Jackson's 5th Birthday

It's amazing to me that Jackson is already five years old! It doesn't seem like that long ago that I tried to convince Joe to 'sleep on it' when he said he wanted to adopt him. That was three years ago now, and thank goodness he didn't listen to me!

Jackson is a fabulous dog. He is such a lover and has such human expressions that every day Joe and I wonder what he could possibly be thinking. He's one of those 'dog's dogs' who sleeps by your feet as you are watching t.v. I just love it.

He had a really good birthday, starting with a special duck and potato breakfast.

Preparing breakfast.

Served on a pedestal. :)

He definitely enjoyed it.

I distracted Ava with pieces of apple.

Then came gift time! A brand new lamb toy!

For me??

*I loves it.*

Unfortunately, Joe and I had to go to work all day, so Jackson was stuck at boring home with his boring sister all day on his birthday. But we made up for it that evening with a trip to the dog park. And to make it even better, there were other dogs to play with already there!

Checking out the puppy Oliver.

Ava deciding if she wants to play.

*I guess this guy isn't too scary.*

Then we walked next door to watch Joe finish playing tennis. He was invited to a club and since he hasn't played in a while, decided to take the offer. I guess he got beat 6-0 and 6-1 and had to work for that 1, but he came home tired and happy and will be playing again next week!

*Dad's pretty good at this tennis thing.*

*Go Dad!*

It was a really fun night. We'll have to do it again next week!

First Work Event

I was invited to my first work event the first week I started at Trupanion. I'm in the social media department, and we rely on Twitter to connect with customers. A Twitter application, called CoTweet, hosted an event at the Hotel 1000 in downtown Seattle and I attended, along with one of my coworkers. I had such a great time!

Hotel 1000

The panel of speakers, including @Starbucks, @AlaskaAir, and @Microsoft.

My coworker (on left) and her friend, tweeting away at the tweetup. So geeky. (Okay, so I was doing it too!)

My company goes to these events a lot, so I'm really excited to get involved. Yay for working at a company that actually believes in social media!

My Niece's Wedding

I can't believe my niece is a married woman. I remember when she texted me to tell me she was engaged. In this day and age, hardly anyone makes actual calls anymore, but when I got that text, I called her right away! It really doesn't seem like that long ago, but I guess it was. August seemed like so far off back then, but it sure snuck up fast.

Anyway, on to the photos of the day.

My family all met up at my cousin's house before heading to the wedding, since we were all carpooling with each other. We had a toast to the couple and then headed out.

Me and my dad (the birthday boy!)

Me and my mom

The wedding was held in Ohme Gardens in Wenatchee, an absolutely gorgeous venue. The wind picked up a little, but the weather held out for the happy couple!

Me with my brother, the father of the bride! (I totally look like his 'little' sister in this picture!)

The bride walking down the rock path to the ceremony. I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful entrance.

My niece with my brother and her biological father walking her down the isle. (How gorgeous is that dress??)

The happy couple, making their grand entrance at the reception.

Cutting the cake.

My cousin and his family at the reception.

Joe and I at the reception.

Everything went off without a hitch and my niece and her new husband just glowed with happiness. It was such a fun night, and I hope they are enjoying themselves on their honeymoon in Disneyland!

Wenatchee Weekend Fun

This weekend Joe and I were in Wenatchee visiting my family. We had a great time! We had a ton to do, but we managed to fit it all in, plus have time to relax by my aunt's pool for a bit.

My aunt was making fun of the fact that we were laying in the shade.

It was my dad's birthday, and since there was so much going on this weekend, he kind of got shafted. But we did spend a lot of time together, I dragged myself to family breakfasts with him at the unearthly hour of 7:30 a.m., and we fit in a movie as well - The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It was actually a pretty decent movie!

My dad is so great and didn't complain one bit that his birthday kind of got lost in the mix. But it was still important for me to spend his day with him (since I haven't been able to the last two years), because he is truly an amazing father! Love you dad!

The dogs had a fabulous time running in my other aunt's yard. They seriously love running in the grass and laying out in the sun. Every time we go there, I realize we really need to find a place with a yard.

