Raven

This last Saturday was a sad day for us. We had to say goodbye to our dog Raven. Raven was 90lb Black Lab. She was the sweetest, most gentle, loyal and loving big black dog. Most people would mistake her as a male because of her size. 

We adopted Raven the summer of 2008. She was first adopted by Russ's parents when she was 5 years old and then once we moved to a place where we could have a dog we took her. She's been with us through three homes and two babies. She was a great dog. In my opinion she was the best dog anyone could ask for. She was happy to be outside or even in the garage. She loved everyone she met. I never worried about her around the kids, she was always gentle with them. She LOVED food, she would eat her dinner in just about 15 seconds flat (she nearly inhaled it) I'm pretty sure meal times were her favorite time of the day and any chance she got she would look for crumbs on the floor to eat. Most of the time she snored while she slept. She wasn't the greatest on a leash, but she was always so good about staying right by us or by the house if we were out front. 

I'm going to miss looking out the window seeing her follow Russ around while he works in the yard. And the sound of her collar when she would shake and Lily saying "Ray-Ray". (Blake called her Re-Re before he could say Raven)

I never realized how hard it would be to say good-bye to her. Over the last 9 or so months, a tumor started growing on her back hip and it was growing rather quickly. In May, we had it looked at and the vet said it was most likely cancerous. The tumor could be removed, but that wasn't to guaranty that the cancer hadn't spread. With her age (she was 11) we couldn't see spending that kind of money, not knowing if it would save her life. So, we knew this day was coming. But in the time leading up to it, I never once thought it would be so hard. We will miss her so much!

 The first summer we had Raven 

Cody and Raven (my parents dog and Raven were the same age and always had so much fun together!)

 Meeting Blake

Kisses for Raven

She was happy to just be where we were

Waiting for Lily to share some food

 Sweet girl

Thats the tumor

 Saying good-bye

We love you sweet girl and will miss you so much!

Lint rollers are handy.

This is Raven. She is our 95lbs+ chunk of love. We love her. She is a great dog. Very mellow, and easy going. The only problem is she leaves her black hair everywhere (yes, she is in the house when we are home, unless Blake is bugging her then she goes out). No matter how much I sweep/vacuum her hair seems to always be there. 

And since Blake has been army crawling all over the place this has been coming in handy

 He often thinks its funny and wants to help

 but then he is done with it and ready to play again.

You might notice the font/color has changed... I'm still playing around with things but don't be surprised if the look/name completely changes :)

The weekend

Summer is finally here! We finally had a hot weekend, it was great! Saturday we started the day by heading in to Corvallis and walking around downtown with the Hammagrens. We went to the Farmers Market and then checked out the sidewalk sale downtown. I didn't buy anything this time, but always have fun browsing at Inkwell! Blake enjoyed napping while we walked around, until he became hot and hungry then he let us know he had enough.

Saturday evening we enjoyed dinner on the deck! We found a great deal on a table, end table and 6 chairs and finally get to enjoy them!

After enjoying a nice dinner on the deck, we took Blake on his first walk around the neighborhood. It was quite an eventful walk... Blake did great (slept the whole time) but Raven was another story. She pees all the time when we go on walks. Its like she thinks she needs to leave her mark like male dogs do. Well, we walk pass this one house and what does Raven do she squats to try to pee (by this point in our walk she has already peed out all that was in her). The homeowner was out watering his plants and sees Raven take a squat and then starts cussing at us telling us we need to pick up her poop! Russell kindly says she just peed, and we continued to walk. Well the grumpy old man keeps cussing at us!! It was crazy, I didn't know one could use so many cuss words in one sentence. And the grass she squatted on was the patch between the sidewalk and the street! It was pretty ridiculous. We will not be walking passed that house ever again!

Sunday was another nice relaxing day! Blake tried out his new Playplace. He liked it for about 10 minutes and then started crying. But I don't think that was too bad for the first time.

One last great thing about this weekend... we purchased this:

I have wanted this camera for a long time and have wanted it even more since Blake has been born. The point and shoot camera we currently have just isn't fast enough to catch all the cute/funny faces Blake makes. We found it on costco.com for a great price and even comes with the big better lens! I can't wait to start taking pictures with it!!

Hope you all had a great weekend too!