beagle on the beach

My family spent Thanksgiving at the beach this year. I actually got to bring Madeleine on a trip for a change instead of leaving her in a beagle hotel. She had a little trouble adjusting to the other dogs sharing the house (both my uncles brought their dogs), but she absolutely loved the beach. Here is a video of her first experience with the water. I loved the way my aunt was trying to get her to go in!





The beach house had a gorgeous view, and that's about the nicest thing I can say about it. The house was undergoing renovations by someone who didn't really have the skills to renovate (i.e. matte & gloss paint on the walls, uneven & unfinished flooring, uneven marble counters in the kitchen, etc.) And that kitchen! Wow, was it tiny -- and really hard to keep three dogs out of while cooking Thanksgiving dinner. But when it came time to sit down and eat I was thrilled and thankful to have a large part of my family together, regardless of where we were.

After Thanksgiving, we went through the giant 20-gallon tub of photos we collected after my grandmother's funeral. Talk about a walk down memory lane! It was fun to see silly pictures of my Dad as a child, pictures of my cousin and me was she was just a little girl (gosh, we look alike!), even a picture of me coming home from the hospital that I'd never seen before. I've been thrown into the role of family archivist now, so I plan to scan a bunch of these pictures into the computer before I attempt any restoration. I promise to share some of my favorites.