Proud parents.

Our baby graduated puppy kindergarten today. She was too cute. The whole class loves her so she got sort of special treatment when they handed her the diploma. She got called up in a slightly different way than all of the other puppies and also got to be the lead example for the whole class that day. When her name was called to get the diploma she pranced up there and just sat in front of the instructor like, "How cool am I? I graduated puppy kindergarten." It was adorable.

Princesses

For some reason the other night we were talking about Disney princesses. The conversation went something like this:

"So which was the one with all of the little men around?"

"That would be Snow White."

"But she wasn't the one who was kissed by a frog and then had to sleep and woke up?"

"Uh no. One part of that would be Sleeping Beauty."

"So who was the one who lived in the ocean? Was that the one who fell in love with a huge giant bear? Didn't that one eat an apple or something too?"

"Oh my god TIM. How is it that you had THREE older sisters and now have three nieces and you don't know your Disney princesses?"

I sure hope that one day if we have kids we have little girls. Tim will then forever know his Disney princesses more innately than he probably ever would have wished to.

Uneventful holiday weekend.

We had a fairly uneventful holiday weekend. Tim had to work Saturday and Monday so I just did puppy stuff on those days and hung out with friends at night. The best part of this weekend is that it FINALLY hit summer in Seattle (which is about a month earlier than normal). It was a nice surprise. It was about 75 degrees and totally sunny all weekend long. So, that meant the beginnings of tan 2009. I was at the beach every day. It was awesome. Bella got a lot of swimming in.

On Monday Bella was exhausted after playing Sunday night so I went hiking with a friend without the puppy and then we went home to pick her up and all went back out to the beach. Bella has started to like swimming more and more. And she loves laying outside in the sun. She is definitely my girl.

Hope everyone out there had a great memorial day weekend.

Baffled.

So we were playing at a school nearby on the soccer field at around 7pm last night. We go there late in the day so that Bella and her boxer buddy Dallas and her Bernese Mountain dog buddy Burton can get all of their energy out. Plus at that time in the day, no one is there so they can just run, run, run.

Last night, however, there was a small family there. It was a family who appeared to be from a different culture. Dallas, the friendly boxer, sees the family walking around the baseball field and trots up to say hi. Bella, Dallas' sidekick follows.

Dallas is 10 feet away from a 2-3 year old but the little guy gets scared and starts screaming which makes him lose his balance. Dallas then goes to the mom who at that point is screaming and running away as fast as she can.

Now, I understand if you are not used to dogs they can be slightly intimidating especially since Dallas is a bigger dog. But to be scared of a puppy also? And not to mention the whole time, the dogs' tails were just wagging away- they were just saying hi. But that even is besides the point. Wouldn't you think that even if you were scared of dogs, if these were say, BEARS, and your kid had fallen and was screaming you would put yourself in the line of the animals and go to your directly to your child instead of running away and letting the kid fend for himself? Maybe I'm just weird.

Bella = expensive (but still so cute) puppy.

Remember in a post a while ago I mentioned Bella's tummy issues? Well, they haven't gotten any better. A couple of weeks ago, I met a girl named Gina who stopped me while I was walking Bella to admire her and tell me that she also has a 16 month old boxer. I didn't really thinking anything of it at the time. A week or so later, Tim and I were walking Bella and Gina popped her head out of her house with Dallas, her boxer. He and Bella went nuts playing for an hour while the rest of us talked.

Apparently Dallas had the same sort of issue that Bella is having. And the same "treatments" were tried out on him with no success. Gina said that she finally ended up having to take him to a specialist and found out that he has a condition that is specific to boxers called (appropriately) "boxer colitis." It's not genetic and it's not in all boxers but it is really common in these type of dogs but no one seems to know why. She had to put Dallas on pretty strong medication for this type of colitis (there are several different types) for 6 weeks, 6 times a day.

