Keeping Up With the Allens

Date Night at Harvest Vine

About a year and a half ago Alex and I instituted a weekly date night as a way for us to ensure we set aside some time each week to just spend together. We did really well at keeping that up until a few months ago and then we let it become a bit more sporadic. At our date night yesterday we had such a great time that we decided to reinstate our weekly date nights and alternate who plans the outing each week.

Last night we had dinner at Harvest Vine, a Spanish restaurant in Madison Valley, which is the neighborhood right next door to us. We had been to Harvest Vine a few times but only for wine and we were dying to go for dinner since it’s such a highly rated restaurant. Usually Spanish food isn’t my favorite, but honestly, this was one of the best meals both of us had ever eaten.

We started off with a fantastic bottle of Priorat wine, which is one of our favorite wine regions, along with a plate of jamon serano, a trio of cheeses, then moved onto a plate of seared duck breast with a soft boiled egg. We grazed on our starters for a while and then took our waiter’s recommendation and ordered one of their house specialties, Pluma Ibirico, a dish from the pata negra pig, which our server explained is a special pig that is only fed acorns. The pork was served over soft potatoes and had a rich, nutty sauce. It was heavenly. We basically licked the plate clean and wished we would have gotten 4 orders of this.

Since everything we ate was relatively light and small in quantity, we both had enough room to get our own dessert. Alex, of course, got a chocolate cake with almond pastry and I got three different flavors of ice cream that was served with hazelnut cookies.

We had a wonderful evening out together. Not all of our date nights will be spent at nice restaurants, but I’m sure they’ll all be just as fun.

Little Man is Growing!

Jackson is 9 weeks old today! In our first week and a half he has gained about 3 pounds but we can really tell that he’s getting longer and taller. Today he weighs 13 pounds.

Things are going well with Jackson. Here’s a little update about the pup:

He is sleeping through the night most nights and sometimes he even lets us sleep in until 6 a.m. – not today though!
Jack is eating really well now that we figured out that he’s a grazer. Hopefully that will contribute to his continuous weight gain over the next few months.
Since he’s been eating so well he has had much more energy than he had during his first few days with us. Thank goodness for our fenced in backyard so he can sprint around in circles.
We are on day 3 of being accident-free!! By no means is he house broken, but it’s great that we’re making consistent progress with potty training him.
Jackson is dying to have puppy playmates! He so wants to play and wrestle with the cats, but of course the cats are having none of that. Oliver and Henry are doing SO well with Jackson – they don’t even flinch when he passes by them. Henry will give Jackson the occasional whack on the head to remind him whose in charge.
Next Friday is Jack’s booster shot appointment. After he gets his booster it will be safe for him to meet and play with other dogs – right now, he can just play with other puppies.

Little buddies (we took the curtains off the windows yesterday because we had the windows cleaned).

Henry has been really loving Jackson's food... — Henry has been really loving Jackson’s food…

First 5K Completed!

This past weekend I ran my first 5K! I started running back in March and have been running around 3 miles a few times a week since I canceled my gym membership. Around the time I started running again, my friend Ali was scouting running partners for the Good Karma 5K during Memorial Day weekend. I figured I could be in good shape by the end of May so I agreed to run with her.

Picking up running has been a lot easier than I expected it to be. My first run back in March was incredible – I felt great and ran a mile and a half without stopping and without feeling like I was going to die. Since then, the most I’ve run has been 4 miles.

The 5K on Sunday took place at Seward Park, one of the largest parks in the city of Seattle, and the proceeds went to the runner’s choice of one of ten charities. I woke up early Sunday morning to find that it was absolutely pouring outside. Unfortunately, the rain never really subsided until Sunday afternoon, long after we had completed our run. I am normally a fair weather runner so I don’t have the best set up for running in the rain, needless to say I brought out my trusty Patagonia “hoodie” jacket that I bought for dog walking. It served its purpose and kept me a bit too toasty in the process.

