FREEEEEEDOM!!!!

Well...we finally did it!  We got the guts up to take Coda to his first dog park.  This whole "off-leash" thing is a little terrfying for a Shiba owner.  Especially for us, who have a puppy that when free just takes off like a rocket.  We thought that going with some of Coda's best buddies, that he might be more inclined to stick near us if they did, and it worked!

We wanted to start small, so we went with Nick and Lindsey and their puggles Riley and Roxy to Willis Tucker Dog Park in Snohomish.  What a great place to start...not too big, but not too small.  Just enough room for Coda to feel like he was a FREE PUPPY!

Oh how happy it makes us to see Coda be able to run full speed and play with other dogs.  And boy did he make us proud too!!  He didn't bite other dogs' ears or bark in their faces.  He just chased other dogs and loved his life today.  I think we are onto something new and great...DOG PARKS!  Thanks for talking us into going Nick and Lindsey!  We're so happy Coda has such fun buddies to play with too!

Coda finding a big dog to chase

Coda and Riley making friends with some other little dogs

Coda LOVES to be chased by other dogs!

Best Buddies, Coda and Riley, running up the hill

The Happiest Place on Earth...to celebrate a birthday that is!

So I did it again...I found a way to talk Jason into going to Disneyland with me!!!  It just happened that my 27th birthday fell on a weekend this year, so I thought it would be so much fun to be at Disneyland for my actual birthday.  I knew he couldn't say no to a birthday thing!!!  Once Jason was convinced to go, I also got my friends Nick and Lindsey to come too! 

We spent 2 amazingly LONG but FUN days at Disneyland and CA Adventures and by the end of our trip we were all barely able to walk anymore!

Our first day at the parks was spent at Disneyland.  We went right when the park opened at 8am, but I let everyone off a little early that night (even I hated to admit I was tired and hurting) rather than staying until midnight like I usually do.  And I also hate to admit that I honestly couldn't sleep the night before we went to Disneyland because I couldn't contain my excitement!  I'm such a big kid at heart!

Everyone was such a good sport keeping up with me and joining in in all that good Disneyland kid fun!!  We were just a couple of BIG KIDS this entire weekend!!

Jason and I in Tarzan's Treehouse

Me, Lindsey and Nick causing trouble in Toon Town

Tea Cup madness!!

Tower of Terror at night after Disneyland

CA Adventures after the Electrical Parade

Our second day, MY 27th BIRTHDAY, began at CA Adventures (since they open an hour later than Disneyland, this gave everyone a little more time to sleep in).  We didn't waste anytime trying to conquer this park and utilize our Fast Passes!  We managed to fit in a couple character sightings too!  Lindsey was a great sport and even though she is terrified to take pictures with characters when she can't see their real eyes, she did it for me anyway!  I love you Lindsey!!  By 3pm, we were done with CA Adventures and back to Disneyland...wow we're good!

I was beyond thrilled to see Minnie Mouse!

Chip and Dale with Lindsey and me...thanks Lindsey for being a good sport!

CA Adventures in the daytime

L is for Lumsden!

By the time we finished CA Adventures, we had a couple hours to head back to Disneyland and hit up a few more rides.  Man I love the "Park Hopper"!!  Remember me saying we had 2 very long days?!  Well this is why!!

Once we did more rides at Disneyland it was time for us to head to dinner at the ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney.  This was a special part of the night for me because I had a bunch of friends and family come from all over LA to have dinner with me for my birthday.  I couldn't have felt more loved than I felt on this night!  My teacher friend Kali and her boy Adam came from Palmdale.  My brother-in-law Brian and his girlfriend Bree came from Pasadena.  And Nick's brother Joe (our airport shuttler) came from Long Beach.  These people along with my amazing WA friends that came with me on this trip and my amazing husband who once again put up with going to Disneyland for me made for one SPECIAL night!!

