Dog Days of Summer

In addition to his first "pool" experience, Cooper had his first adventure in a mini-lake and in our pool in our back yard.

Testing out the water...



LOVING the lake...



So excited he could hardly contain himself...



Eyeballing some other lake-goers...



"I'm free!"




Check out these next three videos of his first experience in the water. Too hilarious for words!

Video #1

Video #2

Video #3

Here he is resting after a long Saturday morning run with his Mama!



So precious!!

Pool Party!

...Sorry to keep you guys hanging from the last post, but I didn't have time to upload all the pics from visit #3!

Visit #3

After Kelly's family left on Sunday afternoon, Cooper had a friend come over to play. Actually, we didn't stay at our house to play...we packed up the car and headed to the grandparents house of Cooper and his litter mate, Shiner. As you may recall, we got Cooper from Kelly's boss, Jan. I use to nanny for Jan when I was in high school and now Kelly works for her! (Small world, huh?!) Jan and her husband, Mark, lovingly refer to themselves as the grandparents of all the pups in the litter.

Anyways, Kelly and Shiner's dad, Braden, had tickets to the Ranger game, so I took the pups over to Jan's house for their first swimming experience in a pool. They had a wonderful time playing together and fetching the tennis ball when we threw it in the water. Be sure to scroll all the way down to see a video of Coop swimming.

Cooper and Shiner on the way to the pool...



Look at those tongues...



Mark with Cooper and Sadie (Sadie belongs to Mark's son, Cameron)



Cooper splashing his way through...



Hannah, Jan, and all the pups! (Sadie, Shiner, Abby, and Cooper)




Cooper taking a rest...




He's doing such a good job...

Smile, Shiner!

Abby and Cooper waiting for the tennis ball...

{Check out Mark's muscles!}

The O’Donnell Hotel

Visit #1

The weekend after we returned from Palm Springs we opened up the O’Donnell Hotel to friends and family! Our first visitors were the Fergusons. Michael, Virginia, and their almost two year old pup, Major, came to visit for the long Memorial Day weekend. This was the first time Cooper had a friend spend the night and boy did they wear each other out! They got in town late Friday night and we all stayed up way past our bed times catching up and watching the pups get acquainted with one another. Saturday morning we slept in and then headed to Wiggly Field, a dog park in Denton. (Cute name, huh?!) The pups had a blast running around and playing fetch in the little pond behind the park. (I didn’t get any pictures from the dog park on my camera, but will update when I get them from Virginia.) Saturday night we went to dinner at Hard Eights, a bar-b-que restaurant in Coppell, and then came home for some more relaxation. Sunday we went to church, ate a quick bite, and then it was time for Michael, Virginia, and Major to hit the road and head to Fort Worth to visit her family.

{Cooper waiting for his friend to arrive!}

{Wiggly Field and the pups after a long day of playing.

Major on the left and Cooper on the right.}

{Plum tuckered out!!}

We had a blast, Fergusons! Thanks for staying and we hope to see you again soon!

Visit #2

The next weekend we had our second set of visitors come stay at the “O Hotel.” This time, it was Kelly’s family. His mom Sarah, sister Mandy, brother in law Ray, nephews Aaron and RJ, and niece Megan came in town on Friday evening May 29. Or should I say early Saturday morning. They technically didn’t arrive until 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning! They were traveling all the way from Midland, TX and didn’t get on the road until late Friday night. When Kelly and I woke up Saturday morning, we were pleasantly surprised to find our house filled with family. Cooper was so overjoyed with excitement that he leaped onto the couch and planted his left paw in Ray’s coffee, causing the entire cup to spill on the couch and all over the carpet. Thankfully, Kelly’s mom brought a handy steam vac with her and we were able to get the stains up with no problem!!

Saturday afternoon, we all loaded up in the car and headed to Kelly’s uncle’s house in Valley View, TX for a family reunion. His uncle lives on a farm/ranch with lots of land, two horses, a 4-wheeler! Even Cooper got to come along for the ride. We had a great time catching up with Kelly’s extended family and apparently Cooper did too! On two separate occasions, Cooper busted through his leash and ran into the horse pin, jumping right into the horses drinking pond. He rolled around in the dirt (which we later found out was mixed with horse manure) and then played chase with Kelly while he tried to wrangle him back out of the horse pin. What a nightmare! But we were thankful he was able to come with us just the same! Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures of Cooper and his antics! On Sunday we ate breakfast and then it was time for the gang to hit the road! But that wasn’t the end of our weekend…

On the road again…

Exactly one week after returning from Vegas, I hit the friendly skies again—but this time it was with Kelly and my family. We headed to Palm Springs for 5 days of sun-filled bliss!

