Last night we took an impromptu trip up to Snoqualmie Falls to have a picnic and do some exploring. Our house was just getting a little unbearable with the lack of airflow and the high temperatures so I decided it would be a nice break to hit the road and head up to higher elevation. We ended up falling in love with the city of Snoqualmie and decided to drive around some of the neighborhoods to become more familiar with the town. It was a great stray from the ordinary date night!
We are under an “excessive heat advisory” here in Seattle. What that means is that it’s over 80 degrees and the city freaks out because no one has air conditioning. I make fun of it a lot, but in reality, it really doesn’t get above 80 degrees here very often so people just aren’t used to the “extreme heat.” I am loving it, except for the fact that we too do not have air conditioning, so our house is presently 87 degrees and I’m sweating profusely.
Here are some fun pictures from the past week.
It was another weekend that flew by and ended up being busier than I expected it to be. The weather on Saturday couldn’t have been more perfect if I wanted it to be. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky for much of the day and it was a glorious 77 degrees and perfectly sunny.
While Alex was on a 60 mile bike ride I went for a 5.3 mile run down by Lake Washington. By the end of the weekend I got convinced by my friend Mary to join her and do a half marathon at the end of the summer! We are tentatively planning on running our 13.1 miles on August 24th.
Alex got back from his bike ride early afternoon and I had mentioned that Jackson seemed to be very hot that day, so Alex went and bought Jackson his very own pool. Jack dipped his feet and his belly in the pool but still needs to get used to the idea of swimming. I think Jackson is going to need a bigger pool soon!
Once Jackson petered out, Alex and I walked up to our favorite spot, Bottlehouse, to help them celebrate their 3rd birthday. We sat on the patio and back in their garden spot and soaked up a LOT of sun and drank our fair share of vino as we enjoyed the afternoon together.
The sunset on Saturday night was stunning! We are so lucky to have a beautiful view of Madison Valley and our amazing Pacific Northwest sunsets out our back windows.
Apparently all of our activities on Saturday tuckered our little furball out, because come Sunday, he slept in until 6:30 and then went back to sleep until 10:00! That allowed us to Skype with Alex’s parents and Alina and Alberto, not to mention enjoy some time to ourselves and have a nice breakfast.
We did eventually wake Jackson up to take him on his first big adventure. We drove down to Seward Park to do some urban hiking. I love Seward Park and it is so fantastic that it’s so close to our house {4.9 miles to be exact}. We did a very short hike in the middle of the park to expose Jackson to the idea of the wilderness.
Jackson did so well on our little hike. We had him on his 30 foot leash so that he could sort of wander around and explore his surroundings. It was surprising to Alex and me that he stayed so close to us even though he could be 30 feet away.
We closed out our weekend by spending some time with Ryan and Mary, I baked a pig cake for work, and we picked up our first CSA box. Overall, it was an awesome weekend and I can’t wait to eat some of these yummy veggies for dinner tonight.
Today would be Aspen’s first birthday! I don’t think that we would have a day much out of the ordinary if she was still alive – I imagine that we would have spent the day at the dog park, taking her on long walks and giving her extra treats and cuddles. But today we will give our little Jackson extra cuddles as we remember our sweet girl Aspen.
It hasn’t been as hard on us having a new puppy as I expected it to, just with the memories we have of Aspen and how difficult it was to say goodbye to her. We have two framed photos of Aspen hanging above Jackson’s crate so she can watch over the little guy as he grows up. I don’t think we’d be where we are today with Jackson if we hadn’t learned so much from our experiences with Aspen. I am so excited to get to the point with Jackson where we left off with Aspen. She was becoming a mature dog and we were enjoying our time with her so much. I know that Jackson is and will continue to be a welcome member of our family, but we still think of Aspen every day.
Tonight we will have a drink in Aspen’s honor. Right after she died my friend Carrie brought us over a bottle of wine that she found that was made in memory of a wine maker’s late dog. We have saved that bottle and said we’d open it up on Aspen’s birthday. It was so wonderful to have such supportive friends to help us through the loss of our sweet girl.
