Easter Greetings

I'm getting caught up on e-mail from being in VEGAS last week. Hank seems to have forgiven us. I had this e-mail from Jeremiah's aunt in my inbox and it made me laugh. AND think of my dad's dog Rudy.

How Much for that Doggy in the Window?

Well, I'm still in Vegas. BUT, Jeremiah went home this morning and picked up Hank at the Pets Hotel. He had a good time, and the other day, someone was watching day camp, and Hank in action. They came inside to the pets hotel and asked what kind of dog he was (uhhh, seriously?) and if he was available breeding. Sorry, we left his nuts at the Humane Society...

BUT, still, a pretty cool compliment!

Watch it!

Jeremiah is going to barbecue tonight but it's 8:20 and he's just turning on the grill. He asked Hank to come outside, so Hank was anxiously standing at the sliding glass door ready to go. Jeremiah opened the door, and BOOM! He bounced off the screen. We both laughed pretty hard, then Jeremiah quickly opened the screen, and it took Hank a minute to decide if it was OK to go out. Somehow we're nerdy parents and that story was too funny not to share...

Today I am a Man

Or something like that.

Today was a big day here at the Case house. Hank graduated from his Basic Manner class. He did a great job, although he didn't really have a trick, we're still working on Shake. He'll get there, but man does he love his treats! We got free dog training at the Humane Society when we got Hank back in October. The woman who ran the class is friends with the dog trainer who did a couple of private lessons with Hank around the holidays. Hank really liked Gayle, she has lots of energy and did a great job. If only we practiced more with Hank throughout the week, I knew he could do better outside the classroom. But, we'll keep on keeping on.

Now, we're spoiling him this evening because we're about to abandon him at the Pets Hotel for 4 nights while we're in Vegas for the week with my dad and brothers. Yay for vacation!

He usually barks a lot at the Pets Hotel, he does NOT like to be in a kennel, but he loves being there and loves day camp. I hope it goes well, mostly for the employees sake, he's not a quiet dog when he doesn't want to be...

Happy Spring!

It's the first day of Spring, and Hank is more excited than most...

Goodnight, sleep tight!

Yesterday I did some shopping after dropping off mom at the airport. I had planned to take Hank to Marymoor again in the afternoon so he could run around and be tired today while he was home alone all day. Well, when I got home, it was pouring down rain, so we scrapped that idea. So, this afternoon it was still blue skies and sunshine when I was getting ready to leave work. Jeremiah had a work event tonight, so Hank and I went up to Marymoor. Monday evening, and St. Patrick's Day proved to be a nice quiet evening at the park. Lot's of puppy's and pound dogs, which was cute.

Hank barked a lot at the park today. We are working on "no barking, sit" and then I pick up the ball. then the barking starts again... so "no barking, sit" and then I THROW the ball. When I have the ball in my chuck-it, he knows to sit and be quiet. He's doing really great once I have the ball. But when he drops the ball and starts barking, he takes forever to stop barking and sit. If he does one, I pick it up. But he runs into me, and 90 lbs at full force HURTS sometimes!

Now Hank's passed out on the couch dreaming of day camp tomorrow!

...and snoring...

Hank's weekend with Grandma!

This weekend my mom came to visit us, but mostly to see her grandpuppy. Hank was very spoiled all weekend! Friday he got to go to the airport to pick up Grandma, and then she (of course) brought him a present, a new fun squeaky toy! he really likes it, and even went to find it on Saturday morning while we were reading the paper.

Saturday we went to Marymoor to show off Hank's belly flop maneuvers, THEN we went to Hank's Basic Manner's class. Grandma said Hank was the best in class, but we think she's biased. Hank got LOTS of attention this weekend, and then go tot watch Nascar today with Jeremiah, I think he's still upset that he's not at Marymoor again today, but it started to rain and I'm tired! This week he goes to day camp twice, and then next Sunday he goes to the Pets Hotel for 4 nights while we're in Vegas! He may never forgive us from that...

More beach pictures...

Just in case you haven't seen enough, I figured out how to do a slide show! So, there's a whole slide show of pictures from our trip to the beach last weekend. It's on the right side below that really cute picture of Hank's face, yup, right there, just scroll down...you got it!

As you can see it was a BEAUTIFUL weekend, and the sunset on Friday night was kind of trippy!

Hank's first Vacation

This weekend we took our first real vacation (where we paid to stay somewhere, sorry Grandma!) with Hank. We went to fabulous Moclips, WA on the Central Washington Coast. We stayed at the wonderful Hi Tide Resort. A co-worker of mine had suggested it, she takes her 100 lb lab-Rottweiler mix there on vacation. It's right next to the beach, it's really quiet and at the north end of "town" it's great. The perfect relaxing weekend. Well, once we got there...

We left town about 11 on Friday, and headed on our way to the coast. We had directions, we were set. We get to Aberdeen (see town slogan: Come as you Are--thanks Kurt) and stop for lunch at McDonald's. Hank goes out to pee, we pee, we sit in the car and eat up to get back on the road. While we're eating, Jeremiah's phone rings, but it's a number he doesn't know, so we ignore it. Just as the voicemail sound goes off, my phone rings with the same number, so I pick up. It's our alarm system company! Our alarm has gone off, someone is breaking in through our back (well, probably front to you) door. My thought is that it's the house cleaner. So, I look, and I don't have her phone number with me. OF COURSE! So, what do I do? Call my FANTASTIC department admin, Mike's the best. And not just because he reads this blog more than my own family does. He's the greatest. So, I call Mike, HELP! I know her number is in our database somewhere. Mike gets me the number. I call, Janine picks up, and sure enough, it was her. She panicked, locked the door and left! At this point, the cops are on their way over to the house, so we call back and let them know that it's OK, we know what's going on. They cancel the cops and reset the alarm. My poor cleaning lady was so freaked out! She thought we knew she was coming, and I thought she'd send me a note first. Such is life and missed communication. When she finally comes to clean, I"m leaving her a bottle of wine.

So, on with our trip. We drive "20 miles to THE stop sign." We pass the town of Humptulips where we actually saw a street sign that said "Humptulips Dyke Road." People, I can't make this stuff up! We finally get to Pacific Beach and just 2 miles up to Moclips. It's great. A totally rundown town, wiener dogs crossing the HIGHWAY at their leisure. It's a great town!

There is nothing to do but eat, drink, lay around, read, and walk and play on the beach. Hank had SO MUCH FUN! He ran and ran and ran. He slept, and got wet, slept on the bed with us (so not so relaxing for us) and we had a blast! Hank did great, even he was freaked out by the obnoxious yippee dog that would check him out from the patio. We saw a bald eagle on our final morning, it was beautiful. The weekend was perfect. Exactly what I needed. I got caught up on my magazines, watched Con Air Saturday night (who knew that movie would get me all teary-eyed?!?!?) it was great. We took the trek down to Ocean Shores (clearly the nick name of Open-Sores is for a reason!) and bought a kite, it was so much fun! It was supposed to rain all weekend, but was gorgeous. EXCEPT for the moment when we went outside to play with Hank and the kite. What a great weekend! It was hard to come home. Except that with Hank sleeping on the bed, I was excited to lay on my bed and watch TV all afternoon and nap. Now, it's time to get caught up on my DVR...