The Adventures of Pip and Pop

We're back!!

2009-04-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

Wow - it has been a loooooong time! We're back now on the Interwebs and life is better than ever. We'll try our best to catch you up with everything that has happened, but it might be a bit tough.

Let's see, really quick....
Yeah.
Hmm.
Oh okay! Valentine's Day was last!! Dang, that was like a year ago! Uh okay, so then we uh, oh we went to Jekyll Island!

Doesn't that sound creepy? We were there with Ann for a work thing and it rained a lot... but this picture was pretty.

We did get some good clams. We remember that. :-)

Well, we don't remember too much else cause it was all overshadowed by... MOVING AGAIN!
Yep, we're not down South anymore. Nope. Not now.
We are back in Michigan!
Can you believe it?
Yup. Believe it. Yeah.

Ann packed up again and told us that we were moving back to Michigan and JM was coming to help. Sweet. He was wonderful and drove a BIG truck to get us back there.
We put everything in the truck, even the car Tammy! Well, she was on the back.

We left good old Georgia and waved goodbye to the apartment and the pool!!! Ah we will miss the pool!!! It was nice and warm when we left GA, but we'd only driven so far until....

SNOW! Snow in Tennessee! Can you Believe it! We were so cold and so unprepared! We had to stop for the night.

Ok, we'll give you more on our journey north later. Right now, it's good to be back on the interwebs!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

2008-02-14T07:43:00.000-08:00

Bernie wants to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day! Don't eat all the chocolate at once!!

Welcome to Webkinz!

2007-12-28T13:23:00.000-08:00

This is our new friend Bernie!

He also came to join us for Christmas (although he can't fit in our car). But Bernie is a Webkinz, and he has a whole world of friends on the internet!!! Kinda like our blogging, but different. He is a puppydog Saint Bernard, so when he grows up, he will be SO SO BIG.

He's lots of fun, and we are enjoying the chance to show him stuff, and enjoy California with him.

Zoom Zoom!!!

2007-12-26T18:37:00.000-08:00

This is the best Christmas EVER!!!!
We got a CAR! We have been wanting a car for Sooooo long!!!
She's a Mini Cooper with a radio and great speed!! Zoom zoom!!!!!
Just wait til we show you the video!
Thank you thank you Fr Christmas!!! We must have been soo good! This is sooooo cool!!!
Yeah! Life is a highway!

A Quick Stopover

2007-12-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

Wow! We are on our way to the holiday travels! Time for a quick stop to MI and the snow! And guess what!! We were able to go to the Detroit Zoo and see some friends!

We also got to see JM, of course, and enjoy the snow. Georgia has been fun, but it sure is nice to have real hot chocolate when it's actually cold! We also got to eat lots of cookies. Yummy!!! So now we are ready to make our way to CALIFORNIA baby!!!

Time to catch the rays, catch up with the fam, and see if we can catch some waves! Yup, it's still surfing weather. Oh yeah. So we're racking up the frequent flier miles and looking after Ann while she relaxes on vacation. Life is good.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

2007-12-20T13:44:00.000-08:00

We are all set for the holidays!! We have put up our stockings (and climbed into them!) and put up our tree! It's HUGE!!! For us. Yeah. Huge.

See our toucan on the tree? He's from Costa Rica. He came back with us. He's cool. :-)

We have been baking too!!! Lots of cookies and stuff! Yummy! The whole place smells good. Here we are, with Santa Bear and Humphrey!! First Christmas in the South!! YAY!

The Holidays are Coming!!!

2007-12-13T06:06:00.000-08:00

And we wanted to share a few of our favourite Holiday moments with you from the good times we've shared with Bear at the Big Blue House! Yup! Do you have your reindeer wreath?

Pip & Pop: "It's a reindeer wreath!"

Bear: "Oh! A wreath for a reindeer! What a great idea! But... what's with all the stuff?"

Pip & Pop: "Oh! It's the coool things reindeer like!"

Pip: "Like, some apples in case they get hungry..."

Pop: "And a tennis ball, in case they wanna play catch."

Pip: "Yeah, cause you never know."

Hee hee. And how is the Christmas shopping? We know it is hard.

Tutter: "What do you get the bear who has everything?"

