A Look Back at 2012

Tonight we'll wrap up 2012, and welcome 2013!

2012 was a big year for the Campbell's. It was busy. It was fun. It was full of many firsts for our Brittany's Odin and Loki. And it brought lots of changes.

We started the year off on a high note with Odin finishing his show championship with a big Best of Winners (BOW) for a 4 point major at the Sammamish Kennel Club show. He officially became Champion Odin with that win! 

Loki followed up with great performances in both the field and show ring this year. He was invited to compete at the American Brittany Clubs Western Futurity show and field events in April in Madras, Oregon. He had a huge win at the Oregon Brittany Club Spring Walking Field Trial by taking 1st place over 14 contestants to earn 2 more points towards his field title. He's also had many shows wins this year with his handler and is up to 12 points, needing only his 2 majors (shows worth 3 points or more) to finish his championship.

Ben celebrated another big birthday by turning 35 on Cinco de Mayo and celebrating with good friends.

In June, the family grew by one with the birth of my niece Hannah Elaine. She is my sister Vanessa's first child and the only grand baby which means she is spoiled rotten by all of us.

Seattle blessed us with 76 days without rain for a great summer/fall which included great times with family and friends and another year shared with our family of 2 people and 2 four legged kids of which one thinks he's more human than dog.

November brought a big work change for Jacqui as she left the advertising agency world behind and moved in house to become the client. She is now the Senior Marketing Manager for the Everett Herald Newspaper running their marketing department.

The holiday season was filled with first for Hannah with this being her 1st Christmas and the joys of presents. She was sadly more interested in the paper and bows than the toys.

As we look back on 2012 and the great year we have had we can only imagine what is in store for us in 2013. Happy New Year from our family to yours - we wish you love, health and happiness all year long.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with our families over the past few days, eating way to many goodies and of course opening presents. There was even more fun involved this year since it was my niece's first Christmas and she is at an age  (6 months old where the littlest things fascinate her for about thirty seconds and then she moves on.

This year's celebrations kicked off on Sunday with a trip over to my granddad's place in Sequim for an early Christmas dinner since he doesn't like to come across the water anymore. All of the siblings except one were able to join for dinner and mom brought her new dog, Lacy with so that made it even more interesting since the cat did not take a liking to her.

Christmas day was spent with Breakfast at our house with my family and then present time. Since it was my nieces first time with presents we spent more time opening since she would try and eat the paper on every toy opened. After presents were opened my sister thought it would be funny to sit her one of the boxes from a present and see what would happen. She actually sat happily staring at the new teddy bear she got while being investigated and licked by Odin and Loki.

Paper tastes good.

This baby tastes good according to Odin

After a short break we were off to Auburn to Ben's grandma's house for round 2 of festivities with his parents and extended family. While a few of the cousin's were missing due to being out of town visiting other relatives, almost everyone was there this year to share in food, gifts and good company.

We hope that you all enjoyed the time with friends and family as much as we did and that you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas at the Campbell's

All ready for presents to be opened.

 

Happy Paw-lidays

We tried take Odin and Loki to see Santa this past weekend but sadly Odin was disinterested in the whole thing and Loki was terrified of the man in the red suit. Needless to say we won't try this again at least for now.

Since we still wanted a decent photo of the boys we decided to try a go at home and were blessed with somewhat cooperative dogs who kept their hats on long enough to get a photo.

Happy Paw-lidays from Odin and Loki!

 

Christmas Cutie!

My sister and her husband took my niece Hannah to see Santa the other weekend and I was expecting to see the usual screaming baby picture but was greeted by a smiling baby who actually enjoyed the experience. Hopefully it will mean lots of goodies for her Christmas day.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Best of Breed

This past weekend was the Whidbey Island Kennel Club Dog Show and Odin came out the big winner on Sunday by going Best of Breed with Terri Erickson handling him. He looked impressive and showed really well. I even got to show him in the sporting dog group stage since Terri had to show another dog.

Congrats Terri and Odin!

Happy Halloween

Arr matey, hope you have a devil of a

good time eating treats.

Happy Halloween 2012

 

Eye Doctors

A couple of weeks ago we noticed on Loki that he had what we thought was a seed or something stuck on his left eye so we took him into his normal vet and after they checked on it and did a small scrapping of it it ended up being some kind of non-cancerous growth that was attaching to the cornea layer. Our normal vet quickly referred us to the Northwest Animal Eye Specialists in Kirkland where we were able to get an appointment with Dr. Zirofsky who decided the best course of action was to laser the growth off and then freeze the spot to stop any regrowth so that we could avoid cutting into the cornea layer of his eye.

