Dawn and Osu playing carrot catch

I'm sure most of you are aware of our dietary changes in the past 9 months (which is going great).  It turns out, there is also a similar paleo diet for dogs, called the BARF diet (Bones and Raw Food).  We've switched Osu over to this new diet slowly over the past month or so, and he's loved it.  He has also responded very well to the change, having more energy, behaving better than ever, and losing weight.  Every morning, he waits patiently, yet eagerly, for one of us to head downstairs to feed him his 1/4lb of raw beef and whatever vegetables we have lying around.  At night, he does the same thing.  For the most part, his excitement mainly comes from the anticipation of meat.  He can't get enough of it.  Like me as a child, the vegetables always come last for Osu, and sometimes, he ignores certain ones altogether.  One day, he might love carrots and zucchini, the next, he ignores one or both of them completely.

Because of this, and because he needs his veggies, we've come up with a game to get Osu to eat more veggies when all he wants is meat.  Basically, it's fetch with carrots (or another vegetable), except that he eats the tossed veggie instead of bringing it back.  Of course, he loves this game.  It's great for supplementing his diet with more vitamins and minerals, and it gets him exercise, too!  Contrary to popular belief, not all dogs are good at searching things out.  The husky in Osu loves to run.  However, both the German Sheppard and Husky in him haven't given him a good nose or even that great of eyesight - at least when it comes to finding veggies in the yard.  It's quite comical watching him run around like crazy looking for a tiny piece of orange carrot in green surroundings.

Today we changed the game up a bit when Dawn got home from work.  The light was nice for pictures and it had been a couple of years since we last took pictures of Osu catching food in the air.  We'll have to try this again on another day as it was quite fun!  Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

       

     

There are a fee more pictures on my Flickr Site.  Just click this link!

Dawn's Growing Belly

Okay, so I was incorrect.  We haven't been taking pictures of Dawn's belly each week, but we are trying to now.  Some of the travel we were doing made it difficult to get the weekly pictures. Now, we just have to find a good place at the house to do them each week so there is some consistency.  One thing is for sure, though - Dawn is getting bigger each week and more noticeably so now!

Here is the first belly picture that we took in Bandon, Oregon on July 14:

Picture number 2 taken on the 10th of August:

Picture number 3 taken on the 23rd of August:

The latest picture taken on the 28th of August. 

We'll post these up each week from now on along with any other pictures we may take during the week.  According to all of the books we've been reading, Dawn's belly will start growing by leaps and bounds now!  One funny thing to mention is how many people are surprised that Dawn is even pregnant, let alone carrying twins.  She has been doing a great job of eating healthy and working out at least three times a week.  So far, I believe she has only gained a few pounds during the pregnancy.  This soon-to-be papa is very proud of her!  Yeah, sometimes I have to force-feed her spinach and fish oil, but it's for the better good of all involved!  

29 Aug 2011 - Girls!

Today we found out the sexes of the twins!  We knew that whatever they turned out to be, we would be happy either way.  Now, we can start whittling down name choices and decide what we are going to call these two.  We have a couple of favorites in mind, but I'll wait to share that information when we are 100% sure.  We did get a couple of new ultrasounds today.  The babies are getting noticeably bigger now!  It was fun watching them move around, kick each other in the head, and kick Dawn's belly.  They are definitely active little girls!

Just like her mom, this one is a thumb sucker too!  ;)

Big Head Baby Inside the Monster

Since Dawn began showing, we've been taking a weekly picture of her belly's growth.   Oops!  I was going to post those now, but they aren't quite ready yet.  I still have to do a bit of sorting and processing on them (still in RAW format).  I will get those up soon, though!

One last thought - please keep the pink for the girls to a bare minimum!  I don't know if I can deal with too much of it!  Thanks! :D

New ultrasounds from August 4th

Apologies for taking so long to get these put up.  There was a delay due to installing a new internet router at home and then trying to get the *^&%$ing printer/scanner hooked back up.  What a pain in the butt!  I will let Dawn write a bit more about the visit itself - which was great.  I wish the doctor would have printed out some of the better views of the babies, but these are still pretty cool, if not a bit hard to see.

This first one is a view of the top of the babies heads.  It doesn't show a lot, but at least show that they do indeed have heads.  That's a relief!

Righty's Hand (4 fingers and a thumb present and accounted for)

Lefty's foot (all toes accounted for)

It's time to revisit the world of blogging

It's been some time since we've last logged in to this blog.  It's not that we haven't had anything to share, it's just that we've been pretty busy with other projects and other things.  However, we now have some news that is too important and too exciting to keep to ourselves:

We are expecting!  Dawn is pregnant!! - with twins!!!

Currently we are in the middle of week 12.  Except for some food aversions and a slight drop in energy levels, Dawn is doing great.  We are both having fun reading up on what to expect, going through baby names, looking for strollers and other baby products for twins.  One thing is certain, however - our lives will be changing dramatically come next February, and we couldn't be happier!

We'll use this blog to post the latest updates, ultrasounds, belly pictures, and any other news we may have.  Without further ado, let me introduce you to the twins Atwood:

For fun, here is the first picture of the babies on the 20th of June:

As you can see, they've grown quite a bit in the past month!

As I stated earlier, we are still in the deliberation stage regarding names.  Of course, it's still too early to know the sex of the babies, so we're trying to come up with name pairs for 2 girls, 2 boys, and one of each.  Suggestions are welcome!  Please post them in the comment section!

Until next time,
Nate

PS - I'll be changing the banner picture soon.