Here are some of our favorite memories with Aspen:
It’s really starting to feel like we live in a zoo with all of our furry friends running wild through the house. Jackson is becoming more and more energetic and just plain crazy and Oliver has enough spastic energy for 19 cats, so it’s seeming a bit nuts under our roof these days. I’m not really sure how the days and the weeks have been passing so fast because it doesn’t seem like we have a whole lot going on, but I guess we do!
Last week my focus was on keeping little Jackson occupied and tired. He had puppy play group, a couple play dates, puppy class and went to his first day at doggie daycare. Hopefully it will pay off today and he’ll be a sweet, tired little pup. He has been much more comfortable with meeting new dogs lately and has integrated himself into a variety of new situations quite gracefully.
Jackson is growing so fast – he’s over 22 pounds now and I swear he added a foot to his length overnight. He is 12 weeks now and has hit that super fun stage where all he wants to do is bite us… We are hoping that will pass VERY fast! It’s a very difficult phase to endure, as it wears on our patience and results in ripped clothing and an increased desire for wine. I’m hoping the “terrible 12s” will be over just as quickly as it started.
Last night while Jackson was sleeping off his day at daycare Alex and I had a little date night at a new restaurant called 8 oz Burger Bar in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. It is, of course, a burger restaurant. We love burgers but this place didn’t do it for us. I had purchased an online deal earlier in the week and we were glad we had the deal, otherwise our bill would have been $57. At a burger place. The food was good, not great, and the service and timing was just terrible. We do have something that we know will be great tonight/this afternoon, though. We’re going to celebrate Bottlehouse’s third birthday on their fabulous patio – the weather is incredible in Seattle today, so it will be a perfect BH patio day.
I’ve been getting requests from a few friends to share my weekly menus… so I’ll try to do that via my blog. Most of the recipes are from my Pinterest page under “What’s for Dinner” or “Brunch” or “Lunch Ideas.” Tomorrow is my first day to pick up this summer’s CSA {Community Supported Agriculture} box and I’ve got a lot of goodies that I’m looking forward to, including Shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, strawberries, asparagus, shelling peas and apples. I do a “choice” CSA box, so I get to hop on the farm’s website each week and see what is fresh and then pick 9 items to have in my weekly box that I pick up 6 blocks from our house on Sunday afternoons from now to November. The choice factor helps me plan my meals for the week, which is why I don’t opt for the random box that the farmers just put together.
Here is the menu for the upcoming week:
I get my menu tablets here. And I have a weekly grocery list that I get here. If you want more information about CSAs, check this out, and here is my CSA.
A big thanks to my mom for all of her help with our little backyard makeover. I had been intending on doing some planting in two areas of our backyard but had no idea what to do with the space so when my mom came out for a visit I enlisted her help.
There is about a foot of space between the retaining wall and the fence. I wanted to add some life back there. Here’s how it started:
We planted fushia, three rose bushes and a shrub called smokeybush {I think}. Hopefully some of the plants will cascade down the retaining wall while the roses climb a little higher on the fence line. Each plant has a purple hue to it. I love the colors against the fence and the retaining wall and they look great together.
Behind our patio is a small space that’s just dirt.
I suppose we could have planted grass seed or laid some sod but we decided to do ground cover and some small shrubs that will cover up the dirt. It will take a while for the ground cover and shrubs to expand and look how we want it to look, but for now, it’s a step in the right direction.
I’m really looking forward to watching everything grow and spread this summer as it begins to mature. For now I just need to remember to water!
It has been an unexpectedly busy week at the Allen household. My mom came for a spontaneous three day visit in the middle of the week, Alex has been riding his bike like a madman, Jackson started puppy class, I have been busy doing things around the house and planning trips and parties {rough life} and dealing with our little maniac.
