Meet Beau

I'd like to introduce the newest addition to the Cagle Household.....Beau. He is a 12 week old Boykin Spaniel, and the most precious little mess you've ever seen.  No we weren't looking to add another 4-legged child to the mix, but he came to us by way of one of the other football coaches whose dog had a litter of just one pup and instead of selling him, he was willing to give him away to someone he knew....enter us. Eric knew that if he called and asked me about it I would have said no, so he had the dog brought to our house last week knowing there was no way I could turn this sweet face away!

He's pretty stinkin cute, too! It's been almost a year since we had a puppy around and I forget how silly they can be.  He loves playing in the garden....banana peppers are his favorite so far, aside from a hole that I dug some dirt from that gets just muddy enough to play in when the garden gets watered. He pulled one pepper off the other day and last night he took out an entire plant....he got excited about something and started jumping around like puppies do and snapped the entire plant off at the base.

Waiting for the pepper to play back....

He had me in tears last night after he stole the empty potting soil bag I had been using.  The bag was a least 4x his size but it was empty so he could pick it up, plus it made noise!  He started running around the yard with it so it looked like the bag was just floating around the yard. I tried to yell at him to stop but I was laughing so hard nothing came out. Oh puppy life.

Clockwise from top left: 1)He does have quite a distinguished look when he wants to (and is still for more than .5 seconds). 2) This is the look he gives when you tell him he can't do something....complete astonishment. This is usually followed by barking at whatever you just told him no to after he gives you the look. He spent about 5 minutes barking at Hawk's bowl on Sunday morning because I would not let him eat Hawk's breakfast, too. 3) He does seem to enjoy biting shoes/toes/calves, so I've had to be extra careful with where I throw my shoes....I'm learning just like him. 4) He may be a wild man when he is awake but he sure does give sweet puppy cuddles when he is asleep!

He has actually been a really good puppy.  He goes in his crate at night and after a few minutes of jumping in circles and playing with his bed he settles down and goes to sleep. He usually sleeps all night until we get up in the morning and we are crossing our fingers and toes and eyes that it continues. I am hoping we won't have to crate him at night for too much longer. His little puppy brain is just too curious to stay out right now.

The Chuck-It Bumper is one of his favorite toys....he shakes it so hard he falls over!

Of course he's been checking off his list of Cagle dogs firsts. In the one week we've had him he has swam in the pool, walked the neighborhood, and even had his first bite of ice cream (we had DQ for Peanut's birthday last night). Hawk and Peanut weren't thrilled with him initially but I know they'll come around with lots of bribing and treats eventually.

I feel like this could be a movie cover for The Hangover: Canine Edition...Beau has the Alan roll nailed.

I am sure there will be copious amounts of silly Beau stories to come....so stay tuned!

Memorial Day Week Vacation Part 2: Orange Beach

As I mentioned in Part 1, we (and by we I mean Eric) decided he wanted to change our plans 2 days before we left on our vacation and extend our trip by a few days by heading over to Orange Beach, AL on Wednesday when Mom and Dad headed back home.

It's only taken me nearly 10 years of being around Eric to start keeping up with fishing and hunting seasons, particularly the ones that hit me last minute every year....I've never been an exceptionally quick learner with certain things. Unlike deer and fishing season which are several months long, duck season(s), dove season, and red snapper season are a few of the seasons that can be tricky because they're short and can sneak up on me and are all seasons he cannot miss out on....someone has a severe case of FOMO (fear of missing out), especially when it comes to catching or killing something he likes to cook. I just happened to remember the the super fast 10-day red snapper season usually hits early June, so I looked it up in mid-May. Wouldn't you know that it ran June 1 (the day we were to leave PCB) and runs through June 9 (so if you had intentions of catching red snapper in AL waters this year and are not out on a boat right this moment you're probably SOL), so I had already told my boss that there was a good chance I'd be out for the entire Memorial Day week and did not have my usual freak out when Eric suggested we call his brother and see if we could come over so they could fish for a few days. Like I said....it only took me 10 years to start planning ahead like this. Did I gloat and say something along the lines of I knew you'd want to go!!!? Not on the outside anyway.... =)

We had a fantastic visit in OB. Eric got to go snapper fishing not once, but twice over the weekend which made him a happy camper. And left us with an abundance of delicious fish to eat!

 The 65lb Wahoo!

 Wahoo and Red Snapper

I on the other hand, got to spend lots of time with my SIL and nephew. We spent our mornings at the YMCA getting out workout on, where we got to take a bunch of fun classes: Body Pump, a barre-inspired class, and a really fun class that you get to beat drumsticks on the floor while you do squats and lunges that is my new favorite workout called Pound! And we spent our afternoons on the couch binge watching Netflix shows....I finally got to watch Fuller House and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt! After 5 straight days at the beach, I really didn't mind staying inside and relaxing!