Drive Thru Italy - Pictures from our 10 Day Journey

I love Italy. The country has so many different experiences to offer and so many different faces it can show its guests. In Italy’s Südtirol, you’re as likely to hear German spoken as you are Italian. Likewise, you’re just as apt to find a plate of spaghetti bolognese as you are a plate containing jägerschnitzel and frites. That’s the Italian Alps for you. A mix of cultures and people that hold steadfast to their roots and traditions, even if it is seemingly a mixture from different countries. The state boundaries in the Alps have changed frequently throughout history, but the people living in the Alps didn’t necessarily change with them.

As you move down Italy’s Autostrada 22 and further south, things definitely do become more distinctly Italian. Stop in a few towns along the way, however, and you’ll notice some differences between the people. Verona, although a good-sized city, has a small town feel where the people are friendly and seem more laid back. In contrast, Florence has a much more cosmopolitan feel, where fashion, no matter how God-awful it looks, is worn with gusto and conversations between friends sound like two enemies ready to go to blows. I think a simpler way to put this is that the young people of Florence are just really, really in to themselves – and it’s damn entertaining to watch!

Since I’m running short on time, I’ll just get straight to the pictures.  Click on the underlined portion to go directly to the Flickr gallery for the pictures.

Rosskopf, Italy - an afternoon of skiing.  This is right over the Austro/Italian border.  Dawn, Jef, and I hiked this area last summer also.

               

Kronplatz, Italy - skiing with the ski club in the Italian Alps
 

       

Alta Badia / Sella Ronda, Italy - The Italian Dolomites.  This area was amazingly gorgeous!

     

Verona, Italy - We only spent one night here.  I wish we could have stayed one day longer.  A great city.

     

Florence, Italy - Dawn, Osu, and I feel that Florence is a bit overrated.  It definitely is more of a museum city rather than a walking around city.  Scooters, cars, trucks, bikes - you name it - they are everywhere!  Traffic 'laws' seem only to be suggested instead of hard and fast rules.  Still, a beautiful city!  We planned on spending four nights here, but cut our stay short two nights so we could spend more time in Siena.  That was a good choice on our part!

      

Pisa, Italy - Yep, had to go see the Leaning Tower.....and, it was better than expected!

      

Siena, Italy - I'm glad we made the choice to spend more time here.  The city is nice, but you can see it all in one day.  What is special about the place is the surrounding hill towns only an hour or so away.

      

Towns Surrounding Siena

       

Now, it's time to start working on the high-quality photos and posters from this trip.  I have a lot of material to go through, but am really looking forward to it!  Until then!

Italy, a Drive-Thru

Nate's been itching for some skiing, so we decided to join the ski club and head to the Dolomites in Italy. It was a three day weekend, but we decided to extend it for the rest of that week, since I had a TON of overtime.

We headed out early Friday to ski at Rosskopf, Italy and then drive down to the town we'd stay with the club. We skied Kronplatz and around Alta Badia. Nate even took me into some powder, which was a lot of fun! i'm looking forward to more of that, although this year we may be out of snow.

After three and a half days of skiing, we were off to Verona. Romeo and Juliet, the Arena and Dante. We wandered around for some good photos in the morning and evenings, gotta get the good light. We made sure to see Juliet's balcony, passed Romeo's house, and Nate went into the Arena. Turns out not everyone likes dogs. Other than the short time there, it was a nice city. Pretty sites and much quieter than some of the other ciites we stopped.

We left Verona for Florence. Very excited to be in another large Italian city, we were thinking like Rome, or at least I was. Quite different. Not as many cool sites outside, but not bad. We saw David, Florence from high above in the catherdral's campanile, tower, and the bridge was really cool. Florence was going to be our home station for four nights, however, the overpopulation of scooters going thorugh EVERY square made it not so homey. I don't think we made it much more than 36 hours. Two night and we had already made plans for the rest of our stay in Siena.

On our way to Siena we had to drive through Pisa. It's not on the way, but it would be out of the way on any other trip, so we had to do it. Osu even felt compelled to hold up the tower as well, which all the asians thought was funny and they took pictures of us. Funny thing, as we sat down to eat a quick lunch before heading to Siena, a man from Ghana (?) came to sellus crap. He wanted to make friends first and made some connection to Germany. Then he gave us two little statue trinket things, and asked for a donation. We paid him off just to get him away form our table; I'm sure the way of many other tourists. The funny part is that Osu barked at him the entire time, as he does not like darker people, or old people.

The road to Siena from there was either the Autostrada or a drive through the hills. We chose the hills, as driving in Italy isn't always the most fun thing to do. Getting cut off is only half the battle, most is trying to not be sideswiped as you're driving defensively. Nate did an awesome job!

We passed through several small hilltop towns in Tuscany. It was sunny each day, so the landscape was wonderful to enjoy. A few stops had to be made for pictures, and we found a few towns to return to if there was time. One being Volterra.

We spent some time wandering Siena the first night, getting most of the town down. Areas were scouted for our morning sunrise, followed by next best shots and scounting eveing shots. As we finished up pictures and touring Siena, we planned for returning to Volterra and a few other towns along the way. We got up early the next morning to watch the sun rise over Monteriggioni, then Colle di Val d'Elsa, Volterra, and San Gimignano. All very cool cities, neat views and some had awesome towers and alleys to wander through.

By the end of our ten days, we were pretty spent. We went o bed around 7:30pm on Saturday night and got up at 3:15 Sunday morning for our long drive home. We beat most of the scary Italians, although we were pretty sure some of those other guys out on the road had been up all night. We got home by 1pm and were happy to get back in our groove.

Very fun trip, next time we'll probably fly into Naples and rent a car to drive around the rest of the boot. driving that far south would take quite some time, plus those crazy Italians all over the place.