Today was surgery day for Loki and he did great. Dr. Zirofsky let us know that they believe they got everything and the growth would be sent out for a complete biopsy to see what it is and possibly what caused it to grow in the first place. Barring no complications with the healing of the eye he should be back to normal in 1-3 weeks and completely healed in 3-6 weeks.

So for now he'll be laying low and rocking the sexy cone until we visit the good doctor next week for his 1 week post-op checkup.

Fall...

While Seattle sadly has had to embrace the return of the rain...the scenery around these parts is just getting good. The skies may be gray these days, but the colors of fall are so bright and vibrant. The only trick is finding a break in the rain to get out and play.

Weekend of Broke Dogs and Horses

We spent our Labor Day weekend back in Madras, Oregon for the OBC Fall Field Trial. This would be the first weekend we were running Loki in broke dog stakes and the first time for Ben running Odin off horseback. Odin ran well but came up birdless in OGD. Loki's run were big as usual-- ranging in the 500- 700 yards in front of the handler but also came up birdless. Overall a good first weekend of broke dog stakes with both boys and onto the rest of the fall season.



Loki running for the first time in ODG and OLGD this weekend with his trainer Chris Tewes
of Double Gun Ranch and Ben Scouting. Had great big runs for his first broke dog stakes.



Odin running in OGD with Ben handling and trainer Chris Tewes of Double Gun Ranch
scouting at the OBC FT in Madras, OR.



Winning Weekend

This weekend we headed to the Olympic Kennel Club Dog Show in Enumclaw with Loki for a weekend of shows since he was home from the trainer. Our friend and go to pro Terri Erickson would be showing Loki for us since we were hoping to get some much needed single points towards his championship and the other dogs showing in the open class were being shown by amateurs and we had beaten them before. We were lucky this weekend and came out with big wins both Saturday and Sunday as Loki went Winners Dog (WD) and Best of Winners (BOW) for a total of 4 points towards his championship. Now we only need to get his 2 major wins (shows that are worth 3 or more points) which we'll be working on in October at the Bosie shows.

Congrats team Terri and Loki for a great winning weekend!





Best of Breed

This weekend we headed to the Nisqually Kennel Club Dog Show in Lacy with Odin to compete in the Best of Breed round as a special since he has his show championship. Our friend and pro-handler Terri Erickson showed Odin for us since the competition was all shown by pros and included the #2 Brittany in the country. Terri got her workout showing Odin since the judge made them do an additional 3 showings in the ring complete with runs to show Odin's gating off before finally choosing him as Best of Breed for Brittany's on Saturday. This was Odin's first BOB win and would mean his first times showing in the Sporting Group round. While he didn't make the cut in the group round of judging it was great to see him and he showed great.

Here's to future BOB wins!

Odin and Terri Erickson @ the NKC on 8/11/12

Our Boys

We recently had professional photo's pf the boys done while they were at the Portland dog show and they turned our great. Feel free to check out their FB page or their website.

Jam Time

Last night officially kicked off the summer jam season since I had a bag of rhubarb in the fridge that needed to be used, more in the freezer and a garden of it ready to harvest. I decided to pick up strawberries on my way home from work and turn them into jam. I tried this recipe last summer and decided it was a winner.

After a lot of chopping, stirring and canning I had a small collection of the first batch of jam for the summer. Now to just wait a few more weeks for the blackberries to be ripe and then I can perfect my blackberry jam recipes.

10th Anniversary

Today we celebrate 10 wonderful years of marriage! Wow, time has flown by! We've shared so much in the past10 years and I am filled with excitement to see what the years ahead will bring.

Hawaii 2012

We're back! We returned sun kissed and rested after 7 days in Hawaii. The weather was perfect all week and it was so nice to wake up every morning to Hawaiian trade winds, sunny skies and the knowing that there were no plans for the day.

We stayed on the island of Oahu which is first for us since we have  never been there other than to go to other islands. Our first stop once we arrived was to get outfitted with out rental car and our condo that we rented for the week. The condo was in a great location, 3 blocks form Waikiki beach which meant beach time was very convenient at any minute. It was also nice having the condo since there was kitchen and we could enjoy a lazy breakfast each morning.

We spent a good portion of our days lounging on the beach and soaking up the rays (while using SPF 110 for me, 15 for Ben). We also took in the sites of Pearl Harbor with tours of the U.S.S. Arizona, U.S.S. Missouri and the U.S.S. Bowman; North Shore; Waimea Valley; Hiking to Diamond Head, exploring the Kaaawa Valley, the  Kualoa Ranch, snorkeling, a visit to the Dole Plantation and no visit to Hawaii is complete without a Luau.