At this point last week, we were getting desperate. Bella was continuing to go to the bathroom 4-7 times a day (ridiculous) and it was huge and messy and just not normal so obviously the probiotics/new food cocktail was doing nothing for her. It had been helping but I think that it was just masking the problem and not fixing it. So we called the specialist.

We took her in on Wednesday and THANK GOD. (Side note: stop reading here if you don't want gory details).

Bella had been having greenish goopy discharge from her, uh, lady part. I talked to my friend Miss Ashley, a new vet, on the night it started because I was freaking out. We determined she was probably ok and that the next morning I should call and talk to my normal vet. We called our normal vet and she said, "Oh it's probably just vaginitis which is very common in puppies." She said it should go away on its own but we should just watch it because she didn't want to put Bella on antibiotics given her tummy problems. Ok...cool.

So by Wednesday (probably a week later after talking to our normal vet) her discharge is bloody. And we are FREAKING OUT. Because we thought that she could possibly be in heat. And this is bad why? Because boxers are already pretty cancer prone and if they go into heat unnecessarily (aka you aren't breeding them) then they can be even more predisposed to certain types of cancers. So while Tim and I are shitting our pants thinking that a) she is either in heat or b) there is something seriously wrong with her, our house is becoming a red polka dotted mess to the point where we finally just had to crate her (oh, and while this is all going down? The f-ing cat is puking all over the house. It's a freaking zoo).

We anxiously await our vet appointment all day. Here is what we find out about the intestinal problems: yes, the doctor has experience with boxer colitis (obviously we knew that) and yes, the doctor thinks the symptoms sound like the disease. BUT since Bella is just a puppy, the antibiotic to treat it isn't really good for her because it can damage her joints. So first the doctor wants to rule out anything else that COULD be wrong given that we can't really treat her for the colitis right now anyway. We do a blood test to rule out any other problems and we start her on a hypoallergenic food to rule out any food allergies.

For the lady part issue. The doctor does not think she is in heat. Phew. HOWEVER, the doctor does think she has a bladder infection. Ugh. The doctor wants to keep her for an hour to stick a needle in her bladder to send out a culture to verify. Lovely.

We pick her up and $400 later we have medicine for the supposed bladder infection, new food, anti-diarrhea meds since the antibiotics for her bladder infection will make her tummy even worse, and a myriad of tests sent off to the lab.

So a couple days go by and this is what we know now: 1) Blood tests are normal 2) Urine test came back positive- she does have a bladder infection, she is being treated by the right antibiotic so we need to get more of it- two weeks to be exact (and after that the urine test will be repeated). 3) We need to keep her on the hypoallergenic food for a while so we need to buy a big bag.

Guess what? $120 today and we have two weeks worth of more antibiotics and a huge bag of food. Sigh. It's not even really the cost of everything that gets me, I don't really care. It's just I want our baby to be 100%. The bladder infection was setting her back the most as far as her energy level. The tummy issues don't really seem to matter to her but it just seems so unhealthy and almost like she can't gain weight while that's going on. So hopefully in the next couple of months we will find some resolution here and hopefully find a time to get her spayed as well, which is dependent on when all of this other stuff gets ok'd by the doctor since she wants to wait to spay until Bella has some of the problems under control. I do feel comfort in knowing that many boxers have these problems and that she is perfectly healthy otherwise.

In more happy news, today we had another puppy class where we learned to make the dogs "come" from long distances. Bella did great and got to be the example in front of the class again which she LOVES. It was actually a really helpful class. We then took a trip to the beach and then she got to go on a walk AND play with her buddy Dallas the boxer who I mentioned above. She is one tuckered out pup now. That girl goes and goes and goes and then she just crashes. She is absolutely adorable.

We taught her to swim last weekend but my camera had died. I really need pictures to make that post. I'm hoping we can get some tomorrow. Today I just had her stick her legs in but no swimming since she already had such a busy day. Once I get pictures, I'll post about it.

And now I will stop rambling for a million years about the puppy.