Saturday night was my niece's bachelorette party! We had so much fun hanging out with family and friends at my sister-in-law's house.

My sister-in-law and her sister.

The bride-t0-be (on the right)

I was also able to have my own wedding dress fitting this weekend, but I'm not posting pictures of that! I'll just say that I'm extremely lucky to have a friend who is a seamstress - she made me feel so beautiful in my dress, and she is going to do such a fabulous job.

Stay tuned for pictures of my niece's wedding day!

Great Pictures of the Pups

I've been wanting to share these pictures for a while, but have been a little bit busy posting about the big move and getting settled in. But now things have slowed down a bit, and I know you all love seeing photos of the cutest members of this family!

Stuart took these pictures a few weeks ago while we were all hanging out at our friend Laura's house in Maryland.

Peek a boo!

"I wonder how I could sneak some of that wine..."

Man and dog. My two boys. *love*

"MY toy..." *cuddle*

New Jobs

I am very happy to say that both Joe and I have fabulous new jobs! Joe already had his set up before our move, and is working as an associate at Wells Chiropractic. There are two offices, one in Bellevue and one in Renton, and he will be splitting his time at each. He loves it so far and with his 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. schedule, he has it good!

I interviewed with Trupanion, a pet insurance company, once we arrived in Bellevue. They had interviewed me by phone while I was still in Connecticut, but ended up hiring someone else since I was still a couple weeks out from my move to Bellevue. Well, luckily for me, that person quit on her first day, so they brought me in to see if I was still interested. Um, yes please! I started last Wednesday and I couldn't be happier.

I am their "Internet Journalist" and basically I get to blog about pet-related issues all day. And you can bring your dog to work here! (I currently share my office with two of my co-workers puppies, and eventually I'll bring either Ava or Jack in with me.) Combining my two favorite things - writing and pets.... could there be a better job for me? To all my internet-savvy friends out there, you should add the pet insurance blog to your RSS Feeds, and follow Trupanion on Twitter and Facebook.

And of course, I have to put in a plug - if any pet owners are looking for pet insurance, consider Trupanion. I know I'm biased now, but from what I've learned, they are a great way to go. :)

Moving into Our New Place

After our pit stop in Wenatchee, we headed up (sorry OVER) to Bellevue to pick up our keys to our new condo that we are renting. We had seen the place on video and in pictures, but hadn't seen it ourselves, so we were a little nervous. But luckily, we really love it!

It's super small (only 790 square feet!) but everything is really new and modern, which we love.

We picked up the keys on Tuesday, July 20th, but unfortunately, our stuff wasn't scheduled to arrive until the following Monday! (This is due to a miscommunication that led to them picking up our stuff three days late. Huge bummer.) So, we were back to sleeping on the floor on an air mattress in a completely empty apartment. It was like camping, sort of, and would have been totally fine if our air mattress didn't have a hole it in. We went to bed on a nice firm mattress and by midnight we were laying on the floor. Anyway, it was an adventure.

Joe's parents came up that Sunday, the 25th, so they would be there to help when our shipment arrived on Monday. They brought Joe's nephew, Zach, which ended up kicking a ton of ass (for us, not so much for him) because he's a strapping young 16-year-old who is SUPER strong and was able to help us a ton with moving in the heavy stuff. (I own a lot of books. And after this move, Joe said I'm not allowed to by a single new book until we buy a house and know we are done moving. haha.)

We were able to get the trailer unloaded in about three hours and called the moving company who came and hauled it away. Perfect!

It was nice having Joe's family here, since he hasn't seen them in over a year. The dogs loved having their grandparents here as well, since they kept slipping them treats (bad grandparents!!). I called them the 'weak links', as was evident by the dogs' rapt attention during meal time.

Weak Link #1: Joe's dad

Weak Link #2: Joe's mom (with their dog, Roxy)

Joe and I both started our jobs on Wednesday, the 28th, so we've been slowing unpacking the boxes. I finally got everything unpacked today, which is a huge weight off my shoulders. I swear, I'm a freak. If one thing in my life is unorganized, my whole life goes crazy. But now that the house is more or less in order, I can start organizing other things. You know, like that small event I'm hosting in two months. :)