Baby Victoria "Tori"

Congrats to our best friends Mark and Robyn and their little guy Caleb on their addition to their family. Baby Victoria "Tori" Lilinoe Wass was born on Tuesday 1/25 at 4:08 pm and was 7 lbs 10 oz ad 18.75 inches long. We can't wait to meet her in person and I'm sure Caleb is enjoying being a big brother to Tori.

Rose City Fun

This weekend we headed down to Portland for the Rose City Classic Dog Show which was taking place at the Portland Expo Center since Odin was being shown by his handler Kevin Chestnut in the Friday, Saturday and Sunday shows. We only were able to see him show on Sunday since Friday we worked and Saturday his ring time was at 8am. Since we knew we were going to miss the morning show we debated going down Saturday afternoon or leaving bright and early Sunday. After a quick search of things going on we found cheap tickets, only $12 per ticket, to the Trailblazers game Saturday night so we decided to head down that afternoon and catch the game and stay close to the expo center so that we could head over in the morning and meet up with our friends who were showing their Irish Setter and our trainer’s daughter who was showing in Junior handlers.

When we got to the show on Sunday and met up with Kevin he said the weekend theme for Odin had been consistently second in his class since he was being a dork on the leash and part of winning in confirmation is the train ability/how they behave on the leash in the ring. Once we heard this we figured our chances for doing anything spectacular in that afternoon’s show was slim since he has never been super behaved on a show leash.

We decided that since seeing Ben got him all worked up we leave for a while and allow him to settle down before show time. Ben and I headed over to the Agility area to watch the events. Wow, some of those dogs have some serious hops as we watch everything from a Poodle to a Rottweiler run through the course. By far the most common dog competing in the Agility coursers were the border collie since they are smaller, compact dogs who can jump very well. As we expected, Odin dorked around again and took second in his class to Brittany that was not as good looking but since he was behaved he advanced and we did not.

With a weekend of missed major points, and still in pursuit of the 2 major wins and the last 10 points we need for the title we regrouped with Kevin and discussed the strategy for upcoming shows and what he needed us to work on with Odin. After getting our homework of working with him on walking and behaving on the show leash and to get another couple of pounds we decided to head for home.

Wish us luck as it looks like we will be heading to Albany, Oregon in three weeks for another weekend of shows for Odin.

it's Friday!

Happy Friday Everyone!

1. My favorite quote is Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

2. A bad habit I have is cleaning up after others even at their houses.

3. The first time I felt like a "grown up" is the first day I started my first real job and realized that I no longer would have summer's off.

4. Weekends are my favorite part of the week. what gets me through the week. They are for recharging and for spending time with friends and family and for sleeping in.

5. When I was a child I wished my name was hmmm...nothing else really since I like my name.

6. I wish some things in life and some relationships were a bit easier.


7. A secret I have is...I'm not telling since then it wouldn't be a secret :)

A weekend of ups and downs

This weekend was filled with a lot of ups and downs for the boys. Everything started out alright Saturday as we headed out bright and early to the Western Washington Cluster of dog shows in Puyallup since the boys were showing at 8am and we had to meet Odin's handler at 7am, no sleeping in for us :(

Things quickly went downhill from there since we were greeted to a sick Odin when we got to the show which meant that he had gone from a nicely groomed show doggie to a messy dog. We quickly took him to our handler who was in the middle of grooming other dogs and he and his wife got work on trying to make Odin presentable and not so stinky. After a 30 minute scramble of washing, drying and spraying him with flowery smelling stuff he was presentable again but still not feeling well. Loki was also not feeling well so now we had two sick dogs who needed to be in the show to prevent the major from breaking. Both boys got sick again before heading into the ring for showing and respectively walked away with decent placements- 4th for Loki and 2nd for Odin despite everything. We quickly took them both home after the show where they pretty much were a mess until late that evening and got to enjoy a dinner of white rice and water and sleeping on the couch.

Sunday we headed out again bright and early since they were feeling better and we were in the ring again at 8am. Despite Odin being a little dehydrated from the day before he was able to take first in his class but lost in the winner's dog round. Loki took 4th again which for him being a puppy and only being in a couple of shows and not really liking to be on the show leash was not too bad. We would have loved to have captured a major win for Odin since that is the last things were working on to finish his championship but it wasn't in this weekends cards.

