New Year's Eve and Day

Our New Year's Eve started out bad. The kids and I ran to the store to buy some fireworks and other things we needed for that night. When we got home, at 3:00, our neighbors all over our neighborhood had already started shooting off fireworks, and Swishy was GONE. He is really scared of loud noises, but easily calms if we are near him. Since we were gone at the store, he got too scared and ran away. We searched for him for hours, even after Paul got home, with no luck finding him. We posted this picture of  him on several nearby facebook groups on the island, and got some leads, but we never found him. 

Our friends and across the street neighbors invited us over for fireworks and treats and after being there for an hour or so, I got a call from a lady a few miles from our house who found Swishy. He was scared and shaking and curled into a ball in her backyard next to her loud generator (probably to block out the loud noises of the fireworks).  Poor thing. We got directions to her house and Matix, Paul and I headed out to get him, while Lullaby Hawken and Sully stayed with our friends. Swishy was SO scared, but we coaxed him into the car and thanked the nice lady for keeping him until we could get there. We all cried on the way home. We sure love this pup.

Paul decided to stay home with Swishy to keep him calm and make sure he didn't try to run again, and the kids and I had a much better evening of fireworks and friends and fun, now that we weren't scared for our dog anymore.

Early in the morning, we headed to the sea cliffs near our house with some friends, to watch the first sunrise of the year. 2019 is going to be a great one.

We feel very lucky to have found some new wonderful friends here.  The kids all get along and so do the parents.

We brought Swishy everywhere with us for the few adventures, just in case.

Matix, Hawken and I headed back over to our friends house to help clean off their driveway from all the debris from the fireworks. It's much easier to scoop up and throw away when it's all pushed into one big pile.

Then we met up with our sea cliffs friends again at the beach for some time in the water. Yes please. The kids mostly hunted around for creatures and found eels, urchins, sea cucumbers and more. It was a fun day for everyone.