Snuggle Time

  

The other morning Maude snuggled with me on the couch for almost 45 minutes straight. 

I think it helped that I was wearing my soft, fuzzy fleece robe :)

Some Play Time with Maudie!

A glimpse into our evening entertainment.  Wild times at the Vander Naald's!

A few of Maude's friends

Maude has a lot of friends already.  We think if she was a human, she'd definitely be in the running for Homecoming Queen.  

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she has lots of visitors.  Two of our neighbors stop by to help let her out and feed her, and they bring their kiddos along (three kids age 2-6).  

Yesterday one of Brian's colleagues stopped by randomly just to see Maude for a few minutes.

She also has several canine friends in the neighborhood that we regularly run into on our walks.  Pete, Soda, Moochie, Bay (her mom), Oliver (her brother), and crotchety old Casey are just a few.

Here, Maude is enjoying ladies book club.  We are "The Cliterates" and she is the first canine member to join the discussion.  We think she liked the book.

This particular night, Maude stayed close by to Lora who had just lost her own pet of 12 years.    It was nice to see Maude help bring a smile to Lora's face :)

This is Jordan, a favorite person of our's and Maude's.

This is Spirit, a retired sled dog from the interior of Alaska.  She is very good about letting Maude jump and play all over her.  They enjoy their play dates.

The Inside Tour of the Juneau Vander Naald Estate :)

Here is some video footage of a little tour of our home in all its glory.  We love it and hope you get to see it in-person sooner than later.  Hopefully by then we'll actually have fresh paint and pictures on the walls, ha!

Enjoy :)

Weekend Clean-Up

This weekend Brian spent a lot of time in the yard raking & picking-up leaves, cleaning out the gutters, clearing out old boards, etc.  

Another clean-up task set before us on Sunday morning was a big pile of bear scat on the sidewalk in front of our neighbor's house.  Brian did his good deed by cleaning it up for Rosanne :)

Maude: Juvi Fish Butt

Today is Maude's 3-month birthday, and marks the start of what the books call her Juvenile period of development.  Evidently she's going to start being more independent and "bratty" (the book's word, not mine).  After giving her fish oil on her food to help prevent itchy skin, her butt also happens to now smells like fish.  So, we're playfully calling her "juvi-fish-butt"  :)

Here are a few snapshots of a week in the life of Maude:

Hmmm….something tells me it might be time for a bigger dog bed.  

Maude got a little ear shave at the vet yesterday after getting bit by a bigger, older Chocolate Lab.  Brian took her to our friend's house and our friend's roommate's dog, Gus, is a great dog, but a little uneasy around puppies.  They were playing fine for a while and then Gus snapped and chomped down her Maude's ear.  The vet said one of the punctures is just a millimeter away from a "gusher" spot, which would have just been a lot messier. Her little wounds are fine and she's now on antibiotics (again) to prevent infection.  (Floppy ears are prone to getting infected, we hear.)

Maude went for her first hike on Perseverence Trail today!

Maude thinks walks in Alaska are fun.

Halloween, Juneau-style

Our neighborhood is called The Flats and Halloween is a really big deal in it.  One house nearby counted 472 kids that came to their door for trick-or-treat.  We think we gave out around 400 pieces of candy (and that was mostly one piece per kid).  Our doorbell was ringing constantly and it was a ton of fun!  Kids got candy and adults got jello shots (if they wanted).

Here are some shots of our decorated house, done by our old landlord Mike and his kids.

Mike and his kids

Some neighbor kids and the jello-shot eating mama nearby :)

Maude slept almost the entire time.  She was wiped out after a big day of playing with her mama all afternoon.  She assumed the sleeping position either on the couch or under a table all night.  Everyone commented on how good she was being - ha!  

In addition to the hundreds of trick-or-treaters, we also had a big party of our own!  There were probably 30-40 people in our house, eating, drinking, and hanging out in some pretty fun costumes.

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Brian and Matt, weightlifting buddies and for tonight, "Hans and Franz"

I dressed up as a gravid uterus and this is my midwife friend, Meredith.

Thank goodness she was there.

Creepiest. Birth. Ever.   Fun times!! 

Happy Belated Halloween from Juneau!