Happy 4th of July

Dillon and I went to visit Nolan, Heather, and Doug the Dog today. Doug is Heather's friend's dog that Nolan and Heather have doggy-sat ever since he was 'little.' Doug never really has been little. He's a Bernese Mt Dog. Everyone loves Doug. At just a year and a half, he's so huge and oafish. He'll just plant his extra large self wherever he feels like. He loves to hide his head in people's crevices, and is often in his very own world that seems so far, far away from ours. His frequent vacant stares are comical, but still adorable. He slobbers relentlessly. It takes a pretty large animal to make Nolan look smallish.



I have decided that he is autistic and is lucky to have someone like Heather - a master of special education - in his life.

We had a barbecue with bratts, corn on the cob, steak, watermelon, and cantaloupe. Yummy. Dillon and Nolan especially liked the corn.


After grub we decided to go to a park above Nolan's house to watch fireworks. We arrived at around 8:30p to ensure a good spot on the grass.

It seemed like forever waiting for the fireworks to start. It was dusk when we got there.
Then the sun began to set.It was dark for a while before the show began.
Doug was a bigger attraction than the fireworks - well, before they started anyway. Everyone who saw him stared for at least a bit. Their eyes all seemed to get bigger and mouth gape when they saw him. For those who do not know better, he can be very intimidating. I kept hearing people around us trying to call him over to them sneakily. If they only knew what it actually takes to get Doug to respond, they would not have even tried. Others would ask to pet him or just come over and pet him. There was one little boy that asked his mom if he could pet the dog and she said, "No, he's too big." He would not stop asking her though.

Heather and I motioned the boy over and he yelled, "Mom, they said it's okay!" and she relented. He was so cute. He would pet Doug and if Doug made the slightest movement, the kid would do some sort of cartwheel move out of the way. This was as close as he would get to take a picture of Doug. He said that he was going to get a dog bigger than a horse and name him Doug and then Doug and Doug could play together. Then he laughed and laughed.

And, finally, we got what we came for.









Oooooooo Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh