Everything Else..

Took Cooper to another practice this past weekend. Didnt expect much from him. Before it was his turn to go, we took a dead duck and played around with it, asking Cooper to pick it up and hold it in his mouth.. he didnt have much interest in the duck nor in carrying it around, so when Derek went to the line to run Cooper in the practice, we had zero expectations that he would bring back the duck. In the past practices, he would run to the duck, sniff it and then keep going!
As Cooper ran out to find the duck that was thrown for his practice, he got a little lost and couldnt find it so after a minute or so, he stopped, sat down and looked at Derek for direction! We both at this point had a little pitter-patter in our hearts because he looked so damn cute and he was doing what he is supposed to do! Derek rose his hand up and said "Back!" and sure enough Cooper ran back in the direction he was supposed to, found the duck, PICKED UP the duck and ran back to Derek with it! OMG we were just amazed that he did it.. All the hard work we had put in after his training is paying off and we see for the first time real possibility that this sport could be one we stay involved in.

The 2nd duck was thrown for Cooper and again, he ran out to it, found it and brought it back to Derek. We could not have been happier!!! There have been so many issues and problems we've had to work around and through after Cooper came back from training so it was a huge relief to see this happen. The second practice run I actually got on video, bummer I didnt get the first one as it was a much better run, but he still did great!!

In the video posted, he dropped the first bird on the way back and didnt want to pick it up, it had been a live shot bird within the past 30 minutes vs the other ducks were long dead and frozen. He apparently wasnt too sure about the fresher bird, but he did bring it back eventually!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeIWaSyO6fw

We also went to a DSHS adoption class last week.. learned a lot and are moving forward with getting approved through the state to foster. In order to adopt, you have to become approved to foster, meaning we will be taking a 27hr course in July and then within the next few months, we plan to submit for our homestudy. Once both of those are completed, we will either be approved or not approved and once approved we can start looking for a child. :)

This past weekend was our annual horse club Dutch Oven Day! Derek had been talkin about Seafood Gumbo for over a month, so that was what he made and it was delicious. A little spicy, but very good flavor and his first attempt at gumbo. Someone took this cute picture of us standing over our dish. Dutch Oven day is always one of my favorite club events, lots of good food you wouldnt expect to be cooked outdoors! Next week is our last week of bowling for this league.. we will be glad when that is over.. we love bowling, but it is an 8mo league and we kinda feel that is just too long! :) We might look into another league maybe at different lanes.. will suck to not bowl with Jen/John, but we also want to be on a smaller team. We have 8 people on our team and only 5 can bowl each week so there is too much rotating and not enough bowling! :)