{20jan2012: Christmas}

There's been a lot of things going on lately so I apologize for being a bad blogger. In November I went back home to Hawaii to visit my grandma who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. On December 28 she passed away, so Jason and I went back to Hawaii last week for her funeral. Right before we left for Hawaii we got big news from work (that's a whole 'nother can of worms) so there has been a lot to deal with. Things hopefully will settle down for a bit.
Since we're so far behind I haven't shared our Christmas!
I'm kind of bummed I didn't get a family picture in front of the tree, oh well... here's one of Darwin though in her new Christmas collar from her brother, Boo.

Darwin had a blast opening all her presents (and she got A LOT).

Some of her presents.

After breakfast and cleaning up the mess we decided to head out and do some snowshoeing!
We went back to Gold Creek since it's fairly close and we were starting out later in the day.
(Sorry iphone pictures from here out)
It was snowing when we got there so it made for very pretty, but wet conditions.






And that was our Christmas!

{25dec2011: Merry Christmas}

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

{10jan2011: Christmas goodies}

Darwin made out well this Christmas.  Besides the free treats from All The Best that I regifted and wrapped, Darwin got a lot of other great goodies.

Since we were going on vacation and would be missing Christmas day with Darwin, we opened gifts early (as early as I would let Jason) and Darwin had a hand (or mouth) at opening her own gifts.
Remi sent her a package she couldn't wait to get into.

{bully sticks!!! my favorite (that my mom and dad don't even get for me)!!!}



Thanks Remi!
Yes, we're awful mean doggy parents and don't buy Darwin bully sticks very often, but we can't handle the stink!  We're going to have to try the stink free ones Twinkie recommended.  

{roaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!!!}

While we were visiting Jason's family Darwin got more gifts from her grandparents.

Her own personalized tote bag and pillow.  I love the tote bag I must say.

Starbarks!  So cute!  And it barks!  Well, it used to bark until Darwin de-barked it.  

We had a white elephant gift exchange and I won Rudolph the red nosed reindeer for Darwin.  Instead of hard plastic eyes, he had a hard plastic nose, and now Rudolph is the noseless reindeer.

We thought Christmas was past, but last week Darwin received another gift, this time from Remi's sister, Nala!

And look at the goodies!  Another bully stick!  And a flying squirrel!

  

Thanks Nala!

All the bully sticks have been consumed and 90% of the stuffed toys have been at least partly destuffed.  The squirrel is the last toy standing!

{06jan2011: ketchup}

I was going to fill you in on our trip, but there's so many other things to catch up on.  I'm a few weeks behind!

Before we went on vacation we celebrated Christmas with Darwin's bff at their houseboat.  Before dinner we did some gift exchanging.  Really the dogs couldn't wait to get into Darwin's gift from Friday.  Almost as soon as we walked in Darwin grabbed her gift and started to dig in.


She got rawhide bones which kept her busy most of the night.  But I think the best part of the git was the bag the bones came in.  It's a cheap brain toy for Darwin.  We've been putting cookies in the bag and she has to work to try and get it out.   
After dinner Bb showed of Robin's new toy and challenged Jason to a game of air hokey.  Friday made sure she supervised their shenanigans. 

{supervising is hard work}

Both dogs (and all the people) were pretty pooped so we called it a night.

Darwin's felt brain game bag is surprisingly still in one piece so it's still testing her smarts!

{03jan2010: Happy New Year!}

So much to catch up on!
We've spent the last week on vacation, so I took a vacation from the blog as well!  I've been reading everyone else's blogs, but not commenting... sorry!
We'll be back to our regular blogging sometime this week!
For now here is a picture of Darwin the wrapping paper monster.

{27dec2010: ATB}

Our neighborhood pet store, All the Best (ATB) Pet Care, gave out Christmas goody bags.  We walked up there the other weekend to pick up Darwin's.
I tried to get her to take a picture by herself in front of the inflatable Santa and snowman, but it was drizzling and she wanted to get home and to her dry comfy couch.

So we quickly ended our photoshoot and speed walked home so we could see what goodies she got.  

I was surprised at how generous they were!  I thought we'd get a small cookie and maybe a ball, but there were a lot of good things in the bag.

Toys, raw food sample, canned food, treats, poop bags!



Us being the genius (and somewhat cheap) parents that we are, gave her a few of the treats, then wrapped up the toys and giant bone cookie and put them in Darwin's Christmas stocking.  hehehe.  Thanks All the Best!
What kind of goodies did you all get for Christmas?