Treelo: "Bear has everything?"

Pip: "Well, he has a swing in the living room."

Pop: "I'd say that's everything!"

Pip: "Yeah."

Pop: "Yeah."

More from Costa Rica

2007-11-27T11:10:00.000-08:00

We will be sad to go home!! Costa Rica has been amazing, and we have loved it here!!

This is a coati, at the Monteverde Reserve. I guess he believes it is important to recycle too!! We saw a few coatis, they were pretty fun to watch. One of them decided to drink all of the hummingbird food!!! Must have been some sugar rush!

Then these are some teeny tiny orchids flowers!! We saw them in a garden that a man showed us. He also cut us some fresh sugar cane! We always thought orchids were big, but these were tiny and that's saying something for us!

Most of all, Costa Rica is just amazingly beautiful.
We will be back! Pura Vida!!!

Buy Fair Trade

2007-11-26T12:11:00.000-08:00

We got to go out with this group of people from Earth Watch. They were doing work in coffee farms. We like coffee. But we'd never seen a coffee plant before. They are pretty. W learned a lot while we were there. We learned about how you grow coffee and how you pick it and roast it. We learned about where to buy and sell coffee, and we learned all about Fair Trade Coffee, shade grown coffee and bird friendly coffee. Birds are good for coffee! And shade grown coffee is also good for the coffee, it makes it taste better. Otherwise, even though it grows faster in the sunshine, it makes it go bitter. Blah.

So you really need to buy Fair Trade Coffee, like Cafe Monteverde! We went to their store and talked to the people there, it was so fun!
You can buy good coffee through the Santa Elena Coop too! We liked it and bought lots for gifts for Christmas! We were in Santa Elena and got to meet many of the people who worked with the Coop and the coffee farmers. It was really special and we loved to be with them.
Please buy the Fair Trade and bird friendly coffee. It is not only very good coffee, but it helps make life better for people everywhere. Next time you go shopping, ask if your favourite coffee or tea is fair trade.

Another place we went to was the CASEM cooperative. This was a special place where local women in the Monteverde area make arts and crafts by hand. They are beautiful ornaments and clothes and decorations!! It has also been a very good thing in the lives of the women in the community and allows them to make good things and sell them at fair prices.

We have learned so much in Costa Rica, and met so many kind people. It's a good place for otters to go - it's a good place for anyone to go! Pura Vida!!!

PURA VIDA!

2007-11-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

Hola!!! We are in COSTA RICA!!!!!
YEAH!!!

Ann had to come here for work, and when JM said he was going too, we knew this was a party we had to be a part of. :-) And then Ann's whole family decided to go!!!!
Costa Rica is awesome! Yeah! It has, like, everything here.
It's Sooooo cool. We saw toucans and monkeys and hummingbirds as big as us and and and.....

Check out these ants!! They were by our room and they were coool!!! See, they take these big pieces of leaf and carry them back to their house! And then, the leaf grows this yucky fungus, but it's ok, cause the ants like it!

Moving time!

2007-11-09T07:35:00.000-08:00

Yup, we are moving again! Off to a new otter pond!!!!
We packed up all our favourite stuff, our best clams and our toy boat. :-) New pond, here we come!!! We think this one is going to be much closer to .... the pool!!!!

Everyone has been lending a paw to make sure we get things moved safely. We had to take apart Ann's desk! Perdita decided that she better take control of that. Parts of the desk were really heavy!!! She worked really hard with Ann for a few days. We made sure the bed was made and comfy. And had lots of tea for Ann. But not the sweet tea. She still doesn't like that. Yeah.

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

Check out our cool Halloween jack-o-lanterns! :-) We are very happy with them.
Halloween was so much fun!! We hung out with our puppydog pals at a party. We also met up with Mr Incredible!!! And Pukka, a lady bird and Ellen DeGeneres, who seemed to be 'partying' with the puppies... hmm.

Well we had lots of fun and yummy candy!!! :-)

Uh-oh...

2007-10-16T05:47:00.000-07:00

We have a problem!!! There's no rain!!! We knew it was crazy hot here, but there has been no rain for... for.... we can't remember!!!!!!!

