Cool Cornwells: July 2008

July 21, 2008

Riley's First Pony Ride

We made a family trip to the zoo this past weekend. Riley definitely seemed like she was the most excited to see all the animals. The highlight of the day was the Pony Ride though. Everyone got to ride. Paul & I thought for sure Riley would NOT end up doing it, especially since she had just said how scared she was of the carousel. But she surprised us and did great! She loved it and said she wanted to keep doing it.

Riley rides Ginger.....

Here we go!

All done.....YEAH!

Reagan rode Scarlett....the only horse! She made a point to tell me that her horse WAS NOT a pony!

Ryan gets to ride Scarlett too!

The kids at the walrus exhibit. Reagan didn't like them, but Riley and Ryan went right up to the glass to see the humongous beasts! It was a fun, but HOT day!

July 20, 2008

Saying Goodbye to Tabitha

We had an interesting thing happen to us while we were gone to Texas. While we were gone, our cat, Tabitha, went over to our neighbor's house. She was living in our garage due to kidney issues and urinating on the carpet. So she had a nice little setup in our garage and she could go in and out through the kitty door. Apparently she got lonely, so she visited their house where they petted her and gave her water. Well, she meowed outside their back door for over 12 hours, keeping them awake most of the night. Thinking they were doing the best thing, they called Animal Control and had her sent to the Humane Shelter to be taken care of. That was July 1st. We got back from Texas on July 7th. I didn't find out about all of this until July 10th. We just thought she had run away, which was strange for her b/c she loved staying around the house. So, I went to the Humane Shelter and had to "adopt" her back out for $65 on Friday July 11th. She had been there for over 10 days. Since nobody knew of her kidney failure issues, she was fed regular food, not the prescription food she had been eating for 3 years. This special food had little protein in it so her kidneys wouldn't have to work as hard. We believe that being fed the regular food basically made her kidneys have to work extra hard and that made her sick. We always knew the kidney failure would take her from us, but not this soon. She went downhill from there and by Thursday, things were looking pretty bad. Ryan took it pretty hard and wanted a picture with her. I also took it pretty hard. I had never had a pet for this long....11 years. It was a hard decision to make, but as liquid started coming out of her mouth and she was sometimes coughing, we knew we had to put her down. Even though we had issues with her, she still brought much joy to our family. Bye Bye dear friend!

Trip To Texas With The Wiebes and 4th of July

We made a trip to Texas over the 4th of July week and boy, did we have fun and stay busy! Our best friends from Seattle, who now live in Texas stopped by our house on June 26th from their vacation in Syracuse and Detroit. They stayed the night with us and then we all took off for Texas the next day, deciding to carpool together and stay at a hotel in Arkansas. We had lots of fun and James didn't get too "mad" at Paul for driving the speed limit! During our stay in Texas, we also spent two days with Amy and her sweet daughters, Ellie & Emma, going to the pool and cruising on Lake Dallas. Amy's dad has a cabin cruiser and he kindly took all of us out on the lake. Reagan at first said there was no way she was swimming in that brown water, but she quickly changed her mind, especially when she found out she could ride the tube behind the boat! The kids loved it! We also spent lots of time with Grammer shopping, swimming at Aunt Michelle's pool, going to a waterpark, and setting off lots of fireworks! Time went by way too fast. The kids loved being at Grammer's house and playing on the land and seeing all the cows. Riley still talks about wanting to go back! Here are some good highlights....