Crazy week

Holy crap. Five days this week felt like two seconds. I had multiple projects going on and had to juggle my time between several different clients. Luckily, Tim had his four day block off starting Tuesday otherwise it would have been hell trying to deal with Bella on top of everything else. It didn't help that one of my clients was 40 minutes away. AND last Friday that I was down there it took me TWO HOURS to get home. I left there at 3:30 and got home at 5:30. It reminded me of my Phoenix commute and how much I do not miss that in the slightest.

Anyway, the most exciting thing that happened this week was wrapping up one of the busy season projects that I have so fondly referred to as the client from hell. We are finishing up that audit MUCH ahead of where we were last year. And while the process was still somewhat painful it was 1000 times better than last year. I couldn't be happier or more proud of the team on that one.

I'm excited to have this weekend to enjoy the sun- it's supposed to be sunny and at least 70 degrees every day. I already feel the beach calling my name...

Tan lines!

For the first time since we were in Hawaii in October, I am not as white as a ghost. Of course, Tim and I both probably blinded people at the beach by our whiteness but at least up here (versus in Cali or AZ) we sort of fit in to the general population of total ghosts coming out of winter.

BUT, all of that is behind us now because I now have a pretty decent tan if I do say so myself. And hopefully I have sufficiently made up for the lack of vitamin D that I haven't had all winter. I can't believe how much I miss warm weather!

Puppy Saturday

Yesterday was all about the puppy. Tim had to work so I was with Bella all day. We had puppy class in the morning and then we laid out at the beach since I had my little head cold, she watched/tried to play with other puppies there, and then we had a puppy playdate for a couple of hours yesterday evening.

It was been fantastic. I have never seen Bella so tired in my whole life. She couldn't even hold her head up on the way home from the playdate. It was way too cute. But it made for a great night for me! Since I am determined to fight this cold I went to bed early and she was more than happy to oblige. Actually, I took her outside around 7 and she walked into her crate when we got back in thinking it was bedtime. It was adorable.

Today, I feel like a million bucks. I think Bella is still tired though. And Tim is tired from no sleep last night. So, I think we are going to go lay at the beach more today and work on this tan base since it is going to be 75 degrees and sunny. I can't wait!

Illness 2009

Tim worked with a partner a week or so ago who had an upper respiratory thing going on. Basically a bad cold. He was trapped in the ambulance with her all day and at the END of the day she tells him that she is sick. Lovely.

So two days later, guess who can barely stay awake all day, has a minor fever and has snot coming out of all holes in his head? (Answer is not me and the name begins with a T).

So we load up on garlic, echinechea, and vitamin C. He only had it really bad for about a day and was fine when he had to go back to work on Monday. All of this week, I've been feeling like I'm slightly under the weather but have no real symptoms (just a bit of a sore throat every now and then but nothing notable at all). I have been beefing up on vitamins to avoid getting it like he did. Well, last night against my better judgement I only got about 4 hours of sleep. So guess who woke up with snot coming out all holes of my head?

I really don't feel too bad and feel like once I sleep tonight I will be just fine. I know that I don't have it nearly as bad as Tim. And thanks to our preventative measures, Tim only had it for a couple of days and his partner said she had it for three weeks!

I guess we can't really complain when it's very short lived and we haven't had any sort of a cold in well over 8 months!

Update: eyes didn't like contacts

After THREE days, my eyes decided that they do not like these particular contacts. LAME. That is the fastest they have ever decided to act up.

So, now I have two more types to try before there are none that my eyes will not hate. At that point, I guess we throw in the towel and be resigned to glasses forever or just get lasik surgery. My vote is for the latter.

I have my eyes back

I have been on a roll in this after busy season month. I have made appointments for us to see the dermatologist, I booked plane tickets for our trip back to KC this summer, I sent emails I have been meaning to send for months, I made dentist appointments, and I have been doing everything I didn't do for four months. It feels great.

The best of what I did was making an eye appointment. I was supposed to go back in March but the way it worked was that I was too busy to go to try out a new pair of contacts once my eyes were back to normal. So I called today to get in and they had an opening first thing this morning. Yes!