Jason, Brian, Bree, Joe, Nick, Lindsey, me, Kali and Adam at ESPN Zone

Did we stop after dinner?  HECK NO!!!  We used our last hour of park time to do a couple more rides in Disneyland!  I tell ya...I am pretty hardcore about this place!  Finally by 12:30 we were done at Disneyland and back to our hotel by 1am!

How cool to be practically the only ones out there!

This was one of my most memorable birthdays!  Lots of great moments with some really special people! 

Disneyland, I think this was it for me for a while.  Next time you see me....I will have a little one to remind me how special this place is!

The Climb

Even though we got in from the Black Eyed Peas concert at 2am, that didn't stop us from getting up early the next morning to enjoy some sunshine, warmer weather, friends and a little hike.  We loaded up Coda, our friends Nick and Lindsey and their 2 puggles and we were off (we met Brady and Abbey at the trailhead).

Coda sharing his car with his buddies, Riley and Roxy

This time we went to the little town of Index (about one hour from our house) to do a short 3 mile roundtrip hike to the Heybrook Lookout Tower.  As easy as 3 miles sounds, it was actually quite difficult.  I guess I should have guessed that to get a good view you have to climb (DUH!)...and that we did!!

The crew making the final trek to the tower...dogs leading the way :)

Once at the top we parked it for a lunchbreak and a little visit to the top of the lookout.  Coda was far from thrilled to be going up that high, so Jason had to carry him up all the stairs.  And once at the top, Coda literally latched on for dear life!

At the top of Heybrook Lookout with a view of the beautiful mountains!

Mt. Index

Other surrounding snowy mountains

At the bottom of the lookout

After a nice break at the top where we got to enjoy lots of warm sunshine and a good lunch, we began our much easier trek down!  Of course we always like to have a little fun and enjoy the sights when we can...

Happy Hikers!!

This moss looked like it was meant to be a beard!!

By the time we got back to the car we were all pretty tired, especially Coda.  Can't you just tell by his absolutely adorable expression?!  He summed up how we were all feeling at this point :)

Black Eyed Peas Aren't Just For Eating...

Back in December I heard that the Black Eyed Peas were going to be coming to Washington, at the Tacoma Dome, for a concert.  I was overly excited and didn't waste anytime to get tickets.  I got a couple of our friends to get in on it too and in the end we had a great group of 6 going!

It seems like it's been forever since I bought those tickets, but this past Saturday we finally got to go!  Jason and I went with our friends Nick, Lindsey, Nichole and Makaela. 

Nick, Lindsey, me, Jason, Makaela and Nichole

Me and Jason

The girls...me, Nichole, Makaela, and Lindsey

The concert was AMAZING!!!  The only words I can think to describe it are UPBEAT, CRAZY, and SOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!  We all had a blast!  And how many concerts do you get to go to that have 3 great groups performing?!  We first got to see LMFAO (the craziest group I have seen, but outstanding music)!

Then Ludacris came out (hard to understand, but that's rap and I consider any rapper truly talented)!

And then finally the BLACK EYED PEAS!!  Fergie was hot and the singing was spot on!  Oh and I completely forgot to say that our seats couldn't have gotten much better (unless we were down on the floor that is)!

GREAT FRIENDS + OUTSTANDING ENTERTAINMENT

 = ONE AWESOME NIGHT!!

A mini Spring Break trip to Oregon

I have been on Spring Break the past week.  It was a little sad this year with nowhere to go and nothing really important to do.  I did get to spend some quality time with Coda and Rascal though, and that is always fun!!  Plus, getting to sleep in until 8:30 every morning was a real treat...thanks puppy and kitty!  Jason knew that the week was going to be slow for me, so he planned a little 2-nighter getaway to Oregon for us and Coda.  Needless to say, I was VERY excited to finally be getting out and doing something different.

Jason had planned out the entire weekend.  Lots of hiking, some visits to the beach on the Oregon coast, and some sightseeing.  It was going to be great!

We left Thursday after Jason got off work, which ended up being later than we thought.  We made a quick stop for dinner (turned out to be a little harder with a dog), which ended up being eaten in our car.

