Mood:
happyTopic: Reflections
Happy New Year! 2010 is behind us but it's impact will stay with us well into 2011 and beyond. For the Childers' family, 2010 brought many changes. Two of our children, Cassi & Dakota graduated from high school. I finished my Bachelor's Degree at Wright State University. & our daughter Cassi joined the Army National Guard & got married to the love ofher young life, Zach.... lots of changes!
Over the summer, my daughters Kadie & Courtney and I flew to Washington to tour the home of Twilight ~ Forks, WA, La Push, WA, Port Angeles, WA, and Seattle, WA. It was amazing! We also spent a day at the Hoh Rain Forest. It was a vacation we will never forget and if the coonhunting were better, we would be pushing Rob to move to the area. Temperatures stay between 40-80 most of the year around. That sounds much better than Ohio winters!
For the hounds, 2010 brought us several new titles on the hounds. First off, Razor picked up 4 new NITECHs and increased his "Historical Sire" standing to #2. It shouldn't be long now before he secures that coveted #1 spot. We're pretty proud of Razor. He has treated us well over the years and we are blessed to have him. He's 13 years, 7 mths, 2 wks, & 3 days old today and still holding on.
Next- our daughter, Kadie hit the show ring in 2010 and claimed Angel as her own. She picked up several nice wins including Best Female of Show at AKC Ohio State Youth Championship and picked up a few AKC Overall wins. She finished Angel to Champion in UKC and AKC. We are extremely proud of her and look forward to more great wins for the two in 2011. Our daughter, Courtney, also showed Gossip a time or two in 2010 & in their very first event together (and Court's very 1st competition show!), they won Best Overall Dog of Show & brought home a new jacket. Very proud of my girls!
Joining the 2010 titles were: Chase & Dolly (both making Champion), Ariel & Jade (finishing to Grand Champion), and Speed (finishing to NITECH).
Gossip won many big events in 2010- taking several overall show wins & finished the Purina Race as the #3 Treeing Walker in the nation. Not bad considering we were not actually running the race. =) That puts him in the top 3 TW hounds in the nations, two years running.
We also had a few really nice litters of puppies in 2010. Our newest is our Boo X Haze cross. We are super excited about this cross as well as the pups out of Razor & April (X and Dream) that Rob has retained. Look for these puppies to be our next generation at Tree Rizin'.
Looking ahead to 2011 ~ Rob's competition lineup will include Ransom and Dolly. Both are top hounds and I'd venture a guess that Ransom has become one of Rob's all time favorite young hounds. He gets that excitement about him when he hunts Ransom that pushes a 30+ year veteran to the woods night after night.
For me ~ I expect 2011 to bring me to some ground shows. That's my newest interest. We'll probably start the year off with Gossip and Wrath and see where it takes us. I'll also be looking forward to introducing Tiara to the show ring by mid-year. Since my Grad Program begins this month with WSU, I expect to be super busy finishing up my college career so you may see me staying a little closer to home than usual. However, I have some great things planned for the year and hope to make the most of the time I have.
Kadie & Courtney will also be a big focus for us this year. Courtney is competition cheerleading. Kadie is in dance. They both show continued interest in the hounds so we'll continue to support them and get them to whatever events they'd like to do.
All in all, we are excited about 2011. May it bring as much happiness and joy into our lives as 2010 did.... and more.