The run itself was mostly flat except for one gigantic hill about 3/4 of a mile into the run. I think the flat start set me up for success. Ali brought along her little 5 month old daughter, Vivian, and her 13 year-old dog, Glory. Pushing Viv in the stroller had to have been much, much more difficult than just running alone, but we ran the whole thing in 33:48!

I’ve got a pretty slow pace going and would love to get down to a 10 minute mile. Maybe this time I can challenge Ali to a 10K? What do you say Ali?

Sammy and Amy Came to Visit

Last weekend one of Alex’s friends from college came to visit us with his girlfriend. Alex and Sammy lived next door to each other during our sophomore year of college and became great friends once they learned that they both share a similar sense of humor and a love of beer and video games. Sammy had come to visit us during our first full summer living out here and had a chance to do the touristy stuff before, but Amy had never been to Seattle and wanted to soak it all in.

We spent a lot of time eating and drinking. Come to think of it, that’s about all we did! Once they arrived on Friday, we met Sammy and Amy for lunch at the Hi Spot, a restaurant in our neighborhood. From there, we went back to our house to get settled before going on a little walk down to Lake Washington. We scooted back up the hill, grabbed a quick happy hour glass of wine at the Bottlehouse and then hopped on the bus to go check out Capitol Hill.

Checking out the new German bar in Capitol Hill called Von Trapps

The sun poked its head out right as we were leaving Von Trapps, so we decided to go back to our house and grab some Thai food to eat out on our patio for dinner instead of going to a restaurant somewhere. It was a wonderful evening.

Saturday morning Sammy and Amy decided to be overachievers and went for a run while Alex and I sat around in our pajamas. We had a great breakfast casserole before we left for the day to go out to Woodinville to the wineries.

Washington is the third largest wine producing state in the country, which is obviously amazing. The grapes are grown over in Eastern Washington between Yakima and Walla Walla, generally known as the Columbia Valley. Many wineries have tasting rooms at their Eastern Washington production sites, but there is a darling town just about 30 minutes east of Seattle called Woodinville that is exploding with new tasting rooms that keep popping up everywhere. It sure makes for a fun thing to do when friends come to visit.

We started our Woodinville excursion at Red Hook Brewery where we took a beer tour.

From there, we walked up about 2 blocks to Patterson Winery, which I had been to a few times. There is a cute little pizzaria called The Station next door so we were able to grab a pizza and sit outside to do our tasting and just hang out.

Drinking wine on the patio at Patterson Cellars.

After Patterson we walked across the street to J Bookwalter, an old favorite of Alex’s and mine. They had just added an enormous patio with an outdoor kitchen to their winery, so we lounged in their comfy chairs for quite a while as we lingered our way through the tasting.

Our "s'mores kit" at J Bookwalter — Our “s’mores kit” at J Bookwalter.

Since we had just eaten lunch we weren’t hungry, but once we found out they had s’mores available, we couldn’t resist.

Once our wine tour was complete we headed back home to drink more wine and grill some dinner with additional friends who came over. Ryan, Mary, Justin and Jamie ended up coming over to hang out and grill up some brats.

Sunday Alex and I had to get up early and drive down to Oregon to pick up our little Jackson, so Sammy and Amy were on their own to tour the city. Once we all got back we had dinner at our house and hung out with the dog. Alex and I stayed home with Jackson on Monday while Sammy and Amy took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island to check things out. We ended their trip with a wonderful dinner at Quinn’s Pub, one of our favorite restaurants in Capitol Hill.

It’s always wonderful to have friends come visit! Thanks for coming to see us Sammy and Amy. 🙂

Our First Week with Jackson

Now that we’ve had little Jackson for about a week I figured I should post some more photos and info about how things are going.

Jack is doing really well and seems to be settling into our home quite nicely. We don’t have much in the way of a routine or a schedule yet, but we’re working on getting there soon.