This weekend, we went with Ann and JM to a park where there was a waterfall. We were *so* excited! Waterfalls are great fun! But... when we got there, it was like little drizzle of waterfall...

Pretty, but how are we supposed to belly slide down there?? Owch! The rocks will hurt our tummies.

So on the way back, we stopped by the lake... but.... the lake got smaller!!!!

It was scary. And sad. So we are praying for rain. Luckily, Ann brought us back home and we got to play in the pool. But, if things are bad, we might have to go back to MI or CA for water! That would be fun too... but scary to lose the water.

But happily, we did have some fun things. JM saw this amazing thing as we drove past on our way to the waterfall ....

PUMPKINS!! HUGE Pumpkins!!!

We ran and ran for hours! We tried rolling them, and pushing them, but they would not give!!! There were white pumpkins and orange pumpkins and fried apple pies and mmmmm!!!! It's the great Pumpkin otter!!!

Otters, otters everywhere!

2007-09-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo! Our cousins from New York came to visit us down here in Georgia! YAY. It was so much fun to have them here!! We had to go show them around.
We went to a gorge... ha ha! It was GORGEous!

We wanted to cross it on the wire, like the Great Wallenda!!!! Ann and J-bird weren't so sure that was a good idea... Come on! The Great Pip & Pop could do it!!!

Up North

2007-08-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

Whew. One thing about Georgia, we have to really travel to go find some good water. So it was time to take a vacation. We told Ann, it was time to head somewhere a little cooler for once. She agreed, nodding sagely, and got on the phone. Actually (hee hee) we had, um, already talked to JM about it... Needless to say, he was all for a trip up north. We plotted, er, I mean we talked it over and found a few days Ann could get off and if we packed her bags, then we could go. :-)

Ahhhhh nothing like sunsets on the water! And smores! And stars!! We sat out on the beach and watched the stars shoot out over the sky!!! It was *amazing*! We'd never seen stars like that before, and we were able to talk to our good friend Luna about it too. She's seen it all. It was a wonderful vacation. A chance to swim and rest and relax. We camped out in a tent and it was so nice to be outside. JM made a great fire and we snoozed by it, feeling all warm and fuzzy from our swim and the good food. :-) Mmm. A very good vacation.

Ice, ice baby

2007-08-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

We are SO hot! Oh my goodness, Georgia is so so hot. We have never been so hot. It seems the only way to be cool on these 101F days, is to just climb right into the ice box. Aaaahhhhhhhh! :-)

P-Otter blog

2007-07-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

Wow! So Ann finished her book, and gave it to us. We finished our version, but this one seemed to have Ann's attention, like all weekend. So we figured, it must have some good things. But it's SO big!!!! We will be reading this book forever!!!

Looks like lots of people have already finsihed though. Hmm. We better get going.

It's here!!

2007-07-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

YAY! We are SO excited because it's finally here!! OK, we are all stocked for the weekend with munchies and coffee. Mmmm. Pour us some sweet tea and lead us to the book, baby! This looks kinda different from the book that Ann has, but we think ours is more fun. Certainly shorter. How does she lift that thing? No need for the gym this week!

4th of July!

2007-07-06T11:45:00.000-07:00

Woohoo!!! We LOVE fireworks!!
4th of July is so great! Ann had the day off work and JM came to visit! We had so much fun just hanging out and being lazy!! Oooo and eating fish-sicles!!! MMMM YUMMY.

Hip hip hooray!

2007-07-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

A BIG round of applause for CRD!!!!

He has been writing and writing and writing.... and is finished with his book!!! He is going to be Dr CRD soon!!! Wow. We are in awe! So hooray! We are looking forward to lots of celebrations, especially by the end of next week then you give your last talk on this big book. :-) We don't understand it, but we know we feel obliged to give you a big CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Turtle crossing??

2007-06-30T17:06:00.001-07:00

Wow this is funny huh? Ann and JM went to Tybee Island in Georgia. Pretty!! But you can get there on the road, it was neat! We drove (well, JM drove, but you know... we helped navigate!)

But anyways, on Tybee Island you can go to the beach and there are sea turtles!!! The sea turtles hang out on the beach in the sand, but sometimes they walk off to explore and go over the road. We told JM to be VERY careful as he was driving. We tried to look out for sea turtles for him.
Well we didn't find any sea turtles on that trip. Probably a good thing. we like this sign better anyways!

