Happy Anniversary!

We celebrated our third wedding anniversary on Wednesday and spent the day at the beach today celebrating. (We ran into Steve and Stephanie on the beach – celebrating Steve’s birthday.)

I’ve also included pictures of the beautiful surprise bouquet flowers Kit met me with when I picked him up at his building downtown. (He got a lot of smiles from passersby as he stood waiting for me.)

Visitors & Tricks

Mommy and daddy’s friends, Matt and Sharon, came over for dessert tonight. I like them. They think I’m a fun pug. Matt attempted to get me to do for the camera this cute thing I kept doing with my bone. But I won! That’ll teach him to try to get me to perform. (Sorry my photographer was sleeping on the job and neglected to take a picture of Matt and Sharon.)

Me

Not really sure why I participated in this photo shoot, but I sure am handsome.

Bike Ride

As you should know if you've read our blog for at least the last couple of months, Kit and I got bikes a while back. We've gone on two 12-mile bike rides on the Marine Drive trail, which is absolutely beautiful. (Not sure how I've lived in Portland for six years - yes, it's been that long - without ever going on the trail.) Today I decided to be adventurous and go on the ride alone. Not only that, I decided to ride all the way to the trail from our house.

Though it's only 2.6 miles from our house, it's almost entirely downhill on the way there and uphill on the way home. Getting there was a breeze. Getting home, after having ridden 14.6 miles with my lame asthma and completely out of water, was not a breeze. I made it as far as Kit's parents' house (1.6 miles, much of which was the crazy hill). Praise the Lord that they were home. I walked in their garage (the door was open - another praise as I've been known to sit on their porch while Kit's mom was downstairs and couldn't hear the doorbell) and into the kitchen. Said, "Hello," as loudly as I could from the kitchen and went straight for the water. I had packed my own towel so I toweled off while panting and swallowing as much water as I could.

Kernan, Kit's dad, came up and tried talking to me. Not the greatest idea, but at least he's friendly, right? Eventually my breathing steadied. I called Kit to come pick me up because I was done at that point. Then I chatted with his parents while drinking and toweling off until he arrived.

All in all, it was a good ride. :)

Old Friends and New

Mommy's best friend from high school, Melissa, came on Thursday night with her husband, Dustin, and their baby, Joel. Fun times were had by all. Though I scared baby Joel at one point by barking really loudly (causing him to cry - whoops), we had a good time. He wears something called diapers, and I think they smell really interesting. Oh, and he's quite the sharer when it comes to food! Every time the kid ate, I got to eat at least a few bites of whatever he was having! I got blueberry bagel, bacon, eggs, toast, PB&J and parts of a Taco Bell taco. Yippee!

Joel's a pretty cool kid. He turned one in May so he's about the same age as my cousin Boston. Like Boston, Joel likes to run around touching everything he can get his hands on. That meant mommy had to do some "redecorating," whatever that means. I guess it means stacking all forms of photos, candles, figurines, books, etc. on random high shelves. It didn't look so good, but apparently it was functional. They say people without kids don't have very baby-friendly houses. This proved true at our house. But I'm okay with not having a baby at our house because they seem to get all the attention, which is no fun for me.

Below are some photos of Joel eating his Taco Bell taco. Mom and dad had a lot of fun sharing food from their favorite fast food restaurant with the kiddo. He and I enjoyed the gesture too.

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WARNING: This video may be entirely boring to all but my mom, the videographer. But she thought he was pretty darn cute eating and waving goodbye to his parents.

Oh, and Joel did finish his entire taco, minus about 3/4 of the tortilla and the portions that he shared with me.

Lance & Abby

Mommy's friend from college, Abby, and her husband, Lance, came over for dinner tonight. Abby is a dear friend of mommy's who helped her through some interesting times during her last semester of college. She and Lance have been in Switzerland for the past year or so learning French. And now they're headed to Cameroon. It's was pretty exciting to hear about the work they'll be doing with learning languages, developing a format for writing those languages, literacy training and translation (including the Bible). I don't read, but if I did, I think it would be great to have books in my own language. It's hard for me to believe that there are still people who don't have a writing system for their language, let alone books.

Praise the Lord for folks like Lance and Abby who are willing to give up their lives to change those of others.

Adieu, My Friend

Well, Max is gone now. We had a pretty fun time. But I must say I am glad to have mommy and daddy all to myself again. Max kept trying to take my spot on their laps. So I would casually slide up in between him and mommy/daddy, sneak into prime lap position and then stick my face in his face, giving him "the look." It proved to be effective. Though mommy and daddy would always tell me, "No," and make sure to give Max a good spot as well. Sheesh! Don't they know who I am? I'm the pug of the house!

Oh well, it's over now. And Max was a lot of fun. We went on a walk, wrestled, ate, slept and pretty much had a good time. I seem to have over-exerted myself though so I'm limping a bit on one of my back legs. Mom's taking me to the vet next week to get it checked out. At least my vet is cool, and mommy gives me lots of treats when I'm there. Bonus!

As you can see, I obtained prime real estate. :)

And kept an eye on Max to make sure he didn't try to take my spot.

Good yawns were had by all.

Daddy's kind of cheesy, I know.


I sort of look like an alien in this picture. Weird.