Saturday, May 9, 2015

Easter Weekend: Part 1 - Puppies!!!

First let me start by highly HIGHLY recommending to anyone who would want to head to Xanten that they look into staying at the Gästehaus-Niederrhein in Geldern.  Beautiful home, very comfortable setting, and the owners are delightful.  If you have small children and love the country side and are a fan of dogs, this is a great place.  If you are way to citified for that, then by all means look elsewhere.
Here is the interior of what would be our home for the weekend as we gallivanted about.


It used to be the servants quarters for the old dairy farm a long time ago.


This is the backyard area that was so cozy.


 We loved it, it was a great place to relax between our adventures.

As an extra treat for us during our stay the home had two different litters of puppies that had been born on Valentine's Day and were therefore a week out from going home to their forever homes.

This made them the perfect age to play with the kids.  First the litter of Maltese/Bishon Frises.

The hardest thing for the kids to grasp was that they were wearing the poor things out.

Skoshi was quite the favored one by the black and white puppy that kept trying to fall asleep on him.

He loved the snuggles, even if he wasn't quite sure what was going on.

Much to Lumpy's great distress the puppies got a hold of her bunny rabbit hat and had no plans to give it back, despite her pulling at it.


After wearing out the little puppies, we headed to the Kukenhof for the day.  That will be in the next post.  For now we'll jump to the next morning where we finally got to meet the puppies we heard off and on all evening.  Time for the BIG puppies.

Ten Great Pyrenees puppies.  Sunlit, girl we missed you, but had a great time with some newbies.

A yard full of boys and puppies on Easter morning, it was such a blessing.

Clean, freshly washed and braided hair is just too tempting.  What a tug toy!

Tried to stand up...yeah not happening.


Hummingbyrd was the safe base for the Berner that lived there too.  The boys were a bit too much for her.

Some pictures of the Minions and the Pyrs.

Wherever he went Skoshi had at least one puppy trailing him and trying to snuggle him up.

Chubbly found that sticks and puppies are a great match.

Lumpy and Grins adopted the old dog that was 'puppy-sized'.  Grins didn't realize he was an adult.

Skoshi was pounced just prior to this by the puppies and they all tumbled to the ground.

The puppies on their ongoing efforts to replicate sunscreen advertisements for Coppertone .

Rescued by his siblings.  Hummingbyrd sipping a warm drink in the crisp sun.

Everyone in one shot, minus Lord Hickory behind the camera.



Princess Lumpy created a game for her and the puppies.

Catch the reed!

Talking to the puppies about their success at the game.

Shortly after they walked away from the barn/kennel area, a duck flew right into it/

Knocked herself loopy, and after a quick examination, we were able to take her out 'back' and release her to rejoin her mate.

Inspecting the duck and showing the boys, they were surprised it was a wild duck.  We assured them it was only because it was stunned that she was being so calm.

Hummingbyrd took the duck through the house to the backyard to release her.  She flew away immediately quacking furiously at her mate.

Playtime resumes.

Learning about sticks from Chubbly.


Showing the puppies the hollow tree space.

Skosh's never ending fight to stand and walk unassisted.

Might as well give up.




Five minions and ten puppies, means 2 puppies per kid.

Or something like that.



Handed flowers.

Skosh got dragged through some fresh poo.  Losing his trousers didn't phase him much.




Look a mini-Sunlit.

Skoshi discovers the bike.

The swing suits him more though.












Okay, now that my overload of cute is over, we can focus on our trips this weekend.