Minneapolis

2007-06-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

Tah-dah! Ann had a work 'thing' in Minneapolis, and we decided to go with her to check it out, meet otters from around the world, and hob-nob. And of course, see the sights! So this is the LARGEST spoon and cherry ever!!! Isn't that cool? It's a fountain. Can you see that??? We played and played and swam for hours! It was so cool! Ann went jogging past it with a friend, and even met up with someone she hadn't seen in years!!! See! Everyone comes to the spoon and cherry. What's not to love?

Brooklyn - How Sweet It Is!

2007-05-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

YAY!!! We made it to NYC!!! to J-bird's new place in Brooklyn. And here we are with everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so great to see the gang and be able to hear all the good news. And of course, we had a great day to roam around the city.
We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and we could see *everything*! It was so cool. Waaaay back in the distance over the water there was the Statue of Liberty!!

We celebrated with our cousins! And got to tour the city. We ate good food, got good coffee and uh, other fun drinks! :-)
We thought about opportunities to stay in New York

Cause we were having so much fun celebrating with our cousins!!!!

It was Ann's birthday and it was so good to be in NYC with J-bird and all the gang. Ah Brooklyn - how sweet it is!!!

California dreaming

2007-05-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

We finally got there!! A bit of a shorter trip, but hey. We made it. Phew! JM went out for sushi without us on Friday though. Very sad. What was really sad though, is that we did miss Paul!!! :-( Very sad. But we don't feel too bad, cause he got to go off and explore beautiful places like this!

Wow!! We would love to be in a waterfall like that!! Maybe next time, we can go with him???

We love California and just the time to relax and hang out. :-) Look at the hummingbirds that live there! We try to play with them but they are too fast for us! They must be hungry too, they drink and drink and then ZIP off!

Uh-oh

2007-05-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

We missed our plane!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have never ever ever ever missed a plane! We can't believe it didn't wait for us! Didn't it *know* we were coming? And we were running so fast! Ok, that's not true, we were in Ann's bag, but wow, you should have seen her run!!!!!!!! That would have been some time in the 5K...
But anyways, we got stuck at the airport and didn't get to fly to California!! It was very very sad. But luckily we found a nice hotel for the night and ate some clams and rested up. Trying again in the morning!

Yikes! We almost forgot!

2007-05-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ann's DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We'll see you tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P is for Pip and Pop!!!

2007-05-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

We love to read! We're getting good. J-Bird bought us a book, and guess what?!

That's right people, P is for Pip, Pop, purple, popcorn and popsicle! THE BEST LETTER!

We've been up eating cookies and packing for our trip tomorrow. :-) YAY!!!!!!!!! Mmm cookies are yummy. Maybe C is a pretty good letter too. There was a big lightning storm tonight, so we kept busy with the cookies to not get scared. It worked well. OK time to go sleep so that we are all ready for tomorrow!!!! Next stop, San Diego!!!

Pack those suitcases!

2007-04-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

Cause the otters are off again!!!

This morning when we woke up, we were yawning and stretching a bit, waking up slowly. Ann padded in with a smile. And that's when she told us the GRRREAT news!!

That we are going places again!!! This Friday we are going to get on a plane and go to California!!! WOO HOO. We're flying into San Diego! We like San Diego, oh but we're not staying there this time. Nope, we're getting picked up by our good friend JM who just so happens to be there too! Then we're going to sleep in the car cause it's like an hour to Ann's parents' house. But that's the house with the great pool!! YAY. We might wake up for a midnight dip.
Paul is coming up the next day for a bit, and we'll fly home to Georgia again on Sunday. But... it gets better!!

After that, we are going to go to... NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YEAH! We're going to see J-bird and Max and Spud and Party and and and.... EVERYONE!!
This is SO exciting!!!!! We haven't been to visit in sooooo long. We're going to leave very very early and then celebrate Ann's birthday in the BIG APPLE. Party on!! We are So excited!! We're just bouncing around the apartment. Speaking of which, we know we're supposed to have more pictures of life here in Georgia.