I head over and the doctor tells me my eyes look great (although says that it looks like I have allergies, which was weird) and she gives me a pair of contacts to try out to see if my eyes will not have an adverse reaction to them. So far, so good. It feels so great to be rid of glasses. If only I could throw them away permanently....

The $8 pepper

Whole foods has a notorious rap for being pricey. While I would not wholeheartedly agree with this, I will say that I can understand why some people would think that. However, it is my favorite grocery store for many reasons (this list is not all inclusive):

-Great produce (which Trader Joes lacks)
-All natural everything (including skincare, haircare, dog items, etc)
-Fantastic selection of supplements/holistic body care
-Unbelievable selection of anything and everything healthy you could want

That being stated, we do not buy all of our groceries at Whole Foods. We do usually buy our organic produce there. We have found that it is not necessarily more expensive than buying organic produce anywhere else (like Safeway). We also buy our all natural yogurts, organic peanut butter, ice cream, some crackers/items like that but not many because they are usually much better priced (and tasting, I think) at Trader Joes. I tell Tim that anything really outside of what we usually buy (and even most of the items we do buy) comes with a standard $4.99 price tag. It's just how it is there (and to us it's worth it).

Well, Tim went for the Whole Foods run earlier today and on the list was pepper (like black pepper in a grinder bottle). We use this a lot to cook with and season salads/pasta, etc. There is a pepper that I love that we get from Trader Joes for oh, $2.99 or so.

I get home from work and Tim shows me this new fancy pepper and looks at me kind of with disdain as he says, "It was $7.99." WHAT?!

I mean, I justify a LOT as far as spending money on groceries. You kind of have to if you buy organically. But $7.99 for a small jar of pepper? That just seems crazy to me. Apparently, as he explained to me, it is an all natural, organic blend of black pepper, green pepper, white pepper, and some other type of pepper. And the grinder is amazing.

Uh-huh. I am not sold. I continue to look at him like "WTF were you thinking?" And he looks back at me like, "Just wait till you try it."

So that night we make pasta and I decide to see just how worth it this $7.99 pepper is. This is totally ridiculous but I totally get why that pepper is $7.99. I never in my life thought I would say that it is worth it to spend $8 on pepper but it is absolutely amazing.

Disaster at Petco

It has been raining all week here. Glooooomy.

Additionally, Tim has been working quite a bit- including today. So Bella was stuck at home all day by herself (well, with the cats). I go home and spend an hour or so with her in the middle of the day and then get home around 4 for the night with her. Today going on a walk with her was not an option as she barely wanted to pee outside because it was so wet. She is a total princess about getting her paws wet. Does. not. like.

So I decide to take her with me on a couple of errands. I have to go to the grocery store and then I decide that I will take her to Petco to get a new toy to play with since we are all stuck inside. Plus, she likes going to Petco (*understatement).

She does fine waiting on me at the grocery store. We get to Petco and get soaked walking in.

BUT, HELLO!?! HOW DID I NOT MISS THAT OTHER DOG WALKING IN BEHIND US? IT'S A DOG! MOM! BEHIND US!! A DOOOOOGGG!!!!!

I forgot, when there are other puppies around we must contort our bodies into ridiculous shapes, stick our butts in the air and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle... oh yes, and we MUST. JUMP. AND TWIST. AND WHINE. AND LOSE CONTROL.

Duh, I can't believe I forgot that minor detail. How ridiculous I am that I thought that training would help instill some little minor bit of something I like to call sanity. Sorry Bella.

So, this is the first sign.

We go in and guess what? The calm, mellow, perfectly behaved chocolate lab and his owner are headed to the same aisle we are headed to. Lovely.

The owner says, "You sure have an energy ball on your hands." Hmm...you think? Maybe you should go ELSEWHERE so she stops seeing your dog. Or I will.

So I tell him that yes, we do indeed have a very energetic puppy but she is just friendly and wants to play and that we are in training.