...and of course lots of Disney Channel!  I know I am not the only person in the world who uses children as an excuse to watch Disney movies, right?!

We finally packed up and headed home on Saturday afternoon. As much fun as we had on our adventures it sure was good to come home to our pups! We took it easy on Sunday in an attempt to wean ourselves off vacation life and back into real life. Lucky for me I had Monday off, too, so I had an extra day to recover, which I spent weeding the garden and playing with the pups. It was a pretty fantastic ending to a pretty fantastic vacation if you ask me!


Side Note: Today is the 9th birthday of our sweet, mischievous, drill sergeant of a puppy dog, Peanut! You better believe we will be celebrating with a little DQ ice cream treat tonight!

He spent his Sunday afternoon patrolling the pool from his towel-covered chair....serious business folks, serious business.  

Weekend Recap: It Summered

Yes I realize I made up that word just now but that's the best way to describe what happened this weekend: it summered outside. And in response? We summered right back.

Clockwise from top left: 1) Summer pretties from Costco 2) Spicy Pimento Grilled Cheese on a Hawaiian Roll...aka the most worth it diet ruiner ever created. 3) Baby Knox and I at the birthday party on Sunday....and the giant water slide in the background. 4) Fried okra grown in the garden by yours truly.

After a crazy busy 24 hours to start the weekend: I had dance team tryouts Friday night and hosted my P.E.O. group on Saturday morning (both of which went wonderfully!),  I was completely pooped. Eric was off fishing in a tournament so I decided the best course of action would be to layout/swim in the pool. One problem, it was absolutely, positively miserable outside. I'm talking actual temps over 100 degrees with heat indices nearing 110....in June. You see the weather decided to "summer", like "Dog Days of Summer" that we usually don't get until August....in JUNE. I know I know, the pool seems like the logical solution, but it was just so stinkin hot and I really didn't want to mess with sticky sunscreen that I was going to have to reapply 1000 times because that's approximately how many times I'd have to get in the pool....so I told the pups we were going to stay inside in the AC for a little while and took a nap on the couch instead....they didn't object.

Around 4, when the heat index had gone down to a mere 100 we ventured out.  The sun was just started to go behind the trees in the backyard, so it was perfect.  Eric got home about an hour later and our neighbors came over and we all played in the pool like with the kids until we were hungry.

Hawk in his happy place and Peanut checking out the corn in the garden.

Sunday we were up early, I headed to church and Eric headed over to his friend's house to help put up a fence.  I honestly don't think they could have picked a hotter weekend for it. I stopped by after church and brought them some cold Gatorade and waters because I am a nice thoughtful person and had nothing to do with me being nosy and wanting to see how the fence looked.....promise. While the guys finished up the fence I headed to a friend's child's birthday party, complete with a blow up water slide.  It was awesome. I seriously considered going down it, but decided against it because I really didn't want to have to drive home in wet clothes. I know lame. I am sure it would have been a lot cooler if I had because Sunday's heat was a carbon copy of Saturday's heat.

I left the party dry and went straight home to get in our pool because that's the best way I know how to summer.  Once again we swam until we got hungry. Luckily we had some leftover Boston Butt from Saturday, and some okra from the garden that needed to be cooked. I chopped them up, and we fried them along with some banana peppers and there was not a single okra piece or banana pepper ring left. I am super excited that the garden is starting to produce some veggies! Now if it would just cool off a little I could get out and finish weeding it so I can take pictures of it to share.

Side note: is it okra pieces or okra pods or okras or what? I've asked several people and have no clear answer and it makes for extremely awkward conversations when trying to tell people how much okra I had to use up.

I do have to brag on Eric for just a minute....He and a buddy fished a tournament on a river that Eric hasn't fished in nearly 20 years and they finished 3rd out of 22 boats!

I promise he was excited...I guess he was trying to be a serious fisherman.

So yeah, that's how we summered this weekend.  It was pretty fantastic.  I am hoping we get to do the same again this coming weekend. BTW we replaced our pool liner the week we left for the beach so this is really the first weekend we've been able to enjoy the pool this year! Whatcha think??  We love it!

Just so you know it had not been cleaned in the before picture...hence the booger green color of the water. 

Memorial Day Week Vacation Part 1: Panama City Beach

We did something last week that Eric and I have not done since the week we got married almost 6 years ago....we both took an entire week off of work for vacation, and boy did we need it! We had been planning on spending a few days in Panama City Beach, FL for Memorial Day, but Eric realized the week before we left that red snapper season was coming in on June 1 (the day we were supposed to come home from  PCB) so we decided to extend our trip by a few days and head west to Orange Beach, AL and spend some time with his brother's family. It was a fantastic trip and I was not amused when my alarm clock went off Tuesday AM (thank you random Monday state holiday). In fact I slept right through it until Eric had to wake me up because it woke him up. Clearly my brain was still in vacation mode.