So this is the apartment! A taste of it! That's taken with us standing on the balcony. Isn't it cool, we have a balcony?? We also have a pool!!! YAY. We were excited about having a bathtub of all our own, but this is even better. Ah, the life of an otter!

Introducing the Hot Tamale

2007-04-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

Or Tammy, as we like to call her.
So Ann needed a new car. What can we say, it had been a long time. Not that there is anything wrong with Audrey! But she was like, on loan or something. We can't even remember how long it has been. But she has to go back. So Ann, started to look for cars. We had a few ideas!!! We liked Paul's car, but Ann wasn't sure she could fit everything in it. She showed us this... and it really looks like he could put the car in that box! So we looked at other ideas...

But Ann didn't listen to us! She called for help. That's when JM arrived. He *knows* about cars. Which is pretty good, cause we just wanted one in purple. Ann wasn't so sure. But luckily, it was JM to the rescue!! Ann and JM came back with TAMMY!!!!!
We got right on making sure that even though she wasn't purple, that we approved.

Things were looking good. :-) We thought we'd take her out for a little 'spin', but uh, well... Ann said no. Hmph. That's ok. We're working on a plan...

Road trip, anyone???

We've MOVED

2007-04-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hey, we just realised this announcement is really really late! But we've moved! Yup!

We now live in Georgia, with Ann. That'd be DOWN SOUTH.

See where it says 'Athens'? That's round about where we are. :-) So, we've left Ann Arbor and Michigan for the time being! Goodbye snow! Goodbye ice!
And we've moved down yonder to sun it up with the Southerners!
When we first got here, we didn't understand anybody!!! Everyone here talks so slow and they have this drawl. But we're getting into the swing of things now.:-) Y'all fixin' to come visit??? We're learning how to make sweet tea! We like it SWEET!!

Ann is not convinced yet. She thought USA tea time was a great idea, until she realised it's not like the tea we used to have in college. Oh well! We'll soon have her drinking it sweet and y'all-ing with the rest of us!
(she seems to think that means it will be time to go back home... home like England. Hmm. Maybe the tea thing is serious)

Disney Otters!!

2007-04-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hey! We went home! Kinda. We went to hang out and play at Disney World with Ann and her friends! We even got to see some of our friends!!!! Aren't we cute?! We are so lucky to have good friends. Friends who stay with us, even when we're weird. Even when we get a little clam obsessed... Friends who make us smile and sing with us. :-) Friends who know when to give hugs without asking. Where would we be without them?! What a great weekend!!!!

I found a clam that was THIS big!!!

2007-04-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

Pop and I are always out looking for clams!! You should have seen the one that got away!!! Pip can tell you, it was like, THIS BIG!!!!

Happy St Patti's!

2007-03-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

I don't know, we're not interested in swimming in this river! Today, we're just kicking back with some friends and family. And definitely staying out of this river. We'd prefer to just look for 4-leaf clovers togeher in the sunshine. Ah spring!

Driving Test Success!

2007-03-01T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!! We have another major shout out here to our dear friend V! Today she is experiencing driving test SUCCESS!!! Having never driven ourselves, we are in AWE of V and her new driving powers. We knew you'd do it!! So, when can we come for a ride???

Happy Birthday!

2007-02-27T21:50:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! It's a birthday! Yay birthday! It's J-bird's birthday!!! WOO HOO. We are so excited for her! Time to celebrate! Dance! Sing! Par-tee!

We will be doing all of that here for you J-bird. We love you lots and miss you! Thank you for bringing us to Ann and we'll see you soon! Love Pip and Pop

Weekend in San Diego

2006-10-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

Yay! We thought we weren't going to go anywhere for awhile but we got to come with Ann on a short trip to California! yay! It's so pretty here. We like the flowers. And it's warm!

But what was really cool was Paul's car! He has a Mini! It's almost our size!!! We think we would like a car too. it's zippy! And fun. So, maybe we want a car! Then we could drive together to New York to see Max and Spud! Ann said that was 'otterly unlikely' though. Oh. I guess that's cause the Mini is a stick shift. We'd need help. Hmm.