Ben was also a happy camper when it came to his stomach as he was able to find quite a few L&L Drive Inns that served a Loco Moco which is an island favorite consisting of rice, a hamburger patty, fried egg and brown gravy which I think looks  horrible but actually tastes good and his favorite drink Aloha iced tea. Add in some Mai Tai's, pineapple, pineapple ice-cream and Kalua pork and we we had full and satisfied tummies.

All in all it was a great trip and a perfect way to celebrate our 10th anniversary a week early.

Baby Hannah

I'm an Aunt!. My sister and her husband welcomed their first child, Hannah Elaine on June 2nd. She made her debut at 12:02am, weighing in at 6 lbs. 4 Oz. 19.75 inches long.  Since she is the first grandbaby in the family I'm sure she will be one spoiled little girl.

A Weekend in Pennsylvania

We headed off to West Chester, Pennsylvania for the Memorial Day weekend to visit Ben's Aunt Judi and Uncle Tony. We had been trying to make visit work for quite since our schedules never seemed to align but due to a change in schedules we were able to make it happen finally.

Friday morning after we arrived we headed to Tony's favorite breakfast spot where they have "the Bullotta" on the menu which is a banana pancake with peanut butter for breakfast. After that we got to play tourist in Philadelphia for the afternoon since Ben had never been there before. Tony and Judi figured that we could venture around the city on our own since we were seasoned travelers so they armed us with a map and book and dropped us off for a few hours of exploring. We decided to do the sights including seeing Constitution Hall, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Franklin Square, Penn's Landing and more. We even found a great little bar with a happy hour special to pass the time while waiting to be picked up. Dinner that night was at one of Tony's favorite Italian restaurants. We feasted on pasta, gnocchi, salad and other treats while enjoying a good wine and company.

Saturday we headed out to Lancaster County to visit  Amish country. Lancaster County is home to the oldest Amish settlement. One thing you notice right away when you get close to Lancaster County is that the Amish ride in horse and buggy ride down the streets right along the cars. We took a tour of an Amish house and got a chance to see a little bit about how they live while also learning more about their culture.

Sunday we headed out to Valley Forge Winter Encampment historic site to get a taste of this areas rich history with the revolutionary war. We opted to take the trolley tour of the park with a guide so that we could learn more about the camp. The tour stopped at three different areas: an area where they had the houses that the soldiers and their families lived in, at Muhlenberg's Brigade and Washington's Headquarters.

Monday morning we headed to the airport bright and early with Tony since Judi had already left for NY since she had a flight to work (she's a flight attendant for AA). While it was a quick trip we were able to see a lot of things and hope to make it back out to visit them soon.

Happy 2nd Birthday Loki!

Wishing my sweet birdy boy, Loki a very happy 2nd birthday. While he's not home with us to celebrate his big day I know that he's having a fun day filled with birds down at his trainers place in Eagle Creek, Oregon doing birdy training.

Blue for Two

This past weekend we headed back to Madras, Oregon to the Boyce Corral located in the grasslands for the Oregon Brittany Club's walking field trial to run Odin in Open Gun Dog (OGD) and Loki in Open Derby (OD) for the last time before he turned two on the 18th and would age of out puppy events. The weather for the weekend was in the upper 80's which meant trouble for the dogs since it would hot and scenting conditions would be tough in the heat. Also since it was going to be hot we would be starting super early each day which equals no sleeping in for the people.

Saturday morning Ben was up with Odin in the fourth brace of OGD which meant it was late morning and still a little cool, mere 70's not 90"s yet for the day. They started off strong with Odin making a big cast to the top of the ridgline before he found his first bird which he pointed and held steady. After they worked the bird Odin quickly came onto a wild-flushed bird which proved to be a little too much for him and he chased it. This ended their run at 20 minutes of a 30 minute run but we were pleased with his performance overall.

Ben spent the rest of the day shooting mice and helping bagging birds. It became a past time of everyone to keep track of how many mice Ben and Chris each shot. Unfortunately no one kept an official count but we think it was a couple dozen over the three days.

Sunday was the much anticipated derby run for Loki where we all had our fingers, toes and paws crossed for a solid run and at least one bird find. Ben and I decided it would be good to see the competition so we walked the first two braces to see those four dogs and how they ran before we ran Loki in brace 4. He had a strong run and 2 separate points of which one he held for at least 45 seconds and impressed the judges with. After his run we watched his litter mate run and then waited for placements.