Coda's little dinner/bed setup

Such a good little car rider!

After dinner we hit the road and also rain.  We were just hoping that this wasn't a sign for how the rest of our trip would go.

We arrived at our first stop, Troutdale, Oregon (near Portland) for the night.  Coda was not so sure where he was and didn't really take to the hotel experience all that well.  After all the lights were out he finally settled down with us, but boy it took a while!  Did I mention the rain is still coming down at this point?

Friday morning arrives and we start off our day with a puking puppy (2 gigantic times all over the hotel floor to be exact) who didn't look so good.  By this time it is dumping buckets of rain and all of our fun hiking plans start flying out the window.  Did that completely stop us?  NOPE!  We still made an attempt at seeing Wahkeena Falls and Multnomah Falls.  We were SOAKED by the time we quickly saw both of those!

Jason and Coda at the bottom of Wahkeena Falls

Coda and I near the top of Wahkeena Falls

Multnomah Falls...and soaked!

After getting soaked, we dried off and loaded up in the car and headed to Portland.  Next stop...POWELL'S BOOKS!  I must have died and gone to Heaven in the Children's Book section!  Once we left the bookstore and some sunny weather in Portland, we headed off to see the Skinner family!  We had a wonderful, but quick visit with them.  Jefferson was again back in doggie Heaven.  He really liked that we let him walk Coda all the way to the park.  Thanks for the amazing lunch Kristina!  It was delicious!

Coda and Jefferson at the park

I did forget to mention that we had scare #1 while at the park with Coda, when a little kid (not Jefferson) let go of the leash and off Coda ran down the street with Jason running quickly behind.  The good news is...Jason was able to get Coda!

After the rain started to come down again, we left the Skinner's house and headed on our roadtrip to the Oregon coast.  Next stop, the Tillamook Cheese Factory!  The factory was sure busy with lots of cheese being processed and packaged.  So fun to watch!

Coda and I at the factory

Jason and I eating some Marionberry Pie ice cream

Once we left the factory, we were finally on our way to our next stop...the hotel on the coast!  We unloaded all of our stuff and hit the beach for the short time that it was not raining.  Now I didn't say it wasn't cold as heck and windy!!!  But boy did we have fun running around!

Family beach fun!

It finally started to rain again just as we were done at the beach.  We went back to our hotel room and sat inside watching movies and eating pizza while we watched it RAIN AND HAIL outside!!  We were beginning to see our hiking plans for day two fly out the window again!  The good news was...Coda adjusted to this hotel much faster and we even had our own little sliding glass door out back for potty breaks (for Coda, not us).

Coda watching the rain come down

Hail?  Isn't this supposed to be Spring Break?!

Yup...plans had to be changed because the hail and rain would just not stop!  We canceled our hikes in the Ecola State Park and decided to just stop whenever the weather wanted to be nice to us.  We drove through the cute city of Seaside and already decided this is a place we want to return to when it's sunny and nice out!  We then found a beach just North of Seaside that we could drive out on, so we stopped and played with Coda. 

Coda digging a hole in the sand

We drove out onto the beach...so cool!

Scare #2 happened at this beach.  Jason had Coda up in the back of the Highlander while he was cleaning him off.  Coda somehow wiggled his way out of Jason's hands and off he ran without a leash down the beach!  As I look behind me I see Jason running as fast as he could to catch him.  Coda was not turning back!  I get out the treat bag and call Coda and back he comes and sits for a treat!  Boy that puppy loves his freedom!!!

We finally left the beach, with puppy in tow, and headed on home.  Our last stop on the trip was the Astoria Column.  We climbed 164 stairs to get to the top and what an amazing view we had up there...until it started to rain AGAIN.  We had had our share of rain for one trip and were so ready to be home!

The view from the top

Me at the bottom of the Astoria Column

The lessons we learned from this trip are as follows:

• Be flexible!  The weather doesn't always work in your favor!
• Traveling with a dog is not as easy as you think it will be!
• Make the best of the situation you are given!