Niece Lucy

Here is one of Lucy's biggest fans. Somehow, Lucy knows Don is the ultimate yellow lab lover and attempts to smother him with kisses and uncontrolled energy. After Don's short visit, Lucy will is on her way to remedial obedience classes. We'll forward the bill...

Turkey Weekend

Steve, Lucy, and I had a great Thanksgiving weekend in Spokane with our parents. Not many people can say that they get together with both sets of parents for holidays. We feel pretty lucky in that aspect. They get along so well, Steve and I don't really need to be there!

Lucy was a great guest in both houses, but I think she started to get a bit confused because she became very anxious anytime Steve or I got ready to leave. She was a bit like Velcro this weekend. Her stomach hasn't been treating her well either. Puking's no fun...

Even though the Cougars weren't very impressive this football season, it was nice to end with a win for Apple Cup. Go Cougs!

We've spent today getting ready for the week- doing laundry, mowing the lawn, and more laundry (Lucy puked again).

We're already looking forward to the Christmas holiday...

Dog Parks

Seattle is fairly famous due to the number of dogs that inhabit the city. There are more dogs living in Seattle than children. This is mainly because dogs are much more affordable as well as a few other reasons I'm sure.

Instead of socializing with the other parents at the playground, dog owners in Seattle socialize with other dog owners at dog parks. Everyone is quite fond of their own dog and a resemblance can often be found between the dog and the owner. That brings me to Lucy.

Lucy LOVES dog parks. She gets to be off-leash and run free. That wasn't such a bad thing in the fall time when leaves covered the ground and she remained dry.

It became a bit more troublesome yesterday. When arriving at Golden Gardens dog park, we noticed it was a bit muddy. I have invested in some wonderful Target rubber boots, which I believe to be one of the best purchases of my life. Steve, on the other hand, wore tennis shoes. Big mistake. This dog park used to be covered with bark, with with the addition of recent torrential downpours, it is one big mud pit. Lucy has proven to be quite an excellent digger. She is more of a fan when the holes fill up with water. Yesterday, she dug and dug in the mud, often sticking her whole face in the mud. She was covered, head to toe, in sludge. The rest of the owners watched Lucy is amazement and wonderful what poor soul had to bring her home. Back to the part about the dogs resembling their owners. I'm not sure what that says about Steve and me, but it's open for discussion.

Even though I forgot to bring the camera to the dog park, this is what she looked like after getting out of the Subaru. She also stunk like cow manure... Needless to say, Steve went on amazon.com and bought some rubber boots as soon as we got home.

She couldn't even look me in the eye...

Feliz Cumpleanos a Esteban!

On November 9th, 2007, my wonderful husband turned 32. It's hard to believe that both of us are in our 30's because neither of us believe we are that old.

Steve and I really wanted to get away from life for a while or at least a night. We looked at places in the San Juans, Portland, Vancouver, etc. and we were hoping to take Lucy with us. We eventually settled on staying in Seattle and booking a hotel room on hotwire.com, which by the way, is fantastic.

Steve's parents agreed to come and stay with Lucy for the evening and we had an amazing trip to Seattle! We ate like kings...or at least Steve did. I ate more like a queen. We stayed at Hotel Monaco, which is walking distance to nearly everything in downtown. This was our itinerary...

1. Check in 3:30

2. Eat lunch/dinner at Purple Wine Bar (awesome!) 3:45-5:00
3. Back to Hotel Monaco for Wine Reception and Tarot card reading 5:00-6:00
4. Nap 6:00-7:00
5. Shopping 7:30-9:00
6. Dessert and drinks at Rock Bottom 9:00-10:30
7. Hotel Monaco to watch flat-screen TV (favorite of Steve's)
8. Sleep sideways on king bed (until 9am!...no Lucy!)
9. Breakfast at Lowell's in Pike's Place Market (Yum!) 9:30-11:00

10. Visit new Seattle Library...closed. 11:30













11. Check-out 12:00
12. More shopping! 12:30-2:00
13. Arrive home to celebrate Steve's birthday some more!

All of Steve's family arrived at our house at 5:00 to celebrate Steve (and Matt Cain who also turned 32 that week) and have some pizza, beverages, and cupcakes. We had a great time seeing everyone and we were ready for another nap by the time everyone left. We don't get to see the girls nearly enough, so it was a great opportunity for some Brooks togetherness. Steve enjoyed getting some gifts and being the center of attention.



Courtney, Tracy, and Jenny

Megan, Steve, and Bill Jr.


Kate, Taitum, and Grandma

All in all, I realize what an amazing human being Steve is and how blessed I am to be married to him. As always, we had an amazing weekend together.

Growth Spurt

When we brought Lucy home in late May, she weighed 9 pounds and looked like this...

When she was "fixed" a few weeks ago, she weighed 42 pounds and looked like this...Where has the time gone? She used to fit in this crate with room to spare...

Halloween

We've been a bit neglectful in our blogging as of late. I'm back teaching nearly full time, interning, going to class 2 nights a week and taking care of a husband and puppy. Life's busy...but, that's no excuse. Here's my effort to squeeze a few months of living into a couple hours of writing. Please accept my/our apologies.

As many of you know, Lucy has been attending doggie day care a few days a week. We felt a bit foolish considering this option at first, but now we think it's one of the best inventions. Lucy goes to Fuzzy Buddies, which is a huge room with old couches and a rubber floor. There is an outside area as well, but it's concrete and the dogs seem to prefer to stay inside. We usually drop Lucy off around 7am and pick her up about 5pm. By the time she hops in the back of the Subaru, she's passed out for the rest of the evening. Comatosed. It's quite amazing and allows us to go out on the town every once and a while. Just this last Tuesday, they notified us that Lucy has been humping other dogs lately. She seems to pick on small males that can't defend themselves... this might be trouble.

Back to Fuzzy Buddies. They hosted a costume party for all the dogs a few Saturdays ago and Lucy was dressed as her alter-ego, Lucifer. She hated her costume until she got there because she totally forgot about it with all the dogs to pick on. There were some pretty amazing costumes, but Lucy didn't place in the contest- we were a bit annoyed. Maybe next year...

Lucy's first class of her second round of classes at Puppy Manners in Woodinville started on Halloween evening, so we didn't get to experience the 4 tricker treaters we usually get. Bummer- more candy for me!

I was a fairy for Halloween complete with glittery purple wings and a crown. My students thought I looked pretty silly.

Poppyseed as "The Energizer Bunny"

Steve getting Lucy prepped for the costume contest. She wasn't a fan of her horns...