We got to see the puppies!/ Crawl for a Cure

Malcolm called us this morning and it was a great surprise to be able to see the puppies. He just brought them home to his place yesterday. We were there for about an hour and got to hold them, play with them, and listen to their snorting. It's amazing to watch as they pile on top of each other, trying to get to the center of the warmth. They tried to climb up inside our pant legs and knawed a bit on our shoes and exposed skin. We are thrilled to bring our puppy home, which will be sometime after May 23rd. We have changed her name a few times, but the front-runner is Lucy or Luz (pronounced loose), which means "light" in Spanish. One of our favorite teachers in Mexico was named Luz and Steve won't let me name a child that, but he likes it for the puppy.

Can you find all 9 puppies in this picture??

We're in the process of doing a few remodeling projects on the house including getting our wood floors refinished, which means we have to move out for a week. Many of you are probably thinking that we're crazy for doing them before we get a dog, but we figure it will be pretty hard to move out for a week when we have a dog. We will most likely be staying with Craig and Courtney- thanks Craig and Courtney (and Hero!). We will also be gutting the kitchen in the near future and hope to sell the house and "move up" sometime by next spring. We've been busy in the yard and have been having fun watching our flowers and plants come up that we planted last year.

Yesterday, we participated in "Crawl for a Cure", which is a pub crawl in Fremont that benefits Cystic Fibrosis. We had a great time with Matt Cain, Soren, the Skippers, Delgadillos, Galloways, and a few other friends of the Skippers- inluding Senni, who is their friend from Italy. It's very funny to see a drunk Italian- he kept trying to woo girls along the way and was very honest. Some of the girls are pregnant, so it was a bit different than last year when the girls were the life of the party. They are now the designated drivers... I'm sure that will be me one of these years.

Jenny on Erik Skipper's shoulders, Eddie Delgadillo (mouth open) and Senni from Italy

Jeff (Skippers met him in Jamaica), Matt, Steve, and Skip with their brown bag 40's at Norms

Puppy Pics - 2 Weeks Old

We got a few more shots of the little pups. One more week and we can go and see them!

Puppies!

We JUST got the news that Maizey had her puppies- 9 total. There are 6 girls and 3 boys. We'll update when we get more news.

JUST IN: Here's a picture of the puppies at 5 days. Pretty cute, huh?

Courtney

Kate, Courtney, & Taitum on Thanksgiving

We just found out today that Craig, Steve's middle brother, proposed to his girlfriend, Courtney, last night. We are thrilled to be getting a new sister-in-law! Welcome to the crazy Brooks clan!!

P.S. Still no word on the puppy. The due date was yesterday, which was Courtney's birthday...I guess we don't need to name it Courtney now! My dog's (Max) birthday was on April 8th... that would be a great tribute!

Our new puppy!

We met with a breeder today and we signed up to buy a yellow lab puppy!! We got to meet the mom and talked with the breeder a lot about the dogs and the family. Sounds like our little puppy is coming from quite a successful family; championship show dogs & hunting dogs on Maizey's (mom) side and field champion hunting dogs on Otter's (dad) side!

Maizey is due on April 4th and we can take our little bundle of fur home after 6 weeks. Malcolm Mack is our breeder and he has a great passion for dogs and his dogs especially. He works for the Mukilteo District and Jen met him on her ESL testing travels. It was perfect timing and he got to know what kind of dog we are looking for and he can try to match up our needs with the temperament of one of he puppies.

We are super excited about getting a dog. The fence is almost done in the backyard and after that should be dog ready. Now we just have to learn how to train a puppy!

A couple pictures of Otter hunting on the Arkansas River:

Picture of Maizey, her mom was a Grand Master Pointer, can ya tell? :


Here is Malcolm with Maizey on the left and his other black lab on the right.

Casey

A few snapshots of our good friend Steve Casey who passed away this morning after being diagnosed with cancer just 5 months ago. You will be missed greatly.

Bachelor Party in Vancouver

Together for our 1 year anniversary in August, 2006.

Brooks' 30th Birthday party.

Snow!

Here is a picture of beautiful Shoreline yesterday morning. The snow is very pretty to look at, but it's a bit cold here. Area schools have been closed much of the week and my Seattle U class was canceled last night. We're hoping our pipes don't freeze... Where are you rain?