Smokey and the Bandit

Smokey's new "Brother" Bandit the Betta was adopted last weekend! Hey it's a new grandbaby picture on the blog.

More Smokey

Happy Fall! Here are some pictures of Smokey's wired jaw. Just what you all wanted to see!

And his friend Everest is snuggling and helping him feel better.

Smokey's surgery

So, here is an x-ray taken during Smokey dog's surgery-the arrows point to the main fracture, as you can see pretty much the front half of this side of his jaw is disconnected from the rest of his head! and there is also a smaller fracture below that main fracture where another piece chipped off the opposite way. Poor baby!!!

Poor Smokey

Well, here is the latest excitement in our lives.
Smokey was drooling a lot and his breath smelled awful so we took him in to get checked. He had a broken tooth, and they couldn't get it out, so he had surgery today to get it removed. As a part of the surgery they did an x-ray and found that his jaw was fractured along that side as well, and inside the fracture had developed an infection. So he now has one side of his jaw wired. For the next 3-4 weeks he'll be eating only mush, and he isn't allowed to chew anything! We've been advised to keep him confined to the house unless he is on a leash and may need to muzzle him if we can't keep him from chewing. This is going to be interesting!!! Hopefully we can get the infection under control and keep the wire stable enough for the fracture to heal. Keep us all 3 in your prayers as we are probably going to go stark raving mad over the next 4 weeks!!

Vacation has come, and gone...

Ahh, well, we are home again. We got in this morning about 6 a.m. Washington time after a REALLY fun drive across 3 states in the middle of the night. That is the problem when one of you is a night person and the other is a morning person, you have trouble deciding when to stop and sleep! But we made it and both are back at work for partial days today. We'll try and get some pictures of our vacation on here before too much longer.

Master Wedding Photographers

Hello all! I know it has been a while, but we are now on vacation and actually have something to say! We spent the 31st - 2nd in Couer d'Alene, Idaho to photograph the wedding of some friends Sarah & Nate. It was a lot of fun and we got a few good ones!! on Saturday we drove home to Carole's parents' in Montana, and we've been catching up on our sleep and county fairs since then. Yesterday we went to the Sanders County Fair with Mom, and almost bought a horse. Lucky for Dad we stopped ourselves! We plan to do a little camping this week and then head to Butte, Montana to visit with Shaunda and go to her wedding shower!
Here is a pic of the beautiful bride, Sarah, and super-groom, Nate. Best wishes, guys!

Wow, we are in the final week of summer camp. Looking back it has kind of flown by, but I think we are both ready for it to be over for a little while!
We had a pretty good weekend. The Lutherwood alumni Reunion was on Saturday, so we both worked at that some, then Nichol, who used to be the program director at Lutherwood, came to visit. We babysat her lab, Everest, all last summer so it was fun for he and Smokey to play again. They have really been wearing each other out!
Brandon did some wakeboarding and Nichol and I did a little tubing. My arm-pit muscles now hurt, and believe me, Yes, there is such a thing as arm-pit muscles!

It's been a while...

Hello! OK, so I guess it has been a while so I figured I would just do a posting for the heck of it and so you don't stop coming to look!
Things were pretty quiet at camp this week, it was family camp which is always a little more mellow because, hey, the parents worry about what the kids are doing!
Next week is a HUGE camp, so we will go out with a bang. And that is that for summer '06.
Brandon and I will regroup here in Washington for a few days and then we are off to Montana, via a friend's wedding in Idaho. We will have 10 days off!!! Unheard of, and we'll be hoarding vacation time for the rest of the year so we have some time off at Christmas, but this is definitely going to be a needed break for us.
When we get back things will be rolling for me at my job, and for both of us the Middle School youth group at my work will get going. We'll be sure and put up some pictures of our vacation!

Our Baby: Smokey

Brandon's newest past-time is wakeboarding, a good one since we have job "perks" of lakefront property, boats, and gear! Consequently Carole has learned to drive the boats, which, by the way, she is awesome at!!

OK, so here is a typical night of a program director. 5 hours in the ER with a counselor who stepped on a kick ball and then threw himself on the ground...we did get some good reading in, though, and an ER at midnight makes for some great, if disturbing, people-watching. The best part of the night was a kid that came in with his parents and sat by us, and you could see where his arm was broken because it was pushing the skin way out, not through the skin, but definitely gross. He had gone last week to our "rival" Bellingham camp so we picked their brains while trying to keep his mind off the fact that his bones were no longer connected!

Greetings from Washington State!
We decided to give this blog thing a try to keep some folks updated on what we are up to, what is going on in our lives, and all that stuff that is REALLY exciting to all of you. Ok, maybe it will be super boring, but I bet once there are baby postings at least our parents and Mel will check it out! No, Carole is not pregnant, just planning ahead!!!

Brandon's sister, Mel, came to visit us for a week. It was great! Most of the time she just hung out at camp and relaxed, but on Saturday we all rode the ferry over to San Juan Island and walked around, bought touristy stuff, and went to the Arts Fair. It was a gorgeous day to be out on the water!

Whale Watching in the San Juan Islands

Our Families

From Left to Right, Carole's brother Kendall, Carole's brother Connor, Brandon's sister Melissa, Carole, Brandon (holding Smokey), Carole's mom Cheri (sitting), Brandon's dad Stan, Brandon's mom Karen, and Carole's dad Rob. (at Lutherwood, Thanksgiving 2005)