Yesterday was a turning point in figuring out food for him. He seems to like eating small amounts periodically throughout the day… just like me!
He hasn’t quite figured out sleeping through the night yet, but he’s only 8 weeks old. Mostly he just wakes up once in the middle of the night to go out, otherwise he falls asleep pretty quickly and sleeps until about 5:30 a.m.
House training is going very well so far, We have had very few accidents in the house and Jack has even started going to the door to let us know when he needs to go out.
We are crate training Jack and that is still a work in progress. He cries a little bit when we put him in the crate most times but it seems to be easing up for the most part. We are working hard to alleviate any separation anxiety he has.
Jackson is definitely teething and wants to gnaw on anything and everything he can get his sharp puppy teeth on. It’s great to feel prepared in dealing with that this time.
The cats are doing really well with Jack. Oliver and Jackson seem to almost be pals already, and Henry is quite indifferent to Jack, as he is about most things. Both of them seem very comfortable with Jackson, though, which is fantastic.

He's not much bigger than his monkey — He’s not much bigger than his monkey

The weather has been sort of iffy this week but we have managed to take advantage of sun breaks each day and get some great playtime outside. Jackson is a fast runner and loves to sprint around the perimeter of our backyard. I have a feeling there’s going to be a “dog track” around the outside of our yard someday soon from those four big paws.

Changing the focus from Jack a bit, Oliver cat gave us a little scare on Thursday night. He came in from playing outside and seemed to be choking or gagging on something. After a while, I decided that there was something going on so I took him to the animal ER. Indeed, he did have a very nasty, thick, sharp piece of grass caught way back in his throat. He had to be sedated for the docs to remove it. Oliver has made a quick recovery and was able to come home with me that night.

I got a glimpse at Jackson’s future of being a front porch dog. I am really looking forward to having our morning coffee out on the front porch with Jackson laying out and soaking up some Seattle sunshine with us.

We have introduced Jack to sitting, laying down and standing using food lures and hand motions. Hopefully this week we’ll graduate into the “sit”/”down”/”stand” commands using hand motions and verbal cues. He is getting used to his leash and we have not started walking much with him yet. We are going to be very strict about teaching him how to walk on a leash so as to avoid starting any bad habits from the beginning.

Already trying to be right next to me when I cook. This will be a challenge when he's full grown... — Already trying to be right next to me when I cook. This will be a challenge when he’s full grown…

Things are off to a really great start. I think we are much more prepared and confident this time around!

Meet Jackson!

It’s official – Alex and I are puppy parents once again. We welcomed our newest four legged furry friend into our home and our hearts on Sunday. Jackson is a 7.5 week old Golden Retriever who we got from a breeder in Salem, Oregon. We named our puppy after Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

So far, things are going extremely well with Jackson! He is adjusting very well to his new life and we are enjoying getting to know our new little pup.

We selected Jackson, who was “blue boy” in our previous photos, because he was very interested in playing with toys and he was super cuddly. “Blonde boy” in the litter was chosen first, by another family, “green boy” was way too independent and not very interested in us, and “silver boy” was very small and had a strange kink in his tail. So, “blue boy” seemed to be the best out of the bunch, but we have since realized he really is a great fit for us.

Since Jackson came from Salem, Oregon, we had a long drive back to Seattle. The four hour drive felt a lot longer than that because Jack was terrified of being in his crate in the back of the car. He had never been separated from his siblings and was having a hard time adjusting. I ended up holding him for about half of the trip and that quickly calmed him down.

Once we got home we were able to really start engaging with Jackson and seeing his personality come out. It turns out he is extremely playful and loves to run and play with toys! He had so much energy and excitement on Sunday when we got home – we were surprised at how long it took him to crash.

We didn’t expect to get a whole lot of sleep our first night with Jackson, which did end up being the case. We ultimately woke up for the day at 4:30 a.m., and of course by the time we had finished our first cup of coffee he was out cold. Monday was our first full day with him and we got a chance to see just how much sleep he needs. It seemed like he had bursts of energy that lasted about an hour and then needed to follow that up with a 2-3 hour nap. To help him adjust to being on his own, we decided to try to put him in his crate for short periods of time when he was really sleepy and when we would have the opportunity to take him out and play right away afterwards. This seemed to work quite well and his whining and crying disappeared almost altogether. Our second night was amazing – he woke up around midnight and went out and then when we woke up at 6:00, he was already awake but he was just hanging out in his crate and not crying. Victory!