Beautiful scenery is usually the way to put me in a relaxed state: mountains, lake, forests, beach....they all make me happy. But there's something about the relaxing sound of the waves constantly rolling onto shore that puts me in total relaxation mode.

I'll take this view all day every day....kthanksbye

We had plans to head south first thing Friday morning, but the brim were bedding at the lake so Eric just HAD to go catch some...this is real life when you live with a true fisherman. It worked out well because I was able to get all of my things together and take the pups on a walk before we hit the road. We left right at 9AM and were sailing down the road until we got about 20 mins from home and Eric realized he'd left his golf clubs at home.  We turned around to go back and get them, so our official departure was not until 9:37AM.  We had an extra passenger on the way down because we were making a stop at his Mom's house to drop off his Dad's dog. She requested we bring Belle to stay with her for the week, which was no trouble because it was right on the way and we got to stop in for a nice lunch with his Mom and her husband. We finally pulled into Panama City Beach around 2PM, but it was perfect because our friends we were staying with the first night couldn't get into their room until 1PM so we ran to the room, threw on swim suits and hit the beach immediately.  We were not wasting ANY beach time!

Top: Beach bums! Bottom: (L) Beach sunsets are my favorite (R) The girlies before dinner. 

We opted for a casual dinner at Shuckems Oyster Pub with a side of karaoke for the kiddos, although they were more excited about the breaks where they played the Whip and the Nay Nay.  Want to entertain a crowd of kids? Play the song and watch all the kids get down....they know ALL THE MOVES. 

The guys headed out for a round of golf the next morning so once all of the kiddos were up we headed down to the beach for another day of sunshine...It didn't quite go as planned with a chill in the air and once it started sprinkling we headed up to the room for some lunch. It cleared up once the guys got back so we packed up and headed back down to the beach, naturally. After a few hours I left and ventured down Beach Front Road (being Memorial Day Weekend it was a very adventurous and long 3 mile drive) to pick up my parents who we were meeting up with for the remainder of our PCB stay. I brought them back to the other hotel for the afternoon since we had a primo front row beach spot already staked out. After a bit we parted ways and headed to our hotel with my folks to get checked in and unpacked before meeting up with everyone for dinner at Sharkey's (conveniently walking distance from our hotel...because ain't nobody got time to drive down Front Beach Road in PCB at mealtime on Memorial Day Weekend).

Dinner at Sharkey's with the entire crew!

The rest of our stay went like this: Eric and Dad got up and headed to the golf course, Mom and I got up and headed out on a walk down to Pier Park and beyond....a good 5 miles before heading to the beach. When the boys got back we'd head up for lunch and then back to the beach for the afternoon. We'd come in when the sun started going down to get cleaned up and head to dinner. I'm pretty sure that's how life is supposed to be done all day every day, right?

 1) Sand Turtle! 2) Heaven's Gate...no seriously that was the name of the drink. A refreshing crisp spritzer! 3) Dad and I at Sharkey's the first night. 4) The best lunch view ever! 5) Mom's birthday was the last full day of our trip so we celebrated with cake, naturally. Unfortunately we did not have a lighter and the store only gave us some matches with nothing to light them on, so my repairman husband lit the match on the broiler, which was brilliant until we walked over to their room with the lit cake and opened the door. Then a giant wind gust blew ever single candle out.....so we had to relight them with the broiler and a paper towel. 6) Won Ton Nachos....unfortunately the drinks and appetizer were the only really great things about the place we ate at that night. 7) Mom and I at her birthday dinner. 8) The Crab Cake Appetizer at Uncle Ernie's....they deep fry the $#!+ out of them, according to our waiter.....so delicious!

I think we came to a consensus that our favorite dinner was the one at Uncle Ernie's Bayfront Grill in Panama City (across the bay from PCB) for Mom's birthday dinner.  The food was delicious, the view was spectacular, and we even had live music! Our dinner choice only reaffirmed my confidence is asking locals for food suggestions....and I'd like to give a big shout out to Joey from the Electronics Department at Target who suggested this place to Mom and I.

This sunset view was absolutely spectacular on the Bay.  And I'd like to point out the Betsy Ann River Boat in the center of the top photo. 

And now for more pictures.....because beach = perfect background for pictures =)

 We got to see an ocean rainbow after a rain shower one night. 

Whoever named the beaches between Panama City and Gulf Shores the Emerald Coast hit the nail on the head because the water and the white sandy beaches are top notch! We are beyond lucky to live so close to such a beautiful place!

We finished up our PCB vacation on Wednesday and said good bye to my folks before heading west for the Orange Beach leg of our vacation.  Since this post is already a mile long I will save those pics for another day, but let's just say there was a lot of food, fish, and fun family time!