest in the litter. She would be the bigger one in the pictures above. We took a few days to talk it over to make sure that this is what we wanted to do. But once Barb saw her and held her in her hands, the decision was made.

They continue to send us pictures and updates. She opened her eyes yesterday! Even though she is only a few ounces more than the others, based on the picture below, we should have named her Shamu rather than Maisie!

We can pick her up the end of July, it is going to be a long 8 weeks! After leaving Sweet Home we headed back to the coast where we spent the night at Lagoon Lake National Forest Campground outside of Florence.

Lunch was clam chowder from the Krab Kettle. I thought it was as good or maybe better than Norma's, but Barb thinks Norma's was a little better. We always struggle to get pictures of the 4 of us, but Dakota finally cooperated and we were able to get this one. I think she was maybe just pooped and needed a rest. 

Continuing down the coast we made our way to our favorite campground along the coast. Bastendorf Beach County Park in Coos Bay. This is where Barb spent most of her childhood vacations. She has such fond memories of this area, and it warms my heart seeing the joy in her eyes as she describes her memories to me. She told me stories of playing hide and seek with her brother and all the other kids in the campground, crabbing, clamming and just being a kid. 

Barb and Zoey went for several walks while I hung out with Dakota at the campsite. I think Dakota is looking forward to getting home where there are no stairs and she can just lay on her bed. Zoey, on the other hand, loves her walks and even met a friend!

We recreated a couple of those memories by playing hide and seek ourselves! Not really, but we did go clamming! Twice actually. You have to time low tide and arrive at the clamming area an hour before low tide. 

Once you get to the clamming area, you start looking for clam holes where they extend their necks to the surface. Once you find one, you put your finger in the hole and should feel the neck retract when you touch it. Then you start digging!

Over the next hour or so we poked and dug over two dozen clams, mostly gapers. 

You have a pretty short window before the tide starts coming in again, making it impossible to dig. We then took them back to the campground where we cleaned them. Quite the process. From there, Barb made both clam strips and chowder. The strips were so, so. The chowder was delicious!

After three days, it was time to move on. Three hours later found us in Grants Pass where her dad's brother, Ron and his wife Diana live. We have not seen them since June of 2020, way too long. Both in their 80's, a lot has changed in the past 6 years. No pictures, and it was a short visit, only about an hour but it was great to see them. 

Two hours later we were in Klamath Fall to see what exactly what we had gotten ourselves into volunteering to empty Forrest and Somer's storage unit. 

It looks like we have our hands full and tomorrow is going to be a full day! I wish we had a timelapse recording of us moving everything from the unit into the trailer. While it was a tight fit, it did not take us nearly as long as I thought it would. We were in and out in 3 hours. 

Now we are off for home. No adventures, just drive, eat and sleep for 3 days. Wish us luck!

I wrote the above sentence two days and over 1,200 miles ago. As I said, no adventures, just driving. 496 miles the first day and 786 yesterday. We pulled in our driveway just after 8pm. We are so happy to be home and so thankful to not have had any issues with the trailer the entire trip.