This was my parents and brother’s first time to use my flight benefits and they were so excited to travel “Employee style.” We headed out after work on Wednesday May 13 for what turned out to be a LONG day of travel. The first leg of our trip was from Dallas to Phoenix (with a quick stop in El Paso.) We switched planes in Phoenix and headed on to Orange County. We landed in Orange County at 10:00 p.m. California time (which was 12:00 p.m. Dallas time!) We were exhausted, but no stopping here…we still had to get the rental car and drive 2.5 hours to Palm Springs!! Fortunately, I didn’t have to drive so I slept most of the way to the condo. Even though it was a long haul to our final destination, we were so thankful we traveled during the night and were able to wake up in sunny California on Thursday morning.

We spent the majority of our days being lazy, laying out by the pool, golfing, shopping, going to the movies, and eating, eating, eating! Mom and I did manage to walk almost 3 miles every morning and we even did the Shred DVD two of the days we were there! We stayed at a condo at the Arnold Palmer Private Residence on the 7th hole of the course. Every morning we would go out and drink our coffee on the porch and watch the golfers start their first rounds of golf. What a way to relax!

On Friday we headed to LA! Our first stop was The Castaway Restaurant in Burbank. This was my brother’s suggestion because he saw The Castaway featured on the travel channel a few weeks before our trip. They had amazing food and the best views of downtown LA. It was such a quiet and quaint place in such a busy and loud city! Our next stop was the Getty Museum in Malibu, CA. Mom read up on this hot spot and thought it would be a great place to visit. We loved touring the museum and soaking in this Malibu oasis. Before heading back to Palm Springs, we thought we’d try and spot a few celebs heading to the beach so we snooped around and found a local market where celebs have been known to drop by every once in a while. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any one famous while we were there…oh well!

All in all we had a great trip and it was so nice to get away and relax at such a beautiful resort! Too bad we can visit the Arnold Palmer every weekend!

It’s here! It’s here!

Look what I found on my porch last Wednesday when I got home from work…



It came! Just like they said it would (on the second try, but still, it came!!) And you better believe I wasted no time at all in testing this bad boy out on Cooper! After several minutes of playing keep away, I was finally able to use it and experience first hand its magnificence!

However, I was only able to do about half of Cooper’s coat before the nasty tornado storm hit. What a nightmare I tell ya! I got home and immediately headed outside to use the FURMinator and not 5 minutes later the storm clouds were almost over our heads. We headed inside and almost immediately the power went off. I tried calling Kelly a billion times but my phone didn’t have any service. Of course, I began to panic as the winds got stronger and the rain fell harder. I kept trying to get a hold of somebody, ANYbody, but the silly phone wouldn’t work. I tried to calm myself down, but that didn’t work. All Cooper wanted to do was play and all I wanted to do was find Kelly. I heard some voices coming from across the street and when I went to look out the window, I heard our neighbor say, “Look, that house is on FIRE.”

PANIC! “Great,” I thought. “Where the in the world is Kelly?!”

I had no idea what to do if a fire was close to our house. I just remember my Dad getting on the roof when we were little and wetting down the shingles with a water hose. But it was raining outside, so I didn’t need to do that. So, I thought I’d at least go outside to see how far away the fire was. Good idea at the time, right?

Wrong.

The minute I opened the door to go outside, Cooper took off down the street…in the pouring down rain. So, I took off after him…in the pouring down rain. He didn’t have on a collar (we’ve been doing some training with him using a different collar and we was in between collars for the moment) so it wasn’t like I could put on a leash even if I did catch him. And before I knew it, he was running into our neighbor’s house (you know, the one that said there was a fire) and I could hardly catch up with him. They were able to hold him for me while I picked him up and headed back home.

And thanks for the false alarm guy. There was no fire after all!

After a long night of using flashlights, candles, taking showers to cool down, and sleeping with the covers off, we finally got our power back on around 11:30 p.m.

Oh what a night!

Where there’s a will there’s a way…

Ok so have you all read my rant from last week? Well, I have to let you know that my little run-in at the Highland Park Village Banana Republic didn’t stop this shop-a-holic!

“No” was NOT the answer I was looking for, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. After my temporary defeat on Wednesday, I went home and ironed my pants to make them look brand new. I scrounged around and found my receipt and placed the pants, my receipt, the tags, AND buttons in a fancy looking shopping bag and headed out to another Banana Republic.

{Rewind} When I tried to return my pants before, they were somewhat wrinkled in the front and I didn’t have my receipt with me (even though they could look my transaction up on my Banana card.)

So this time I’d done it all right. And apparently the sales associate at the Willow Bend store thought so as well. In no time at all she returned the pants, NO QUESTIONS ASKED!

So there, Banana. Take that.