When placements were handed out, we came up victorious in the nick of time and won his derby points by taking first place in the Open Derby and earned an additional 2 points towards his field championship. This also qualifies him to run in Limited stakes when he comes out as a broke dog! We are very proud of what Loki and his trainer Chris Tewes of Double Gun Ranch accomplished this spring trial season.

Easter 2012

While we weren't home for Easter this year that didn't stop us from being in the spirit and wishing everyone a Happy Easter!

Brittanys in Madras

Last weekend we headed to Boyce Corral in Madras, Oregon for a series of events- the Oregon Brittany Club Field Trial on Friday and Saturday and the American Brittany Club 2012 Western Futurity events for Loki which were a big deal sincee you had to be invited to compete.

Friday started very early for us since we had to be in Madras by 11am and it is a six hour drive which meant no sleep and lots of driving. We made it in time for Ben to get mounted on our trainer's horse Kip and head out with the group to watch Odin run in Open Gun Dog. We were happy with his performance since he had a clean run and found a bird. After lunch it was Loki's turn as he was running the Open Derby. We got a treat for Loki's run when one of friends offered to let me ride his horse so that I could get to watch the brace. So we all saddled up and hit the course. Overall Loki had a very good run and found a bird and the best part is that I stayed on the horse and was incident free :) When placements were handed out that night at dinner, our little dude ended up getting 3rd place in the Derby.

Sunday was the big ABC Futurity show for Loki so we spent all morning bathing, grooming, and practicing to get ready for the show. We were a little saddened when we saw three pro handlers show up and a judge who had a preference for pros in the show ring but we still gave it our best try and overall got 3rd in the intermediate dog class. Monday we headed back to the field for the Gun Dog portion of the events and while we had a great run, 3 bird finds the pro ended up sweeping all of the ribbons/placements. So while we didn't end up with a placement we did have a great experience attending the futurity event for Loki and getting to compete with him at this one in a lifetime event.

We decided after lunch to head on home with both Odin and Loki who would be coming home for a few weeks before the last of the spring trials. Luckily for us Mount Hood was clear and it was an uneventful and long 6 hours and rolled into our driveway just in time to unpack and head to bed in our own comfy bed :)

Whiskey Anyone?

Ben and I recently had the opportunity to attend the "Whiskey Experience" at the new local distillery- The Woodinville Whiskey Company located in Woodinville for an evening of Whiskey tasting and getting to meet David Pickerell who was the the master distiller for Maker's Mark Whiskey.

The 2 hour event included a great selection of appetizers and samples of their three different whiskey's and their vodka. David spoke about his background as a master distiller and how to select the best whiskey. Since Ben is more of a whiskey drinker than me, I gave him most of my samples but overall the few I did try were very good. It's nice to have something other than wineries in our backyard and soon in stores.

#6 Ranking

Saturday night we headed to the Northwest Field Trial Councils award banquet at the Lucky Eagle Casino to celebrate the achievements of the those that competed in field trails in 2011. They award the following awards based on the points that were attained through placements:

• All Age Dog of the Year
• Dog of the Year
• Puppy of the Year
• Derby Dog of the Year

Loki had run in 2011 in five open puppy field trials and placed in all five so we knew he had acquired points but unsure if what was needed to win since he would be competing against everyone from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California and Canada. For each group they recognize the "top 10" and to our surprise Lacey Mtn's B Campbell Little Jester, JH "Loki" was #6. Not too shabby for a first trial season. Here's looking to another great one in 2012.

Champion Odin

As mentioned in our earlier post Odin has officially become a AKC Show Champion and we finally received the picture from his win at the Sammamish Kennel Club Show on January 14th.

New Champion- Ch. Odin

     Sire: GCH Rockwell's Jake the Snake

Dam: TK's Rockwell's True Roxie

DOB: 03/13/08

OFA: Good for hips and elbows

If you'd like to learn more about our special boy (who is also available for stud) check out their Facebook page at Campbells Brittanys or their website at http://www.campbellsbrittanys.com/.

Training, Training and More Training...

It's official, gone are the weekends of sleeping in and being lazy as we're back to spending our weekends logging miles and hours in cars/trucks for the boys training activities as we start working on getting ready for this years field trail and hunt test season.

Our trainer for the boys is great and works amazingly well with the boys and the hubby but is located in Eagle Creek, Oregon, a mere 4 hour drive each way. Yes, all this for the boys and hubby's passion for tromping through a muddy field to work on the various skills that Odin will need to perfect for passing his Master Hunter tests and being successful in Open Gun Dog at Field Trails. Were also going through the process of getting Loki broken out so that he is steady to wing and shot and can hang with the big boys. Oh, yeah and getting him ready for the ABC Western Futurity event in April that he has been invited to.