Jackson is doing great – he is now 11 weeks old and weighs over 18 pounds. He had his second round of shots on Wednesday, so mid-week next week he’ll be able to go to parks and engage with other dogs. Biting anything and everything continues to be Jackson’s favorite pastime – his new favorite thing to chew is our seagrass chair in the living room or the tile in the shower.
We are doing a puppy play group on Monday evenings so that Jackson can spend time with other puppies and work on his socialization. We started this last week and found out that our little man is extremely shy and timid around other groups of dogs. We will be introducing him to as many socialization opportunities as we can over the next few weeks so that he’ll be more comfortable in those settings. Next week we have four days of socialization activities planned for Jackson. I sure hope there are other people out there who care about their puppies as much as we care about ours, otherwise I might start feeling like a crazy person for all the time and energy we devote to our little guy.
Jackson has recently been granted the privilege of an expanded boundary. He is now allowed to roam around the entire upstairs. I think he has been really enjoying his new territory. He loves to sleep in the shower or on the tile floor in the bathroom and now he’s got more room to chase the cats around.
A proud puppy parent note: we are on day 19 of no accidents! I think we can stop counting that now and can safely say that our little guy is house broken.
My mom’s visit was very short – she arrived on Tuesday morning and left on Thursday afternoon. Since I couldn’t leave Jackson alone for more than three hours at a time we hung out close to home. My mom enjoys gardening so I thought she would be interested in helping me do some planting in our backyard. I had been meaning to get to it for a while and it was a perfect opportunity to have a helper. Stay tuned for more photos of the work we did.
I think she really enjoyed meeting Jackson! It was fun for the little guy to have a new friend to play with. And I sure enjoyed the company mid-week. It’s always nice to have visitors, and I’m glad my mom could meet Jackson.
We had a fun night out on Wednesday – we had dinner at Restaurant Bea and then walked across the street and had a bottle of wine at Bottlehouse. It’s so nice to have such awesome spots that are so close to us.
Alex has been riding his bike at least 65 miles one weekend day for the last few weeks. Last weekend he rode in the Flying Wheels race which took him on a 65 mile loop through the Cascade foothills. He said it was the most beautiful bike ride he has ever taken and plans to do this ride again next year.
In other athletic news I have been really keeping up with running and increasing my distance. My friend Sara and I ran around Lake Union yesterday, which is a 6 mile run. There are some stoplights that we had to wait for, but with those included we were at a 10:30 pace per mile. The Lake Union loop was nice and flat, which I prefer, but my run on Monday was extremely hilly, so I didn’t run as far. I have been loving my time running each week and it has been really fun to watch my progress on my Runtastic app.
We’ve got a 15 pounder on our hands. Our little “meatball” is growing like a weed now that he’s a ten week old puppy. He has been doing awesome – he’s such a fun addition to our lives.
Jackson started going on walks this week! This started gradually over the last few days. We began taking him for walks just on our block, then progressed up to the next block and over the course of three days we’re now walking up to 12 blocks each walk. Today we went for three walks. It’s great to have some variety in Jack’s exercise – some walks, some running around the backyard, playing fetch, and hopefully swimming sometimes in the summer. So far, though, Jackson is walking like a champ – it’s impressive to see how quickly he is learning.
One thing we’re not tolerating is Jackson jumping up on people, so we’re working very hard at this when meeting new people. This is a very difficult task, though, because everyone is so excited to see a cute furry puppy and will continue to pet him even if he jumps up on them, thus reinforcing his jumping. It’s so nice when people ask if they can pet him first so that we can ensure he’s set up for success.
In other news, Jackson has been having some digestion issues and because of that, we’re not able to give him his second round of puppy shots tomorrow, as planned, so we have to delay that until next week. Things have been improving in his belly since we’ve started probiotics, a medication and kept his food consistent to one protein source instead of more of a variety.