So then this dude has maybe the BEST. IDEA. EVER. He says, "Well, I'll just let my lab come over and say hi since you seem to have the "training tricks" down for her [I was holding her leash like we learned to in an effort to prevent jumping]"

I tell him that I think this is not a good idea because she is just going ballistic. And he insists. I tell him that I am sorry if it does not go well.

Jump to the end: It does not go well.

Although she only has 6 inches of leash to work with to prevent her from jumping and I am on the floor also restraining her, as the lab gets closer she wiggles and wiggles, she tries and tries to jump, then YES! The lab is in range and her thought of "I shall bop him on the nose" comes to fruition eliciting a yelp from the poor guy.

Do you think I'm done?

Nope.

She then COMPLETELY loses it... literally. Even though she had just gone pee, she got so excited so peed all over the aisle... and on the lab... and on the lab's owner... and on me. Freaking awesome.

Oh? AND? She continues to attempt to jump and almost face plants in her own pee.

At that point I just look at the guy and say, "I told you this would be a disaster." And he says, "Well, we tried, looks like she needs more training."

Thanks, asshole, that's what I TRIED to tell you. She is just a puppy who has a TON of energy built up from the rainy, slow day so I can't be totally mad at her especially when my tactic would have been to have just avoid it at that point knowing that she was not in the mood to "train" at that moment because she didn't have the attention span. She's only 5 months old for the love of god, and is a good puppy by all accounts. She will get there. But still... that was totally embarassing.

Puppy kindergarten

Today was our first puppy kindergarten class. Tim got off work this morning and even though he only got one hour of sleep at work, he was a trooper and made it to the class. As we were driving up, we saw all of these little puppies- a couple of labs, an Alaskan husky, a little french bulldog. It was ADORABLE. I would recommend people take a puppy class just for the sheer fact that all puppies are the cutest things ever.

Of course we get out of the car and Bella is just going ballistic.

NEW PEOPLE! NEW PUPPIES! PUPPIES! PUPPIES!! OMG, I can't CONTROL MYSELF!! MY BUTT MIGHT FALL OFF FROM WAGGING MY TAIL STUMP SO MUCH!!

So I MUST JUMP. AND BARK! AND ACT LIKE A TOTAL NUT JOB SO THESE PUPPIES KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE THEM.

Which is exactly what she did. Out. of. control. At least we cannot say we have a mean dog. She just wants to play with anything and everyone.

So the class starts and the lady asks if any of us would care if she gave our puppies a rawhide to chew on if they were being crazy. Guess who got the first rawhide handout!? Ding ding ding! If you guessed Bella, you win!

Finally the instructor decides to just take Bella to the center of the class herself. I can't even tell you how happy Bella was to be prancing around in the center of the classroom as the center of the stage. It was HILARIOUS. Slightly embarassing, but more cute than anything.

We learned so unbelievably much in a little over an hour. I would highly, highly recommend a puppy class to anyone who gets a puppy. I mean, we thought we knew what we were doing and truthfully, she has been a great dog but this class has and will continue to give us tools to train her well (and to make our lives easier in the process).

NOTE:

It is hard to go back to work after 5 full days of playing when you have had basically no time off since December. So unmotivated.

Happy birthday to me!

My birthday was very low key- it's what I wanted. My present was Bella. I really wanted a puppy and she was more than enough! So on my actual birthday all I really wanted was to hike and just hang out with Tim and Bells. On my birthday morning, Tim disappeared to go "run a quick errand." He returned with a huge bouquet of summer looking flowers- what a perfect husband and a great way to start of the day!


Timmy and my birthday bouquet.

And of course we had to get one of me too.