Good Friends

2006-10-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

It's the middle of Ann's last semester at school, so we aren't traveling so much these days. So, we thought we'd take the chance to say HI to two of our friends! Max and Spud, the monkeys! These cool guys live in New York City! WOW. New York City. Centre of the universe! So we are told. They send us the occasional T-mail (tail mail) and we want to say HI to all of them in NYC! We know they aren't traveling much either because lots of people are in school. We used to go to school, we would go to the library in Ann's bag and keep her company. And run around the books. :-) Hee hee.

Sperry glacier

2006-09-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Sperry Glacier is a really really really long way away! We had to wake up when it was still dark to get ready for this hike, our last hike. Scott said something about an 'easy day hike', so we were pretty happy, even though Ann looked concerned.

Well.

We went up. And up. And up. Through woods. Through fields. Through narrow trails. Through rocks. Through ice. And then when we thought we were there, we weren't! It was FURTHER!

But we made it, and here we are at the top. Phew! So much for an easy day hike!

We made up time on the end by sliding down the glacier which was fun! But then we still had a long walk down and we started to get nervous as it got dark. What about the bears? Bears! We were singing and singing to try to scare off the bears. We thought we could make friends with them, but then we got worried that these bears might not be interested. Luckily, we made it down by the hair on our tails! Oh yummy dinner time and sleep!!!! SLEEP! What a day! What a hike! Now we know what to make of Scott's 'easy day hikes' after all.

More Glacier National Park tales

2006-09-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

Here we are at Logan Pass on the Continental Divide! We didn't know what that meant. We didn't see any dividing. Actually, we're too little to divide. But Ann told us it was the place where all of the river waters decide what direction they are going to go. I guess that is pretty important to us so we know where we are swimming!

You wouldn't believe it, but we have seen snow in the summer! We were confused because it was August! But look what happened in Glacier! There was falling snow and we got c-c-c-cold! We weren't really prepared for that in the summer. We had to sit in the car and nibble on our lunch before our tails got numb. It was good to be in Ann's backpack that day, out of the wind.

Glacier National Park

2006-09-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

Woohoo - we have been to Glacier National Park! It's in Montana. We went with Scott and Ann for a week! We were excited. It's been awhile since we got to do some hiking. So we made sure we were prepared. We got a map of the park. We cleaned out Ann's backpack and found good ways to be strapped in.

Actually we got to go to 3 states! We landed in Washington and stayed a night there. And then we got to go to Idaho, which Ann says is a place with lots of potatoes. But we didn't see any potatoes. We weren't there very long though.
What we did see when we go to Montana though, were huckleberries! They were everywhere. In food, ice cream, soap, everywhere! Mmm. We got excited because hey! Huckleberries look like us! We are huckleberry otters!

We got to Glacier National Park in Montana pretty late. We were sleepy! But the next day Scott told us about something that made us too scared to sleep! Bears! There are grizzly bears in the park! Yikes! Our friend Bear, is a nice bear. We didn't think these ones sounded as nice as him.

The first day, we were singing a lot so that we wouldn't see any bears. Ann and Scott walked a long long way up up up! And then we made it! We got to the glacier! We think we might be the first otters on Grinnell Glacier!

YAWN

2006-09-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

Phew... we have had ONE GREAT SUMMER.

We have stories to tell, oh yes we do, from our last trip of the summer with Scott and Ann. Great stories. But that was a BIG trip. And we're still kinda tired. So, we promise we'll write about that trip real real soon. In the meantime, Pop has to work on his beauty sleep.

But when we're all rested, we'll show you photos from our trip... do you know where we went?!

Visiting family in Cali

2006-08-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

We've been away from the blog because we went home to visit family! Here's some of our cousins from California! Aw!
We had a great time in California with the fam. It's a big party every time we get together. They showed us the sights and the sounds of the West Coast - woo hoo! We sunned ourselves on the beach, got ice cream and Pop worked on his tan. He's a nice deep shade of purple now.
You gotta love family. They feed you and look after you and let you watch lots of daytime TV. They take you to the beach and make sure you don't get burned in the sun. They help you make friends with seals! Speaking of which, we're worried about the seals at Seal Beach in San Diego!
http://www.calcoast.org/news/beach0040627.html
http://www.amwest-travel.com/awt_sdseal.html
The people don't want the seals to come sleep on the beach anymore, and the seals like this one special beach. People used to be able to go see the seals there and watch them play, but now it looks like they won't be able to! :-( Now they are chasing the seals off the beach.
What would happen if they wouldn't let us otters have a place to rest? How would we make friends with the seals? Or blog, for that matter? It makes us sad. I mean, everyone needs a place to swim and a place to sleep. We have our own otter pond! We are lucky otters.

