New Year's day/birthday hike

It took me long enough to post these... I guess my New Year's resolution should have been to update my blog more, huh?

New Year's day is Greg's birthday. It was unseasonably warm that day (despite my wearing a hat- my head was definitely hot by the end of the hike) so we took the boys to Appalachian trail to hike to Annapolis rock.
I miss hiking sooo much in the winter. I yearn for warmer weather so that I can take them out whenever I want. It's especially hard since we live within minutes of Gambrill and the Watershed, where there are several great hiking trails. It's just been too darn cold. We even attempted to hike one Sunday back in December when it was below freezing and windy, and lasted 12 whole minutes. Maybe I'm a fair-weather hiker, but I just don't enjoy it when my feet and hands are frozen and I can't feel my face.

Anyway- here are a few photos captured with my phone:

The boys on the way to Annapolis rock:

Greg and Lance at the top of Annapolis rock:

Me and Jackson at the top of Annapolis rock:

Come on, spring!!!

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Take your doggie to work day(s)!

The kids in the veterinary science class do dog-grooming periodically, and staff can bring in their dogs to be groomed by the kids. I planned on bringing the boys in on the same day at first, but then thought better of it- they would be a lot better behaved individually. :)
I brought Jackson with me yesterday and he hung out in my classroom for part of 1st period, and then was off to be groomed. He ran around the classroom and the kids LOVED him. He was brought back to me a few hours later, looking handsome as ever! They bathed, trimmed, clipped and pampered him. The kids did a great job and the best part is, it was free! Here are some photos of Jackson from the day:

Running around my classroom before leaving to be groomed:

Right after his grooming (not so great at posing for the "after" picture):

Completely conked out... too much fun

 

Lance came in today for his turn to be groomed. He was a little nervous about all of the people crowding the hallways and all of the attention and stayed by my side for a while. He lightened up and played with the kids and then went off  for his grooming. I was told that he did a great job and had a ball.

Here's a photo of Lance before his beauty treatment:

And after (such a handsome boy!!):

Another exhausted pup. :)



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Birthday photos

Here are some photos that I took of the boys yesterday afternoon/evening:

The boys playing in the backyard:

Patiently waiting for the birthday festivities to begin:

Sharing a new hemp bone!! (It lasted barely 20 minutes. This is why we only buy WestPaw or Kong toys.)

Lance with the new toy before the boys tore a big hole in it:

The birthday cake (from Two Paws Up). We even sang "Happy Birthday.":

Greg cut the cake in half. The boys wait eagerly for a slice:

And they dig in!

Mmmmmm.... cake.......

Lance got it all over himself.

Jackson had peanut butter all over his tounge. It was hilarious!!

Lance has peanut butter all over his face:

Can I have some more??

Happy Birthday, boys!!



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Happy Birthday to Lance and Jackson!!

I've been really horrible about keeping up with blog posts. I can blame it on nothing else but having an incredibly busy life that leaves me exhausted and not wanting to blog at the end of the day.
But, today is the boys' first birthday- and it definitely deserves a blog post!

I can't believe they are already a year old- as cliche as it sounds, it seems like only yesterday we were picking them up at just eight weeks old! They've grown SO much in that time- it's just amazing. I haven't weighed either of the boys in a while, but would guess that they are around 75 lbs. each. (They were just over 10 lbs. when we brought them home). I look back at the photos and my heart melts when I see a photo of me holding one (or both!) of them - I definitely can't do that now! (Like this photo below):

While I miss their young puppy stage and being able to pick them up and cuddle, I love where they are at now. They are definitely still puppies- they have crazy amounts of energy and still do some "bad" puppy things. But, they really have matured a great deal in the past year. Lance and Jackson still get REALLY excited when people come over, but they calm down quickly. They are able to just sit around and be calm inside most of the time and finally do not destroy everything in sight.

Here's a photo of the sleepy boys this morning right after they woke up:

Anyway, so the big news for us is that we bought a house! We still own the townhouse (and have a tenant renting it) but we are living in our new single-family home and loving it! We moved on November 13th. I need to take some new photos of the house since we moved in, but older photos can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27484689@N05/sets/72157624924258265/ (I also posted this same link back in October- it's the same photos!)

The pups absolutely LOVE the new house. They made themselves at home right away. The best thing is the backyard- it's big and fenced in and they just love to run around and play. And we love it because it leaves them tired and exhausted at the end of the day!

I will try to take more photos today and post them later, and really hope to be better about blogging more often!

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Punkin' Ale!

Greg and I are big fans of Dogfish's seasonal brew Punkin Ale. Unfortunately, it goes off the shelf way too early- it's nearly impossible to find by Halloween. Thanks to a tip from my friend Brie, I was able to find a case of it at a liquor store right outside of Frederick. Greg took this picture of Lance sitting by the box o' beer on Saturday.

Big changes are happening in our family - stay tuned to find out! (And no, it's not what you think... there will not be any additional members to our family anytime soon!)

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Lance and Jackson as Jack O' Lanterns

Greg and I always like to carve out interesting designs on our pumpkins for Halloween. It's no surprise what we chose as the design for this year:

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Big baby!

Although Jackson is close to 70 lbs. now, he still wants Greg to pick him up all the time!
He's such a daddy's boy (and a big baby)!!

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Faces

I have started walking the dogs one at a time, due to their extreme size and the fact that they will "dart away" anytime they see a rabbit or squirrel. At 65+ lbs. each, I barely outweigh the two of them together anymore! So, I alternate who I take for a long walk each day. On Monday I took Jackson and on Tuesday I took Lance. I snapped some photos of them during the walk, trying to get the same kind of expression. Though they don't really look alike at all, they sure do have the same expression!

I got another great shot of Lance, too. He's such a happy puppy!

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Annapolis Rock

This is a photo of me and Lance from Saturday's hike at the Appalachian Trail. I love the view from the top of Annapolis Rock!

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Happy October!!

Well, it certainly has been a crazy fall so far. The big news is WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE!!
I'm so excited! Greg and I have been living in a townhouse for the past 3 years (more for him), and while it's served us well, it's time to move on to something bigger. We have been looking at homes around our area for a few months now and finally found one that we love. It's less than two miles from where we live now, which is great, as we love living right near the mountain.
And the best part is, it has a great, big, fenced-in backyard for the pups to run around in! Our teeny fenced in end-unit doesn't give the pups much room to run around in right now. We move mid-November, and there's a lot to be done before that happens. Because of the awful sellers' market right now, we are going to rent out the townhouse rather than sell it. Since Lance and Jackson have basically destroyed the main floor (mostly the kitchen) of the townhouse, that all has to be taken care of before it can even be shown as a rental property. So, lots of work to do and little time. It will all come together, though.

Some photos of the new house can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27484689@N05/sets/72157624924258265/detail/



Speaking of new homes, we took the boys over to Kelly and Matt's new house yesterday. They have a fenced in backyard and the boys ran around for hours. It was so nice- by the time we got home they were exhausted and laid around the rest of the night.



I snapped this photo of them in the back of my Outback when we were leaving. They were nice and clean from a bath on Saturday! (oh- and fyi- they are well over 65 lb. EACH now!!)

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