{25dec2010: Merry Christmas}

[25dec2009: Merry Christmas}

Darwin's first Christmas and it was great!  She had a blast opening her presents (and some of ours).  She would have been happy with wrapped cardboard boxes actually.  It was a lot of fun and she had a very full day.  Cuddling on the couch with dad is a perfect way for her to end her exciting day (so spoiled).  Pictures to come later... I'm feeling too lazy to download them. 
Here's a video Jason uploaded of Dar opening one of her presents:

We were trying to keep things clean and throw away wrapping as we opened, but at the end we thought it'd be funny to take all the paper out and let Darwin have a chance at complete chaos.

Needless to say, she loved it.  
Tomorrow she get's dropped off for boarding at Daynakin Great Danes.  They are local great dane breeders up north and though it's  a trek to drop her off, I felt more comfortable knowing she would not be in a kennel and with people knowledgeable about the breed.  
We'll be on vacation so we'll see you in the new year!
Merry Christmas to you all and have a happy new year!!!

{21dec2009}

Merry Christmas to all our blog friends!

Jason was reluctant to let me share this picture, but I twisted his arm and here it is!  I'm thinking Santa pictures for Darwin in the future won't have us in them.
We're excited for our first Christmas with Darwin.  She can't wait to get at all the presents under the tree, especially the gifts from Remi which she sneaks a sniff at daily.  I'm surprised we haven't woken up yet with ripped open presents scattered about the living room and a happy Darwin curled up with new toys. 

{18dec2009: update!}

So we took Darwin to daycare today, the second time for the week.  Tuesday's report was that she was pretty much fine til the end of the day, then started getting anxious and stressed out when the other dogs started to leave.  Today we pick her up and the girl sitting at the front said she was a lot better.  Still a bit anxious at the end of the day, but doing better listening to commands.  They had said before they would tell her to sit and she'd run away before coming back to sit.  Today they had someone new in to interview, and she was told to sit and sat right away.  Then a different girl brought Darwin out from the back and was asked us if Darwin listens well to commands.  She said that Darwin hurt her running into her when she told her to sit and that since she's a bigger dog we need to work on that more.  She said that Darwin has done that to multiple people. 
OI.  Darwin.  We know she's a big dog.  We know that she gets very amped up when she goes to daycare.  We know we need to get her to listen consistently when we give her a command.  We've been working on doing short training sessions daily, even with the basic stuff.  But how do we get her to listen to other people consistently?  If they have a treat in their hand of course she'll listen, but when they don't she usually isn't interested. More training.  


In other news.  A big THANK YOU to Remi!  Darwin got a package in the mail today, and so we opened it when we got home.

She could smell something really good in there and was excited to get in there!

There were 2 wrapped packages as well as another bag of cookies and chicken!

Darwin could not wait to get her mouth on the initial treat she smelled though.

It took her a good 15 minutes, and it's gone already.  haha.  The other gifts are under the tree waiting til Christmas to be opened!  Thank you Remi!  Hopefully soon we'll get a playdate in!


OH!  and a big woo hoo and thanks to Juno and Loki over at Wild Dingo.  We were the winner of their contest for guessing they were moving to Switzerland!  How exciting for them!  And the most exciting part for Darwin, she won a pair of Juno Belle jodhpurs!

I think she looks pretty good with jodhpurs.

{13dec2009: park weekend!}

Saturday:  Westcrest Park
3 way keep away!

10 month old goldendoodle

Friends from Marymoor, Beddis and Kendall

Older merle female, who wasn't that into young Darwin trying to play with her.

Dinky... his poor mom was peed on by some rotweiler. eww.

Darwin, Dinky and Willis!

This is only our second time to this park, but there were a ton of danes there!  Darwin had a blast!  Though she was a little cranky towards the end so we had to leave.

Today we took Darwin to get a Christmas picture with Santa Claws at the Seattle Animal Shelter.  She was surprisingly well behaved, well, she was pretty excited by the other dogs around and being some place new, but she didn't bark at Santa and sat nicely for a photo.  They are supposed to email us a copy so I'll post it later.  I will say it's not as good as Bess and Heffner's but not bad for our first one.
Then we took Darwin out to Marymoor for more play time.
Oscar Darwin and Bella

Bella Oscar Otis and Darwin

This poor dog was dressed in leopard print pj's and a coat.  It was cold out, but I don't know if it was THAT cold!

We also ran into Norman

And on our loop around we ran into him again, and Darwin was chasing him and he ran straight into his mom and knocked her over.  Poor thing.