Next up is Portland for Odin. He'll leave Wednesday to get taken to his handler who will have him for shows Friday, Saturday and Sunday with both Saturday and Sunday expected to be majors again. Here's hoping for a win or two in Portland.

Snow Eveywhere

Yesterday we got hit with another round of snow at about 8pm and woke up this morning to 6 inches. Luckily, mother nature has decided to warm us up so we got a good dose of rain and warmer weather which has melted most if not all of the snow.

While this is great news for my commute home tonight I did find this interesting weather article showing that 49 of the 50 states. The only state that doesn't currently have any snow if Florida. Yes, even Hawaii has snow right now on the Big Island. Very crazy winter we are all having.

Let's hope spring comes very soon.

New Year's Getaway to Rapid City, SD

We just returned from our long New Year’s vacation to Rapid City, SD where we spent 5 days in the frozen tundra visiting our great friends Mark, Robyn and their son Caleb. We had an adventure getting to Rapid since we were flying with Odin (our almost 3 yr. old Brittany) for the first time and had to make a connection in Salt Lake City. Our plane arrived late but we still had 30 minutes to make our connection though Delta had other plans as the airport had technically issues with their walkway and held us on the plane for 25 minutes. To make a long story short Odin made the connection to Rapid and we were stuck in the airport for 11 hours. Thankfully our friends were able to pick up Odin and take care of him while we were stuck. We finally arrived in Rapid at 11pm that evening and were greeted with a blizzard warning, temps in the negatives and 65 mph wind gusts that chilled you to the core.

Friday we were greeted to whiteout conditions and stayed bundled up inside playing with Caleb most of the day. Robyn and I were also able to work on getting some of the new baby gifts put away and the stuff that needed to be moved out of the nursery packed up. Caleb though Odin was the greatest thing ever and was instant on chasing him around the house. Not so sure he enjoyed it but he was great around the little guy and did his best to not jump, lick or knock him down. That evening some of Mark and Robyn’s friends came over for dinner and to ring in the new year. The boys ended up rather sloshed that evening and were almost put into “time-out” a couple of times.

Uncle Ben reading bedtime stories to Caleb

Saturday and Sunday the boys and Odin went bird and deer hunting. They saw a couple of coveys of 50 + Pheasants but most of them were hens. Seeing this many birds at once was thrill for Odin and Ben as we rarely find more than a couple in a covey here in Washington. The boys did have some excitement Sunday night on their way home when an Antelope ran across the highway. Mark wasn’t able to miss it and they hit is broadside. Good news is that everyone and the truck were ok. Monday they headed out with a friend of Mark’s and his son for a day of deer hunting so Odin stayed home with Robyn, Caleb and I. Caleb had fun chasing and playing with him and Odin seemed to be content to lay around on the bed and play in the snow when he went outside. Sadly they came up empty handed since the deer were crafty and seemed to always know just where to stand so that it wouldn’t be legal to shoot them.

Monday the boys decided that they needed to sight the rifle in before heading out for deer hunting and were determined that I needed to come with and learn to shoot. Grudgingly I put on all my layers and joined them since they were relentless. Not really sure it is my thing and if I want to learn but at least I gave it a try.



Shooting for the first time



Luckily the weather had warmed up by Tuesday and we were able to get Odin home with no issues on the flights or the connection through Salt Lake City. Not sure how soon we will fly with him again but I am sure that Ben will want to try his luck at hunting in So. Dakota again but in warmer weather. While we were sad to say goodbye to our friends we know that another visit is in store soon as we always seem to visit them wherever they are stationed and since they are moving to Alabama in July I sense another trip in the works.

New Year's Greeting from Rapid City

We are spending the New Year's holiday in Rapid City, SD with our good friends Mark and Robyn and their little guy Caleb. While the weather has been hovering around 0, wind gusts up to 55mph and we have had a blizzard warning in effect for the last two days the boys did get out for a day of hunting today which is making the trip so far all worth it. More updates to come.

Happy New Year!
Ben, Jacqui and Odin