Swim, swam, swum.

Last week Luke took a day off. Gasp! Shocking, I know. Aside from the fact that we had to use this day to make a run to a far off Les Schwab to retrieve a few tires, it was a lovely break from the norm.

On our way to Napa, we made a stop at Lake Del Valle in Livermore. With very few lakes close by to let Jackson pursue his dream of becoming the next (ah, crap...what's that swimmer guy's name? You know, the Olympian weed smokin' one? Phelps!!!!) Michael Phelps, we take every opportunity we can to let him put those webbed paws to use.

This is the lake. It's no Folsom, or Tahoe, or Bullard's Bar, or Rollins, or Scott's Flat, or not that it's obvious I miss living near lakes or anything....But it's nice. A little small, but on a Wendesday morning it was drunk idiot free. I like that quality in a lake.

Our little piece of shoreline...

After we surveyed the place and found a good spot, we proceeded to lose 2 tennis balls to the current and an easily distracted dog. Thank you, Tractor Supply Company for carrying .99 cent tennis balls. Otherwise, I would be broke. Destitute. On the street, I tell ya.

Two confused peas in a pod.

"Can somebody get this leash outta my dog pit, please?!"

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming....

Passed out on the drive home...

And that's the truth of the matter. Although Jackson loves the swimming, we also love the exhausted hours of quiet that follow. What is it that people say? A tired dog is a good dog. Good night.

Frost-ay Paws. Brrrrrr...

Yesterday I texted Jen. The conversation went as follows:

Me: "I'm currently making dog ice cream."
Her: "DOG ice cream?"
Me: "Ice cream for the dog. Not dog flavored ice cream. Eww."
Her: "Riiiiiight."

For the love of Pete, who makes dog flavored ice cream? I don't even know what flavor dog is. I eat high end Chinese food, thank you. Funny ha-ha. No? Anyways...

Once every couple of weeks I whoop up a batch of homemade Frosty Paws for the Jackson-ator and he daintily eats his ice cream each night before bed. I kid you not. We run a spoiled ship around here.

This week we tried strawberry!

Woofity woof woof...Frosty goodness. - Jackson

I mix this stuff up in a bowl:
32 oz. vanilla or strawberry non-fat yogurt
1 well mashed banana
1 T honey
2 T peanut butter (with the vanill'er)

Then I toss it in our ice cream maker for about 20 minutes, plop it into muffin tins, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze. (Which is totally inconvenient when I decide to make muffins. Note to self: invest in another muffin pan.) When the pup'ster is ready for one, you can just pop one out, throw it in a bowl, and dessert is served. Or, you can eat them. They're delicious. I may have eaten one before.

Two paws up for ice cream treats!

We Gots Interweb Pals!

No, not in like a creepy DogMatch.com kind of way, but from our favorite discussion board Lab-retriever.net. The great people over there have a game called "Secret Pal" that they run once or twice every year. The deal is, that if you so desire, you can be matched up with another member.Your information is secretly exchanged by the coordinator and then you send a little care package to your Secret Pal.

Well, this go 'round we participated and we had a bad ass secret  pal. Her name is Kayla. She's a black lab who is cute as can be, and who looks freakishly like Jackson. I actually think they're twins.

First, we received this package. That's right...De-licious salt water taffy and a bully stick of deliciousness. We ate both in no time flat. Why? Because we wanted to.

Anyways, last week we received our final package in the mail from Kayla and her human sister, Heather. They're both lovely gals who were so, so sweet to us. Like sugar in our coffee. Wait, was that weird? Anyways...

This showed up at our door last week. And yes, this box is GIANT. Jackson was intrigued, "By George, I can't quite read but I would swear that label says 'Jackson' on it, and that's ME! Golly, this is amazing."

We waited until Luke got home to bust into our booty, because it would have been just plain rude not to. We have manners, ya know? Fast forward 4 hours to 8 o'clock, and we dug into our treasure box.

As we handed Jackson his packages (which were wrapped up like lil' presents), he darted to the couch and ripped each one open. Chew, chew, paw, paw, chew, head toss...chew.

More ripping, more pawing, more chewing....

Gift, by gift...Until he ended up with all of this:

I must admit, some of the goodies were for me, too! That thing in the middle is a needlepoint of Jackson. A needlepoint! And that binder? Is chock full of human and puppy recipes from Heather. C'mon! That's awesome. I added all of the recipes to the cookbook that was amassed at my bridal shower. (That book is my most prized posession. If our house was ever on fire, I would grab Jackson, my wedding ring, and that book. I assume Luke could get out on his own.)

I also love this program, as it creates a reason for me to force Luke to pose with Jackson and a table full of stuff. Look at how thrilled the both are to be in this photo! Which, apparently, I must have taken after a margarita or 2, seeing as it is completely caddywompus.


Aside from my poor photography skills, Jackson and I just wanted to throw up a big paw five to Kayla and Heather for spoiling us. The same to Major and his mama, Adrienne, who worked so hard to put all of us pals together. We woofin' dig you guys!

Paws,

                  Nat & Jackson

My dog is a dork.

My name is Natalie, and my dog is a dork. I don't think it's so much a personality thing, as it is his breed. He is, after all, a Labradork Retriever. Some folks have the normal Labrador Retriever; bred for hunting and being a loyal bird and water dog. We, on the other hand, have the elusive Labradork; known for an overall lack of coordination, goofy facial expressions, and sitting with one hip constantly cocked to the side.

Our Dork, Jackson, came to us in March of this year. We had just moved to Ripon, and had a fenced yard for the first time in our short marriage. Thus, we concluded that this was a prime location to finally give into our overwhelming desire for a dog. Why not, huh? I had wanted an older dog. A loner at the shelter who nobody else would take. Luke wanted a purebred puppy. Luke wanted to watch me suffer through months of no sleep, is what he wanted...

We ended up with this:

A 13 pound ball of puppy that Luke walked through the door with one evening, much to my surprise. Our new addition had come from a foster home who had taken posession of his pregnant mother. Her owners were going to shoot her in order to avoid dealing with the puppies (responsible people, man...Gotta love 'em), but by a stroke of luck their lives were spared. Now, this monster lives with us.

Well, not THAT monster, per se. Yes, the same dog...But in slightly larger proportion. Within weeks, we had this:

And then this:

And a few weeks later, he grew into this:

(That's him with my nephew, Connor...Shout out to Connor!)



Then this...Don't even act like that's not a dorky pose. It is. We know it. We love it.

And, today, we have this handsome specimen of Labradork enriching our lives:

Goofy or not, we love him. Mostly because we're just as dorky as him. He's his Mama's baby and he's got Luke wrapped around his big ass paw. This blog will follow our adventures with Jackson. The hope? One day I'll have him trained well enough that we can compete in dock diving, become Canine Good Citizen certified and work as a therapy dog somewhere down the road.

For now, however, if we can pass Basic Obedience, we'll consider it a victory! Check back for our updates, new pictures, and information on dog friendly events that we want to force you, our friends, to come participate in with us.

Paws,
Nat