So Tim surprised me with presents!! I totally did NOT want any or expect any, but who can really complain?! In the afternoon, Tim and I went on a 6-7 mile or so hike. It was a fairly warm day out and partly sunny so it was great! We didn't take Bella so that we could go fast and do a longer hike since she really can't yet. So after we got home from the hike we had a quick snack and took her on a couple mile walk through our neighborhood. I love being outside and being active that much- it is the most perfect day when I'm that active (I know, I'm a nerd!) After all that activity we jumped in the shower and then Tim started cooking my birthday dinner. We had bought fresh wild sockeye salmon and we made garlic mashed potatoes and a tossed salad. Sooo good. After eating, I opened my presents from Tim and my parents that they had sent. My parents got me clothes and fun jewelry that I loved! And from Tim who wasn't supposed to get me present since I have my pooping monster, I got a few small things for working out (socks and a pink yoga mat). The yoga mat was especially funny because I had guessed it earlier in the day. I was totally joking because I honestly didn't expect it but apparently I was right- Tim told me he was so mad that I guessed it!

Inside of the birthday card was a library card (I guess his errand from earlier that morning). Here is why this is so exciting: I have been wanting a library card for a long time. Why? Because I can't justify buying books. It is more green to rent them from the library and I can't justify buying a book and wasting money AND trees by only reading it once. I am a nerd, we have established this. So the reason I haven't gotten a card? Because the Kirkland library (the suburb of Seattle we live in) is under re-construction and every time I try to find their "temporary" location, I can't find it. It's SO frustrating. So my sweet husband went out on my birthday morning and got me a library card which I can take to ALL libraries in the Seattle area.

Here I am reading the card from him and holding my new library card. He said the library people looked at him funny when he went to get a free library card for me. Also, you can see my new pink yoga mat to the left of me! I love it!! (It's also very cool because it is reversible- the other side is gray and is more textured which would be perfect for hot yoga if you need a better grip). It's so much better than my old one. The old one is great, it's just more masculine. So perfect to hand over to Tim so we can do yoga together which I think is what he was thinking by buying me the new pink mat.

After opening my socks that were at the top of the gift bag, I stumbled upon a little box. WTF? And I take off the ribbon... Tiffany and Co? Huh? Why the hell do I have a box from Tiffany?

Tim bought me a chain link silver heart necklace from Tiffany! We have both admired it for a long time but I had totally forgotten about it and was NOT expecting this (in all honesty, I wasn't expecting anything because we got Bella but once I figured out he had done something, I thought he had bought us some camping gear... BOY, was I wrong!) I'm pretty sure I have the best husband in the world. It was such a thoughtful gift... not to mention I love it!

Here's Tim "bench-pressing" Bella on the gray side of the new yoga mat. She's probably getting closer to 30 pounds so it's probably a decent workout.

Thanks to everyone out there who sent cards and gifts and wishes my way. My 27th birthday couldn't have been better!

Vancouver, Canada, eh?

Today we decided to take our day trip up to Canada. I have never been to Vancouver (or anywhere in Canada for that matter) but have heard that it is a pretty awesome city. Tim has been several times but more for the biking part of the city and not so much for exploring. On June 1st we have to have passports to get across the border. Since neither of us have a current passport right now, we decided to take the opportunity to go up there while we still can without a passport (not like getting a passport is the hardest thing in the world, but whatever). So we had our birth certificates and Bella's shot records and we were good to go. Of course it hit me about 30 miles from the border that I didn't have our marriage certificate on me so I was a little bit worried about getting in or out of the US since my birth certificate did not match my ID. But, 2.5 hours later after leaving Seattle, we hit the border and it was no issue getting into Canada. Of course the guy was a total prick but what do you expect from border patrol?

Miss Bella getting comfy for the car ride- she did great!

And on our way out of Seattle... headed north!

I decided to drive first. I made it just across the border and Tim took over. I'm glad, too. There are crazy drivers up there in the city!

And we made it!!

We stopped just across the Canadian border to let Bella pee and to get a map of Vancouver.

Looking down from a hill to the city. It is stunning, actually... people were right!

Bella liked it too... actually she was probably more fascinated with the camera but oh well.

And approaching the city...

So I thought this was funny- "Canada's gourmet burgers & spirits?" Do I not know something about Red Robin? I thought it was an American chain. Hmm.

