New Addition to the Family

We surprised the kids this morning with Taka - (pronounced 'TAHkah', short for Sitakaday... Sitakaday Narrows is a rather amazing place in Glacier Bay).  We'll be picking her up for keeps this week, but we were able to have a couple hour visit today for an Easter surprise.  She's a super sweet puppy - a real snuggler (as you can see from the photos), but also very curious and already shadowing the kids.  Her parents are very good bird dogs, and Taka has already shown some indication that she might be a pointing lab like her mom.  And close friends of ours - who's older girl and boy are among Maille's and Finn's best friends - have one of Taka's yellow sisters.  Maille is completely beside herself in love with the puppy, Finn is very excited but would probably rather she could already fetch, and Elias is doing a lot of emphatic squeaks and pointing...

Girl Scouts Father-Daughter Dance

Had a really special night with Maille last night at the annual Father-Daughter Dance put on by the Girl Scouts.  Maille will soon finish up her last year as a Daisy Scout, then will graduate to being a Brownie.  She's so, so sweet... got all dressed up for our night out... including her opal necklace and her silk scarf that I brought back from one of my work trips this winter.

This photo was taken with roughly 7 seconds left in the silent dessert auction...

And this one was taken about 1 second after the auction ended... YES!  Fist pump!  We got it... homemade raspberry bars with shortbread crust and a brown sugar/oatmeal crumble topping.   YES!!