After spending a very merry Christmas with the Brookses in Redmond, Steve, Lucy, and I packed up and headed to Spokane to stay for a bit. We were greeted with loads of snow, which it turns out, is great fun for Lucy. Lucy has been trained to ring bells in order to go outside to go "potty", but she rang her bells every chance she could just to go and play in the snow. Just about every day, we took her to the tennis courts at Comstock Park, which is the half-way mark between our parents' houses. For those of you who are unaware, the Brookses and Walther parents live less than a mile from each other. Steve and I used to ride the school bus together in high school. Yes, it's quite a cute story.
We started off playing fetch with balls, but those were lost in the snow quite quickly. Lucy would take off running with one in her mouth, dropping it along the way, not to be recovered until the big thaw. We switched to a rubber frisbee and Lucy became quite a fan. She even learned to catch it on the fly. We're hoping to take her snowshoeing this winter in the Cascades. We are constantly scheming of ways to wear her out. It allows us to get some exercise along the way as well.
While in Spokane, we had the great opportunity of celebrating New Year's Eve. We signed up for First Night, which is a big organized even where dozens of performers put on shows around downtown Spokane and you can walk between them and catch as many as possible- all for $15. We saw some great Irish musicians and dancers at Lewis and Clark High School (our alma mater) and also saw some great comedians, Brothers from Different Mothers (http://www.differentmothers.com/)in in the Central Methodist Church sanctuary. Strange place for a comedy show, but check them out...they were pretty intertaining. We wrapped up the evening with hot butter rums while watching "Home of the Brave", which was just filmed in Spokane- 2 houses away from my parents. Not the greatest movie, but it was fun to see some familiar places- including Steve's elementary school. 50 Cent was in the movie... I'm still wondering what happened to his metal teeth.
We also got to relax a lot with our parents and Steve and has dad had some quality time down in the shop making cabinet doors for our bathroom. All in all, our visit was great. It was hard to leave!
Thanks for a great visit in Spokane M & D Brooks and Walther! We'll be back soon.
Last time we were hiking at Shoreview Park in Shoreline, we ran into our vets (they're married) and their yellow lab puppy, Reznor. At the time, he was about 4 months old, much smaller than Lucy, and super cute. We've been trying to get together again since then and both of our schedules have been crazy. It finally worked this morning and we were able to take another hike at Shoreview. Reznor is now 6 months, 50 pounds, and still very cute. He's going through his awkward stage, so his legs are not quite in proportion to the rest of his body. We were proud of Lucy- she's graceful when running and swimming, and she's remained quite a friendly and social dog. Part of the hike runs past Hidden Lake and Lucy was submerged before we knew it. We didn't bring a ball with us, but she enjoyed fetching sticks and had a better sense of direction than crazy Reznor who's still working on his coordination and doggy paddle. We're all hoping to hang out again and possibly take the pups snow shoeing. Steve and I haven't been yet this year and we're excited to see what Lucy thinks. Here are some pictures of Reznor and Lucy- he's the darker of the two and soon to be bigger. Right now, they're the same weight, but it looks as though he has a ways to go. Lucy is starting to look like a dog instead of a puppy, which is a bit sad for both of us. It is wonderful, however, because she is now more independent and doesn't require constant supervision.