Jackson got his first shower on Monday. He seemed to easily adjust to the shower and then fell asleep on the bathroom floor when I was drying him off. I suppose a full body massage would put me to sleep too.

Things have been pretty easy so far, but give Jack a few days to finish adjusting and Alex and I both know that we’ll soon be tested. We start puppy class on June 5th, but until then, we’ll introduce him to treats and then work on some basic commands like sit, stand and down, as well as learning to not jump on people and how to walk on a leash. Training is so much fun, so hopefully he will be receptive and motivated by delicious treats.

Caught him snoozing upside down! He loves his bed.

Overall, Jackson is fitting in very well with our household. He is doing great with the cats and the cats seem to be doing very well with him, too. He has had a few bonding moments with both Oliver and Henry and I am hoping that they’ll eventually become friends. Either way, Jack is a great addition to our family and we’re really looking forward to watching him grow up to be an amazing dog.

Fun facts about Jack:

He is extremely cuddly and loves to be held. We’re going to be sad when we can’t just scoop him up and hold him like a baby anymore.
Jackson loves tennis balls and his outdoor toys. He will be perfect for our family because he enjoys being outside.
Even though he is a cuddle bug, he is very independent. We’ve noticed that he is able to easily entertain himself.
Jack is a fluffy, furry puppy. He weighs 10.8 pounds and we’re expecting him to get pretty big, as the breeder noted that her dogs are usually 70-80 pounds. The fur on his ears is fairly dark, so we’re thinking that his coat will be darker.

New Puppy Pictures!

Here are some updated puppy pictures of the boys at 6.5 weeks. We are going to have a very hard decision on Sunday when we pick out which one is coming home with us.

Blue boy is growing on us - how cute is this little face? — Blue boy is growing on us – how cute is this little face?

Last but not least, here is Blond boy playing with a toy.

Spring has Sprung!

Spring has arrived in Seattle and it is truly a blessing. Usually I feel like we get gypped with our springs because it still consistently rains through the 4th of July. Ask any Seattleite when summer begins and they’ll tell you it’s on July 5th! I think that Seattle gets 9 months of winter and then 3 months of summer and really not much of a spring or fall. Either way, this spring truly feels like spring and I’m enjoying every minute of it!

We have had more sunny days lately than I can even remember. What a treat!!

Before the weather changed, Alex and I came up with two enormous lists of “spring projects” to do around the house – some inside and a lot outside. Last summer we re-did our backyard and this summer we have some touch up projects to do back there – pretty easy stuff but each item on our to do list has a lot more steps than one might realize. We got started before we went to Hawaii by spreading out some new top soil as a way to level out the yard and prevent large puddles from forming in low spots. We planted some grass seed and it is taking its time coming in.

Our house projects list... surprisingly near completion! — Our house projects list… surprisingly nearing completion!

Yesterday Alex started digging out one of the corners of the yard to remove the top layer of clay soil so we can replace it with nicer top soil, which he is doing as I sit here and write this post {what a good helper I am!}. Since it’s such a small section we decided that we’re going to lay sod instead of going the grass seed route.

Backyard... a work in progress once again! I am planning to plant some flowers between the stone retaining wall and the fence. — Backyard… a work in progress once again! I am planning to plant some flowers between the stone retaining wall and the fence to brighten it up a little bit.

I was busy all day Friday and Saturday weeding and planting flowers and getting the patio and porch ready for sunshine.

I put out the cushions on the patio chairs, wiped down the table {for the second time this spring!} and added some potted flowers {gerber daisies} to the table. This was just in time to have Jamie over for dinner on Monday night and use up the last of our charcoal from last summer.

Lovely evening sun over the patio table.