As suspected, this weekend was no different and yesterday we made the trek to work with Chris and Odin and to drop little man aka Loki off for birdy bootcamp for the next 8 - 12 weeks (not thrilled about this one but he is in good hands and it will be worth it in the end).

Odin showed signs of improvement from last season and the areas he still needs to work on before the first round of tests in April. 

So while the schedule isn't even finalized for this seasons events it looks like it is going to be a very busy spring/summer with lots of miles in the car and fields.

More Snow...Please Stop

Snowpocalypse 2012 has hit Seattle, all 15+ inches and counting of it. We have been snowed in the last two days and it is not looking like were getting out anytime soon. This winter strom has brought us the following:

• 15+ inches of snow
• An ice storm
• power outage-- now going on 16 hours without power
• downed trees

Here's hoping this snow stops so that we can start the digging out.

Champion Status

Sixteen months ago we started a wild journey on a whim with Odin that has been filled with highs and lows and Saturday it came to a conclusion as he completed his AKC show championship by going Winners Dog and Best of Winners with his handler Kevin Chestnut for a 3 point major win at the Sammamish KC dog show in Puyullap.

There were 8 entries in the class dogs with 4 of them including in Odin and Loki in the Open Dog class so competition was very tough as they were all good looking dogs and we never know what the judge is looking for or how Odin would behave since he is not a fan of the show ring. Luckily for us he decided that he was going to behave and looked great.  After a couple of passes around the ring the judge selected him first in his class which meant step one was complete. Another pass around the ring with the other class winners and the judge moved Kevin and Odin into first position for the last pass around the ring and then awarded him with the Winners Dog purple ribbon.  After a triple check with the ring side attendant to ensure that the major had held we let out a huge sigh of relief that he had won and finished his championship. After a round of hugs and congrats it was back int he ring to go up against the champions and the female winner to try for Best of Breed or Best of Winners.

Twenty minutes later the blue and white Best of Winners ribbon was Odin's and he had completed his final regular show and would now get to retire from showing. I may bring him out once in a while for special events like the Washington or Oregon Specialty shows but for now it's back to the field.

Congrats to our special boy on becoming Ch. Odin!

First Snow

We got our first (and hopefully our only) snowfall of the winter here in the Seattle area this weekend. Our house seemed to be in the special snow zone delivering us with 8= inches of the fluffy white stuff in the past 24 hours.

A lot of friends described our snow as it's so pretty, it's wonderful! But, each of those phrases are typically said with a HUGE caveat: if you don't have anywhere to go or you don’t live here and don’t have to deal with our lack of snow preparedness.

Unfortunately, we had not stocked up at the grocery store and had to make the 15 minute trek to/from the store to get the basics. With 8 inches on the ground, the trek was not going to be easy or fun. Since we knew the Jetta would not be capable of getting back up the hill to the house we opted for the 4 wheel drive on the truck. Even with the truck the drive included sliding and tire spinning and my grabbing the door with eyes closed as Ben took it very slow.

After a break from our trek, we decided it would be fun to take Odin for a walk and to get out and explore the winter wonderland.

Looking Back at 2011

With 2012 in full swing, it's time to take a look back at the highlights of 2011.

It was a busy year for us filled with a good balance of work and play.Lots of time spent in the office for us both, but we certainly got our fill of busy weekends, lazy weekends, and time spent with family and friends.

The theme for this year seemed to be the year of the dogs. We had over 50 show, field and hunt test events that the boys competed in. We also covered thousands of miles traveling between Eagle Creek, Oregon and our house in Snohomish for training and of course all over Washington and Oregon for events and to drop doggies off at their respective handlers. We were also blessed to meet and make many new friends through our dog activities who share our interests.

Some highlights of the year for us included:

• Ben and I celebrating 12 years together and 9 wonderful years of marriage
• Ben buying his "big boy toy"-- a New Holland Tractor
• Hosting a couple of parties at our house including the first annual Ugly Holiday Sweater party
• Loki turning one and Odin turning three
• Loki getting his Junior Hunter title and 2 points towards his field championship
• Odin getting 9 points towards his show championship including one major win (only need one more major to finish, were soooo close...)

We wrapped up a wonderful and eventful 2011 with a fun filled evening spent with Stacey at the Everett Silvertips game and then a quite evening at our home to watch the ball drop and to ring in the new year.

We can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us. A few things we're already eagerly anticipating are Loki being a part of the Western Futurity event in both field and show in April in Madras, Oregon, finishing up Odin's show championship and working on his Master Hunter title, celebrating our 10th anniversary with a trip somewhere, and a wine tasting weekend with my best friend this summer.

Happy New Year!