S'mores!!

2006-08-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, last month we went camping!! We hadn't been camping before, but wow! We like it! It was cool. We drove up in the car with Ann and Scott and Daniel and Christine! We sang songs and ate pizza and got up North to the campsite really really late. It was dark! We were both asleep in the car, but we woke up in a tent!!! It was so cool! You set up this tent and it's HUGE! We slept in there with like 4 other people. We had our own sleeping bags and had plenty of room on the floor. It wasn't bad! But it was hot. When we woke up in the morning, we were sweaty...eww!

We rolled out of bed, or bag, and headed over to get some food! Mmm. Bagels. No doughnuts though. We had to move quick cause we were off to go to the river!! YAY! We swam and swam and swam... the others were in these long canoe things, but we didn't see the point. Two of the girls fell in, we thought they were coming to swim with us!
That night we made s'more! We have decided that camping is all about the s'mores!! And we want s'more! MMMmmmm! So yummy! Sthicky marshmallow and melty chocolate...! What more could a little otter hope for? CLAMS!!!! Yes, clam marshmallow chocolaty goodness. MMMM!!!! My whiskers are quivering just thinking about it!

We stayed up late and ate s'mores and sang songs that Daniel played on his guitar. We thought about playing, but our paws were sticky. Ah, beautiful night under the stars! Not so hot either, so a good sleep.

The next day, we packed up and our friends went off to go home! We went back to our car, but we didn't want to go home yet. So we drove around for a bit and then went to a Marina, where Scott found us some sailboats! There were big waves, and we were glad we were strong swimmers. We did a little sailing, but we were better at swimming the boat back when it broke. Not our fault!!! Promise! Here's a pic of Chris in the big tent. She had to go home, far away. Bye Chris!! So another good drive home and more yummy pizza. We like camping!

Castles fit for les loutres!

2006-07-16T18:52:00.000-07:00

We visited castles! We stayed in a castle in France, outside of Tours. No, we didn't go on a tour, that is the name of the place. We visited big castles, and grand castles and small ruined castles. We liked the really old ones best. Look at these stairways!
They were so narrow and windy! We got dizzy after awhile of walking up. But they went up and up and up! Pip took one and I took the other... it was a DOUBLE spiral staircase! That's at Chambourd. Two paws up!
Chambourd is pretty empty actually. Except for this one room which was a tribute to brave beagles! We know two beagles who would have loved it. But there was no tribute to brave otters. So we went to the next castle.

This castle also had tributes to beagles! And other dogs. But they don't want the dogs to get too excited about all their praise. This castle is named Cheverny. It was pretty! Pretty gardens. Lots of dogs! Loud dogs.

Then we went to find more castles! We went in search of the really old castles.
Some of them were really really old and there were only bits of them left. No ceilings! Wow. That would be bad when it rained. This is us by an arrow slit - it's so narrow!

We like visiting castles! We finally found our very own size castles!
Castles fit for an otter!

Pip and Pop = Les loutres!

2006-07-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

'Allo 'allo! Nous sommes les loutres! That's French! Yup! We just adjusted to the jet lag (and of course, our older brother visited for the 4th and stayed til Friday, hope you like his photo. We love him!) and now we can write about France!

France was so cool! We have SO much, plus de news to tell you about! We are some traveling otters, uh, loutres! :-)

So to start, we had to learn some French.

It's kinda hard. But we're smart! Oui, oui!

Uh-oh. Way past otter bedtime. More from France later mes amies! Bon nuit!!!

4th of July and now it's Friday!

2006-07-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

Ah, we know we've got lots to write about from the last few weeks, but come on, we just got back from another adventure! Then we had the 4th of July (woo hoo!) and hey, now it's Friday! It's time to hang out with some friends and enjoy the sunshine! We'll be back after the weekend!

