Porch, Puddles Puppies, People, & Pioneer Days!

What an exciting and fun week the 24th of July celebration turned out to be!! The contractor we had scheduled to complete our back porch and storage room called and said he had a schedule change and was able to work us in that week. Of course, we immediately agreed as we had been very anxious to get it done so we would have plenty of shelter for our puppies. The cement crew arrived the next afternoon (Wednesday). We were a little leery of the weather because the clouds looked as if they would dump rain at any minute, but they decided to go forward with concrete pouring. The only trouble we ended up having was Zeke (our black lab) continually walked across the setting concrete to "visit" the workers. He finally got locked in the house....

Since the eves had to be shaved off the back of the house in preparation for the porch addition, we had a huge sheeting of plastic draped across and tucked into the roof to keep water out of the house. And luckily we did, because the next day it RAINED. And it rained off and on for the next 3 days.

Meanwhile, my parents came up to enjoy the Pioneer Day festivities and brought their travel trailer. We had fun touring historical homes in the area on Thursday morning, then in the afternoon (in the pouring rain, of course) Bailey started having her puppies. We put her in the back of the horse trailer so she would have plenty of room and shelter. Over the next four hours she had 11 puppies, 3 yellow and 8 black. The kids and our neighbor, Janet, named them sausage 1-10 and Bacon. Bacon was the runt and ended up being the kids favorite because she was slightly smaller than the rest and they could tell her apart. :)

The next day, Friday, our friends Suzy and Sean came to visit from Queen Creek for a couple days. Finally, someone to use our guest room besides the cat for his afternoon nap! We had a great time going to the rodeo that night and hanging out with them. That evening Brenda (Jeff's sister) and her two daughters (Amanda & Elise) and their friend came to stay with us. It was so much fun having company around for the weekend! Pioneer Days is always fun to celebrate in a small town. Sean ran in the 10K on Saturday morning, then we went to the parade and rodeo. The kids were in heaven having Grandma and Grandpa Olson with them for several days in a row. Oh yeah, I can't forget Suzy's tuna melts for a late lunch on Saturday. Yum Yum......

Sunday, things started getting back to normal (for the boondocks) as our guests headed home. We were left with just 11 puppies, 3 dogs, 3 horses, 1 cat, plastic covering the back of our house, lots of puddles and anticipation for our porch framing to start the next day. Whew, I must say, there was never a dull moment the week of Porch, Puddles, Puppies, People, & Pioneer Days!!