Entering Chinatown! Apparently it's the 3rd largest Chinatown in North America following San Francisco and New York. I had no idea but after visiting, I would believe it!

And leaving Chinatown. We also visited several other districts in downtown Vancouver but I don't have pictures. There was a lot of construction going on, presumably to prepare the city for the 2010 Olympics. The Chinatown district was the most impressive.

Headed out of Vancouver, we stopped at Stanley Park for a picnic lunch. This park was HUGE and beautiful. Not to mention, it was about 70 degrees and sunny in Vancouver. We got so lucky given that it was 50 and rainy in Seattle! It was awesome just sitting out in the sun. Definitely a perfect day.

Walking around a little trail after lunch, we saw a "Calvin squirrel" (aka: black)- something that does not exist in Seattle. We only have brown ones.

And standing by a little swamp/wetland type thing. It was really pretty.

Looking over the bridge that connects Stanley Park to North/West Vancouver.

And crossing that bridge...gorgeous mountains!

A view of Vancouver as we were crossing the bridge.

The km/h signs cracked me up. Obviously I KNOW we are in a different country, it's just one of those things little differences from the States that amuse me.

We were going to go to this thing called Capilstrano bridge, which basically just looked like a bridge you cross in the middle of the forest. We got there though and it was a huge tourist trap. So we drove up the road further and found this little park and giant dam- gorgeous, same views and so much less of a cluster than the tourist trap!

Standing at the fence looking up at a huge waterfall caused by the dam.

Self portrait. Lovely!

And looking down from above on the waterfall.

A view of a little lake a mountains. Beautiful!

Miss Bella loves being a world class traveler!

After a day full of exploring, we decided to head back down to the states. We were tired and traffic was starting to get crappy from rush hour. So we headed back not knowing if the US guys would let us in (with my whole birth certificate not matching ID situation coupled with the US being much more stringent than Canada on who they let in/out). While we were waiting in line at the border we snapped a shot of the peace arch which we didn't get on the way in.

We also got a picture of the inspection sign... and luckily, they let me back in! This guy was even more of a jerk than the Canada guy. Unbelievable!

On the way back down, we had a great view of Mount Baker. I think Mount Baker is 10,000 feet (in contrast Rainer is 14,000) so when you're driving in Seattle you can see Rainer down south and Baker to the north plus all of the ranges in between... on clear days, of course. Once we got this shot of Baker and continued to head further south, it kept getting cloudier and cloudier. By the time we were back in Seattle it was raining. We were glad we left town for a day in the sun!

On the way home, Winston hit 66,666 miles old. This is very impressive since I have basically only driven 16,000 miles since I have been up in Seattle. In contrast, in my few years in Phoenix, I put on 45,000.

We wore the puppy out. She decided to cuddle and pass out with Mr. Monkey on the way home and proceeded to sleep the whole night. It was way too cute. The day up in Vancouver was perfect and I'd definitely recommend that people check it out- it would be fun to spend more than a day up there as well which is on our agenda for sometime in the future. Also on the agenda for explorations north of us are Victoria, San Juan Islands, and Whistler. I guess we'll be needing those passports fairly soon after all!

A sunny day in Seattle complimented by crumpets

Today Tim and I decided to drive to Seattle. We haven't been over there in a while and since it was a great sunny day, we figured, why not? It was Bella's first trip to the Seattle scene and boy, she did not know what to do with herself.

She LOVES people and there are so many people down there, I think she was just overwhelmed. It was hilarious. She didn't even jump because there were too many people around so she couldn't figure out who to peg. We got a lot of attention... everyone wanted to pet her and talk to us about her so it was a bit of a slow go as we were walking around but she loves the attention so all in all it was a great adventure.

Sitting outside of the crumpet shop. Bella was a little cold sitting in the shade so she was hiding between Tim's legs.

Crumpets apparently are messy...

And another shot where you can see Miss B... I really love these crumpets. Their tea is amazing as well!

