Fun times...

Little Pip is growing beautifully.  He is so little and so sweet and I miss him when the days pass by without having had a little cuddle.  He was 4 weeks old yesterday and still only manages to not quite finish 6 teaspoons of milk.  He's little eyes are open now and he's such a sweet, tiny little fluff ball these days.  I love it when he's sleeping.  He either snuggles into the tiniest ball, or lies on his back, with his feet in the air... 

 I took these pictures a few days ago (last weekend) when I puppy sat...

 While he doesn't eat much and sleeps a lot, when he's awake, he's hungry.  It's been such a blessing that he's made it this far, we were told that he was the only puppy in his litter and that his elderly mother rejected him at birth.  Lucky that he was given such a great foster mom...

 This weekend was pretty busy.  We had dinner with new friends on Friday night and Saturday was spent rushing about, doing house work, visiting family and friends and the day ended off with a visit to Jacques' cousin's farm out in Durbanville.  We've been there only once before and it's always such an adventure for Jake.  They have 4 beautiful children, who they home school.  It always makes me feel a little sad, thinking that the life they live is the one Jake should've had.  Anyway, he had a ball on Saturday night.  It was a family get-together, we all took a plate of eats and our drinks and the kids ran wild.  Jake's cousins were there and he always enjoys spending time with them.  I think he just likes having a pretty girl on his arm and the girls are so good to him.  Here's Abi with Jake in the pool...

 And Becky...

 The thing with the farm, is that the two boys are around Jake's age.  One is slightly older and one slightly younger.  Their names are Luke & Joel, but I can never remember which is which.  Their bedroom was full of interesting things and I think Jake was just about ready to move in...

 In addition to a hamster, they have a leopard gecko...

 Oh my gosh.  He's cute.  And not as squishy as you'd expect a gecko to be.  I didn't hold him, but I did stroke it.  Jake's added it to his birthday wish list...

 And I'd probably agree to it, if they didn't eat these guys and their larva...

 Have you ever seen a sheep with an undocked tail????  I'm all for it, but seriously - I would not have guessed a sheep could possibly have SUCH a tail!!  The kids had a ball looking for farm fresh chickens eggs, which Jake had made into French toast for his breakfast yesterday.  There are horses too, but they were packed away for the night...

 All the kids had fun trying their arm at archery.  Little Ruth's there with her hands on her head and her two brothers are the next two to the right.  Jake's cousin Becky's next to him, red-headed Peter (another cousin's child) is behind Jake, Abi's friend Marcus is next, then Abi and Grandad, who was supervising the archery...

 OK, so my horizon's horrendously skew, but check out the view!!!

 This is Hannah and Kayden.  Hannah's husband, David, is Jacques' cousin.  David's a politician, just seems like such a grown up job!  They're a lovely couple, a lovely family.  Little Kayden is the youngest member of the extended family and he's too cute.  Matthew's in the background, is in Grade 11, he's the oldest.  I went to his Christening and that makes me feel SO old!!  I was only a little older than him when he was born! 

 I didn't take any farm house photos, besides this gorgeous mirror.  And my photo doesn't do it any justice - I want it!  The house is beautiful, old and huge.  Anna and Andre have found themselves in the very fortunate position that he's been able to take some time (like a 2 year sabbatical) off work.  He supplies ships with bunker oil and has just gone global with this - he's very smart!  The kids will continue to be home schooled and they're thinking about doing some travelling towards the end of the year.  They are living the life.

 So cute...

 The wind howled yesterday, but I wanted to get out the house and do something nice.  We picked up mom and dad and headed down to Big Bay for a walk on the beach.  We arrived to see this absolutely gorgeous car.  The owner was there, you can't leave a car like this unattended, and he was happy for us to take a few pictures.  It is a brand spanking new McLaren, with just 600km on the clock.  My photos don't do justice to the rich beauty of the metallic red paint...

 My dad was chuffed...

As was Jake.  He asked the guy to go at full speed, but just to hear that car growl was enough for us all.  WOW.  He did do a very quick pull off, but I imagine that it's not really possible to do a slow one in a car like this.  The owner tells us that he's a sports car collector and his next favourite is his midnight blue Lamborghini...

 Despite the warm wind, we had a lovely walk on the beach.  Jake and my dad spent some time throwing stones and my mom and I ambled slowly along chatting...

 Jake's not so great at skimming rocks, but he likes chucking them...

 A pretty picture for those of you who live far away from home...

 Although the pictures show a fairly empty beach, it was pretty crowded, I just got a lucky gap.  The kite surfers were out in their multitudes too...

And that sums it up.  We ended our weekend off with pizzas and drinks at The Blue Peter.  It was always a favourite Sunday stop for Jake when he was a bit younger, but we haven't been for a while.  It was as good as ever.

Some good news to share, I've enrolled in a photography course.  The deposit is paid and the forms go in today.  I can hear some of you groaning - finally!!  I start on 15 April and I am very excited.  It's split up into various modules and, although I have done the basics before, I've decided to start right at the very beginning, with DSLR I.  After June, I'll be doing Photoshop and then DSLR II, with the potential to go on and do other courses in Black and White photography, Creative Processing, Creative Photography and Documentary Photography.  I am SUPER excited that I've FINALLY taken the first step into doing what I've always wanted to do.  Obviously it would be amazing to be able to make some money doing what I love, but for now, I'm just going to concentrate on learning as much as I possibly can to take better pictures!  Definitely learn how to get a straight horizon and hopefully improve my low-light photography too.  Watch this space, hopefully you'll see improvements soon.  I'll also share my assignments with you along the way and hopefully get your constructive criticisms too. I am SO excited about it, I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Wishing you all a great week!!

Sue XXX