What I have learned about Golden Retrievers

I grew up with German Shepherds (and still love the breed).  Moving to Seattle, we decided to get a golden.  Personality-wise, they are quite different.  We have learned some things as Binks has grown older. 
One:  They have huge tongues.

Somehow, that tongue never seems to fit in his mouth. 

Two: Learn to brace.

They will use you as cover when chasing each other.  Binks especially doesn’t quite get the concept of momentum yet and can’t turn quite as fast as his smaller friend.  So we keep our feet apart and knees bent, they might just come sliding into you.

Three: they love chasing balls or sticks or even better, each other.

Four: Goldens have a unique way of playing with other goldens, different to how they play with other breeds.

They will wrestle each other mercilessly.  They also like to tease, holding a ball or a stick just out of reach, taunting the other to get it.

Five:  They can entertain themselves really well.

They will hold a ball on a slope, let it go to roll down, then pounce.  They sometimes even throw it up in the air and try to catch it (that goes for sticks and even gloves too).

We are having great fun with our puppy.  Being able to socialise with other pups in the neighbourhood makes it even more special.

Megan and Co

This neighbourhood has lots of golden retrievers.  On walks, we regularly get to meet up with them.  Megan is a gorgeous girl 15 years old, still going for walks every day. 

She was sad for a while when her sister passed away, but is really cheerful since her ‘sister’ Bailey joined her.  Bailey has boundless energy (as in she doesn’t run, she bounds and bounces everywhere!).    She and Binks, our dog, would chase each other all day if they could.

During play, Binks will go check on Megan regularly.  She is really patient and sweet.  She will sit by you all day if you give her a scratch behind the ears!

Walking the dog in the cold

Every now and then everything goes white with frost.  Somehow the colder it gets, the more energy our puppy has!  Must be a Golden Retriever thing since Binks’ best friend, Bailey also gets friskier!

 

The sun is starting to come up before 8, creating beautiful morning light.  It is nice to not walk in the dark anymore!

 

 

 

Our First Snow

We opened the windows this morning to a garden covered in white!  It looked so wonderful, a real wonderland (can you tell we never had snow before?)

The kids had a ball playing outside.  Our neighbours are from Texas, so their kids also came out to play.  Binks, our puppy, loves the snow.  He chases the snowballs and cries by the door to go out again to play when we bring him inside.

 

We quickly popped over to the shops to get proper boots.  When we came back, one of our neighbours had dropped off a whole bag of gloves as well as a sled for the kids.  We are so blessed!

I am off to go play some more… SO much fun!

A Seattle Sunset

When the skies are clear, the sunsets here are so colourful and brilliant.  We had a late-in-the-day walk with the dog.  He is very accommodating, stopping and “posing” in just the right spot!

We are really enjoying having an area to walk in so close to home.  In the late afternoons, you have the lights of the neighbouring houses peeking through the trunks of the trees.

My youngest was really excited to discover holly.

Halloween in Seattle

The kids were really excited to experience Halloween here.  The costumes were in planning for quite a while.  My youngest’s costume was the trickiest, since she wanted to be Elsa from the moment she saw the movie.  She had a Halloween parade at school the morning, then dress up for dancing before the evening’s trick-or-treating.  We improvised, by making the white top a leotard she could wear to dancing.

The top I adapted from a pattern with lace-up at the back.  She picked the glittered tulle that went over the top of the satin.

It gave the “Elsa”-look while she was dancing.

 

My sons both wanted to be Link from the game Zelda.  One was blue and the other green.  They were so chuffed about the swords we got them.

The parade at school was really cute, with the moms throwing the kids a party afterwards.

 

It got dark very quick, with a moon glowing through the misty evening.  The mount of loot the kids brought home was huge!

The kids are already planning for next year.

First signs of Fall

Well, the frost has already hit and I haven’t had a chance to post the start of autumn / fall photos yet!  Things are a little crazy with repairs finally starting on the house after the fire.  When they are working, I turn the pc off since they sometimes trip the power and I don’t want to risk damaging any electronics.

We have been seeing tons of squirrels and rabbits.  Toadstools and mushrooms have popped up everywhere.

 

 

Our puppy is growing at a tremendous rate.  He still isn’t always big enough for the sticks he tries to run with though!