On the road again

2006-06-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

Hi! We can't add any photos this entry, cause we're in Chicago! Only for a bit. We're in O'Hare. Typing away! We're off on another adventure!!! Can't tell you where yet. But boy, is is a good one.

So we're in the airport. Ho hum. There's lots of stuff to do here. Our plane from Detroit was little! It was a crazy morning. We were up late, packing. We ran off this morning to get some movies to watch. And some food. We were up watcing TV and baking cookies kinda late too... but we got to pack cookies!! Yummy! Not as good as the fudge, but good.

They do otter massage at the airport! Wowhee! They say it's very relaxing. But expensive! And hey, we travel light. And we usually have good seats. :-)

Pip wants a doughnut, we gotta go. Mmm. Very sleepy. Maybe after the doughnut we can nap. YAWN. Nap would be nice.

Do be do be doo.. on the road again!

More Fudge, Please

2006-06-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

So more stuff we did at Mackinac! We checked out the local tourist attractions.

Some of them are scary.

We posed with the monuments.

We tried to get up close.

We called our Mom.

We brushed up on our history! This is the Fort. You can see everything! We stormed the fort. Ha ha! Betcha never saw us coming. We otters can be sneaky! ;-)

We sampled the fudge. There's LOTS of fudge!! Wow. We tried the mint fudge, peanut butter fudge, chocolate cherry fudge, chocolate chip fudge, vanilla fudge, fudge with walnuts and white russian fudge. But no clam fudge. Huh. So we have a plan! We are going to open a fudge shop on Mackinac! And sell clam fudge! And chocolate covered clam fudge, and peanut butter clam fudge and and and...!!!

Mackinac

2006-06-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo! We have been everywhere! We went to Mackinac Island! It was cool! We had to take a boat to go there. On our way, we saw a bat! Look at him. Too bad he was sleeping and we couldn't talk to him much.

Oh well. But then we went off to Mackinac Island - it's really called Mack-in-naw. Funny spelling! We can spell better than that!!

There was cool stuff on our trip. On the boat, we went fast! Our whiskers blew in the wind! Whee hee!!! The boat went over a lake - some big lake! Sure is bigger than the otter pond. We went for a dip.... ch-ch-chilly!!

We like the boat. Here's one that we're going to save up to buy. It might take awhile. Right now though, between us, we have... $1.03. But these things add up!

Visitor to the House

2006-05-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Whoa... we have a visitor! A BIG furry one. He doesn't look like an otter... but he sure does have a tail like an otter!
He's a little slobbery. But you know what?
We like him!

This is Rocky, who stayed with us for a few weeks. He wasn't too sure about us at first. But then we became friends!
We got to ride on his back! Rocky could get us around the house in no time! It was super fast!
And we taught him tricks! Look here is Pop, daring to put his life in (no) danger with the ferocious Rocky dog! This will make us a big hit when we take our show on the road. :-)

I want my MTotterV!

2006-05-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo! Yea! We got our guitar! Playing a guitar like ringing a bell! Go go! Go Pip and Pop, go! Pip and Pop we be good! Yeah!

Pip takes the high road up there. He does the pushing.

and Pop takes the low road. Much more plucking here. Like we when have to pluck our whiskers.

We can play "The Ballard of Old Clamanka" and "The Wreck of the Clam kipherald". Good stuff.

Easter Otters!

2006-04-20T13:11:00.000-07:00

Easter is Great! We got eggs! And hid eggs. Lots of them. I put Hershey's kisses in the eggs and hid them under the bed. We hid some in Scott's shoe (hee hee). We ate *lots* of candy! Pop had a tummy ache the whole next day. Time to start swimming upriver!

Two Traveling Purple Otters

2006-04-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

WOW! We're on the web! Hee hee! This is so cool! Wheeeee!
So we are Pip and Pop! That's right, I'm Pip, I'm Pop. Oh wait. See our photo? That's Pip on the left. Pop on the right. Easy huh? :-) So now that we're acquainted, welcome to our blog! It's an otterblog. That's right, a blog about the otters. Twin otters! :-) This otterblog should be fun! We think it will be a great way to describe our travels and adventures and the search for (oooh!) CLAMS!