And a shot of Bella and I... I was trying to cuddle with her to keep her warm. She was definitely shaking!

And a close up shot... aren't we cute?

We started walking around the market and the park... where we warmed up in the sun. Bella was so distracted here. It was hard to get a picture because everyone kept walking up to her. In fact, I snapped it right before two ladies came over to talk to us.

I always love going over the bridge to Seattle to Pike Place and to the crumpet shop (which is of course at Pike). It's such a neat area and one of the reasons that I love living here. I am also glad my parents came out last August and we discovered the crumpet shop... mmm...

The beginnings of the birthday weekend

Today marks the first day of the beginning of my birthday weekend. I took off Monday-Wednesday to just enjoy time off with Tim who also took those days off from work. We don't really have anything major planned other than a trip to Canada for a little trip at the beginning of the week. This weekend will be mostly low key as Tim has a test tomorrow for work stuff.

A few days ago, Tim told me that the bakery in town that we have gotten my german chocolate birthday cake from had discontinued it. I was SO disappointed. It is the best testing cake ever- natural (of course), not to mention now it is just tradition. So I said to go and get the type of cake we had for our reception. It is equally as good, in a different way.

Well, the first surprise happened this morning when Tim got home from work (he works 24 hour shifts so he worked from 7am yesterday morning to 7am this morning). When he walked in the door, I had a funny feeling that he was up to something. He went up to take a shower but was acting very funny... like asking me if I could get him a drink of water WHILE he was in the shower. Um, that just seemed weird so I said that and told him that I didn't want to (ok, that is bitchy but I was starving and fairly grouchy, I will admit it). Plus it just seemed weird.

So we go downstairs for breakfast and I look in the fridge and see a big white box. WTF?

IT'S MY CAKE!!! And not just ANY cake, it's my german chocolate cake! YES!!!! Apparently Tim was tricking me the whole time. He claims that I am hard to surprise so he has to trick me to do it. I am not complaining, I LOVE surprises.

So after that, we had a leisurely day. We took Bella on a small 3 mile hike (which is actually a mile over the amount she is supposed to walk at one time because large breed dogs-especially boxers- are prone to hip dysplasia). We then went and bought fresh salmon and potatoes to make for dinner... of course the part I was most excited about was the cake! We never eat the cake right on my birthday, it's more fun to eat it for a week.

Bella and I after the hike. She is growing so much. She makes me look like a midget. Maybe someday I will be rid of the stupid glasses.

And another one. She was giving me a kiss and we tried to capture it. And YES... I am wearing hiking pants and a fleece. And I even have hiking shoes. I never would have believed it either. It's ridiculous.

Tim "prepping" the cake with fresh organic raspberries- yum!

And, voila! MMMM.... It was amazing. Happy birthday weekend to me!

Enjoying the warmer weather

I was going to title this post "It's finally spring in Washington" but I figured I would totally screw up something in our weather pattern by jinxing us with that title. We have had a great string of spring days- sun, 60s, and even some 70s. It's been awesome. Even the animals are loving it. After a nice walk with Bella today, I decided to take a couple of shots at all of the animals (it's also proof that they all really do get along)...

Tyson, Bella, and Calvin. Bella and Calvin are pals. Tyson is a bit more skepitcal of her. But then again, I have determined he is just a grumpy old man type of cat who is just an ass to everyone unless he decides at any given moment that he doesn't want to be. Usually this only happens with Tim...his favorite person in the whole world.

Bella looks like she is up to no good... and no, she is not starving. She is just still growing so much that you can still see her ribs. She eats like a horse (and the "right" amount) but she grows so fast that she hasn't really filled out yet.

Bella given her buddy Calvin a hug... or tackle.

This looks like more of a nice hug. By the way, believe it or not, Calvin usually instigates these instances by batting her in the nose. It's pretty funny.

Tuckered out puppy after a long walk and playing with kitties and toys. She was passed out and snoring but the camera click woke her up. Still an adorable picture.