We had our first puppy class yesterday which was just for the puppy owners. The puppy school is much more professional and organized than our previous experience with Aspen’s puppy school, which was chaotic and unstructured. I am really looking forward to next week when Jackson gets to go to class. We are also planning on bringing him to a puppy play group on Monday nights so that he can have extra socialization with puppies.
In closing, our highlight right now is that Jackson is on his tenth consecutive accident free day! He’s doing fantastic.
Going into the weekend we didn’t really have much on the radar but somehow it turned out to be a really fun weekend. We squeezed a lot in and had a great time!
We kicked things off on Friday. I started the day being tormented by the puppy and managed to break away to go for my first five mile run down along Lake Washington. My time was 54 minutes {stay tuned to see how many minutes I cut off of today’s 5 mile run!}. I felt great the whole time!
Once Alex got home from work on Friday we walked down to the Farmers Market and grabbed a few things. One of our favorite parts of the Farmers Market is the Mexican food stand. I usually get a pork quesadilla and man is it good!! We ate our Mexican food at the market then came back home and had some wine while we played outside with Jackson.
Saturday was a long, but great day. We woke up early {thanks Jackson!} and hung out with our furry friends. Alex and I had a great breakfast together, cleaned up and then he took off for a 65 mile bike ride around Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish. I was left to fend for myself and the little pup, but we had a great day together.
Date night was Saturday night where Alex and I had a fantastic dinner at Harvest Vine. The food and ambiance made me so nostalgic for Spain and we spent the whole time talking about our upcoming trip to Europe. We were able to narrow down the countries we’ll be visiting next year {Spain, Italy, England and Switzerland, and hopefully a long layover in Amsterdam} and some things we’d like to do and see while we’re there.
Sunday morning was kind of a hoot in our zoo. It started with Oliver presenting me with a bird that he had recently caught. He quickly moved on and I watch him catch a second bird – he is such a good hunter! After Alex and I grabbed a cup of coffee, all three of our four legged creatures decided to hang out together in the backyard. Oliver was doing sprints along the fence while Jackson was running alongside the fence on the ground. Meanwhile, Henry had climbed a tree in the backyard. By the time he had gotten down, Oliver decided he needed to climb higher than Henry had gone, so he ran up the tree, only to be followed moments later by Henry. They are so good at climbing!
We were hosting Jackson’s first puppy play date on Sunday afternoon so I ran out to the store to get some stuff to make guacamole. On my way to the store I was enticed by a garage sale sign, so I decided to stop. Good thing I did because I found a coffee maker with a grinder for $10 that retails for nearly $200. It’s in great shape and I can’t wait to use it.
The guacamole turned out great! I sure do love a good guac.
Jackson was in absolute heaven during his play date with Gram, who is a 15 week old Duck Tolling Retriever. Alex’s colleague, Nolan, and his wife Natalie are Gram’s owners. Gram and Jackson weighed the exact same amount and Gram looks smaller but that’s only because Jackson is so fluffy. Gram has Jackson beat in the coordination department, though!
The two puppies were a great match for each other. Neither one was dominant and they both had their moments of being more aggressive and then times where they’d submiss to just be bitten in the ear. It was so fun to watch Jackson run around the backyard having such a good time!
After Nolan and Natalie left with sleepy Gram, Jackson passed out and we decided to run up to the Bottlehouse to take advantage of a beautiful evening and we had a couple glasses of new wines. We are so lucky to have the Bottlehouse so close to us! We got there so late and stayed for more wine than we had intended on that we didn’t end up eating dinner at home until after 9:00 — preparing for our Europe trip, I guess!
Check out the great pictures of Alex I managed to get:
We’re always looking forward to the weekend – hopefully we’ll be able to take Jackson out and do something fun this weekend. Until then, we’ll just enjoy the beautiful weather!
We have been getting a lot of requests to have our new posts be emailed out when they’re posted online. Alex has finally made that happen! On the right side of the page under the “tags” there is a section called “subscribe” where you can enter your email address and subscribe to our posts to really keep up with what’s going on with us.
Let us know if you have any issues with the new feature!