{27may2011: SLO}

Last month we spent the weekend in San Luis Obispo, CA for my cousin's wedding (that was when Darwin had her sleepover and her brother Boo's house).
I always find it hard being away from Darwin, even for the weekend. But there were a lot of other things to keep us distracted.
Things like:

In-n-out burgers animal style (that's Charlotte the chickpea in the background)

My cousin's dogs Kava and Pele. (Remember how small they were!) That's Kava giving me love.

One morning we woke up and the sidewalks outside the hotel were covered with these snails.

My uncle took Jason and I wine tasting at a couple wineries and this was the shop dog. So cute!

The winery also had peacocks! They said they had about 80 and it was mating season so they'd probably get 20 or so more babies. You could buy a bag of food and feed the peacocks. They said there were a few birds that would actually eat out of your hand... I didn't run into any.

And the cutest distraction, my nephew! 
As you can see there was lots to keep us entertained!

{23may2011: practice}

We took Darwin's new soccer ball to the park with us so she could get more practice in.

I think she could be an excellent mascot/team dog for the Seattle Sounders. 

I tried to get her to pose next to the ball, but the grass was too comfy and inviting she thought it'd be better to take a nap instead.

After soccer practice we walked around to the little pond so she could get a drink of water. She saw a stick floating under the surface of the water and made a move to get it out.

No such luck though and all she had to show for in the end was a wet face.

{18may2011: wordless Wednesday}

soccer edition:

{17may2011: Discovery}

When we know a walk just won't cut it for Darwin, and we don't feel like going to a dog park (it's hit or miss with Darwin playing with other dogs at dog parks), we'll often opt for Discovery Park where we can get her to run across the fields. 

During the winter they turn off the water fountains, so when they do get turned back on, Darwin HAS to make a pit stop at them.

After she's filled up, it's off to the fields.

As you can tell by Jason's lovely outfit, it still felt like winter though it should've felt like spring.

Darwin likes the chilly weather though because she can keep running without getting too hot!

Is it Darwin? Or a long armed kangaroo?!  hehehe

She's like the energizer bunny and can keep going and going and going.

With spring slow coming, the cherry blossoms were still blooming, which I love.

After all that running Darwin was just tired enough to stop and take in the view and do some posing.

Don't look too closely! Her Sirius Republic Tweet Tweet collar is on upside down and it bugs me! It's actually pretty dirty too!

After a good run through the park we can all go home and relax.

{13may2011: new park}

The other week I ran a bunch of errands and decided to take Darwin to a new park. We tend to go to the same parks so I thought I'd see if we could find a new one to add to our list. We stopped at Jose Rizal Park in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, just south of downtown Seattle. As I pulled up the park I pulled out my phone and read a review about how it's a nice park but seems underutilized and garbage from transients laying around. Uhhhhh.... I got a little nervous, because I'm a little scaredy cat sometimes and worry about being attacked, or mugged, or rapped. (I won't take Darwin on the trail near our house by myself even in the daytime because we've seen tents and know homeless people hang out there, even though I've seen other ladies walk/run their dog through that area.) Even though Darwin's a big dog and I'd assume most people would be wary of her size alone, she's a bigger scaredy cat than me and I think if someone ran out and jumped me, she'd run away barking. hahaha.

Anyway, back to the park. As I was sitting in the car contemplating I saw a girl and her dog walk in so I figured it had to be ok (it was the middle of the day, on a week day). We entered the gates and from there you have to walk down a curvy path to a smaller open grass area. It had been raining a lot that week so it was pretty muddy, but Darwin loves the mud so she had fun. She got a little playtime in with the dog we followed in and another pittie that showed up, but other than that there were no other dogs (or people) there. It's a smaller park just off the freeway, but it had a great view of the city.

It was fun to check out someplace new, but I don't think we'll be adding that park to our list of regular stops, just not enough activity or space for a big girl like Darwin.

{10may2011: Groupn}

There are a dozen or more of those deal sites now, even ones for pets (barking deals), but today Groupon has a great "deal" for people to donate money to PAWS Seattle.

"Since its founding in 1967, PAWS has found homes for more than 120,000 dogs and cats and today takes in hundreds of animals every month, many of whom are malnourished and dehydrated. The nonprofit organization never euthanizes healthy adoptable companion animals, and 3,000 dogs and cats are taken into new households every year as a result of PAWS' efforts. PAWS is able to make the most of its food budget thanks to discounts on pet food from manufacturers and distributors, but the cost of feeding its four-legged wards remains substantial.

Join G-Team and donate $10 to help PAWS feed homeless dogs and cats. If G-Team members raise $600, PAWS can purchase enough pet food to feed all of the dogs and cats in its care for one month. Each additional $150 raised will fund a week’s worth of food for PAWS' animals."

If you have $10 to spare, check out this link and help Groupon raise money for PAWS.


And because I hate picture-less posts, here's a random puppy picture of Darwin.

{09may2011: Road Trip part 2}

If you missed part 1 of the road trip you can take a look here.

After a quick R&R session at Boundary Bay for lunch we headed back south to the beach at Larrabee State Park so Darwin could run around a bit more.

It's not a very big stretch of beach, but we found some space we could let her off and chase a stick.

Though the sun was out the water was still ice cold and I was surprised Darwin was willing to get in the water as far as she did. She did spend time on the sand too, chewing her sticks.

She always makes me so nervous when she decides to play with sticks. She doesn't carry them perpendicular to her body, she likes to carry the end of it straight out in front of her. I'm always worried she's going to impale herself one day.

On our way out, we passed this little Pomeranian puppy who was very excited to see Darwin.

Then as Darwin passed by it snapped at Dar, and it's owner scooped it up really quickly. The whole time Darwin just kept walking by like nothing happened.

After that it was tulip time!

Because of the colder spring we've been having not all the tulip fields were in full bloom, but it was still beautiful nonetheless.

It was already getting late and we were tired from our hike, so rather than stop at another brewery for dinner, we headed back home so Darwin could get a bath.  :)