Don’t worry! I stocked up on charcoal, so we’ll be good to go for a while. We love, love, love our charcoal grill. In an ideal world, we’d have both charcoal and gas, but we just so prefer the flavor of charcoal. Of course having a gas grill adds an amazing convenience factor to the situation.

Hopefully by next weekend our backyard will be ready for our little pup to terrorize! We can’t wait to watch little Jackson grow up, play fetch and hang out in our backyard.

The beautiful weather has been proving to be quite the source of motivation for me keeping up with running and Alex getting his miles in on his bike to train for his big 200 mile bike ride in July. I’ve been running 2-4 times per week, usually 2-3.5 miles per run and have been loving it – who knew! I have an app on my phone called Runtastic that tracks all of my runs and tells me my average speed, my pace per mile and allows me to make notes about how I feel. I love it! And Alex blows my running progress out of the water by biking 50-60 miles like it ain’t no thing.

My latest runs haven't been very impressive - the 5/1 run is especially unimpressive because my phone died! I really did run 3 miles that day :) — My latest runs haven’t been very impressive – the 5/1 run is especially unimpressive because my phone died! I really did run 3 miles that day 🙂

Hopefully spring will stay in Seattle through May and June! What a wonderful year we’ve had with weather.

Puppy Update

This past weekend Alex and I drove down to Salem, Oregon, which is about an hour south of Portland, to meet the litter of puppies that will be providing us with our next furry friend! The litter has 4 boys and 2 girls, and we are going to have the option to choose one of the boys. The puppies are currently 5 1/2 weeks old and we will take home our little potsticker at just over 7 weeks old the weekend of the 18th. We are going to name our boy puppy Jackson after Jackson Hole ski resort. We’ve already enrolled little Jack in puppy class!

It’s going to be a very hard decision, but here are the pups we get to choose from:

“Green Boy” is one of our top picks – he is the biggest in the litter and the breeder says he is a show quality dog. We really liked Green’s personality – he was very active and outgoing, but still friendly and cuddly.

“Blue Boy” is another looker. He is very cute but was a bit whiny when we met the pups. He was very playful and active but seemed to need the most attention of all of the boys.

“Silver Boy” – we really liked Silver but he has a very strange kink in his tail that will prevent him from holding his tail up tall. Silver is not one we are considering.

“Blonde Boy” – the biggest sweetheart and the sweetest little face of all of the puppies. When we met the litter, blonde was the most chill/laid back pup and seemed to be really sweet.

Aloha Hawaii!

Alex and I just returned from a week-long vacation in Maui. We had a wonderful time exploring the island, catching up on relaxation, eating tons of fish and working on our tans. Here are some photos commemorating the trip.

We spent our early evenings on our porch drinking wine and eating cheese and enjoying the amazing views!

Our ocean front room at the Wailea Beach Marriott was perfect!

Here is the view from our chairs at the infinity pool. This was paradise!

Brought out my new suit and sunglasses for the big trip!

Each morning we grabbed a cup of coffee and strolled the beach. What a wonderful way to start the day!

We took the Road to Hana all the way around. This was one of our first stops at mile marker 7 - the bamboo forest. It was really cool - we had never seen anything like it before. — We took the Road to Hana all the way around. This was one of our first stops at mile marker 7 – the bamboo forest. It was really cool – we had never seen anything like it before.

Waianapanapa State Park with a neat black sand beach

Haleakala National Park and the Seven Sacred Pools

We woke up at 2:30 a.m. on our vacation to drive up 10,000 feet to Haleakala National Park and watch the sunrise over the Haleakala Crater. Very cool.

Enjoying a wonderful meal at Nick's Fishmarket in the Fairmont. We had exceptional service and a wonderful view. The food was great too :) — Enjoying a wonderful meal at Nick’s Fishmarket in the Fairmont. We had exceptional service and a wonderful view. The food was great too 🙂

Te Au Moana Luau, complete with a fire knife dancing competition.

We were so lucky to be able to fly first class on our Hawaiian vacation. The service on Hawaiian Airlines was fantastic.

On the way home with a guava memosa in hand.