A Special Saturday

So as some people know Travis and I spent a great day yesterday with our new addition, officially named Kaiser Maximilian Power. We picked him up from the kennel and treated him to an outing at PetSmart. He was a very well behaved dog, and he got some special treats and a new bone to chew on. As you can see from the pictures he is about maxed out size wise for the car but loves to stick his head out the windows, going back and forth and then coming up and sticking his head between Trav and I. It was adorable.

After PetSmart we headed over to another meet and greet to meet some other Weim owners and group members and see some of the other dogs up for adoption. Kaiser (Joey) is such a well behaved guy. His only real downfall is that when he gets too excited he is a major jumper, and he can jump high and then at the same time try and give you a hug. It is cute but hilarious and not good. So that is number one on our list of things to change.

There was a nice little park by the meet and greet that we explored with Kaiser to see how he does on leash and with people around and other dogs. To our joy, he did great. He already heels really well, doesn't bark and is all about being with us. After the meet and greet we went to the dog park we were at last weekend and ran into another gal who fosters Weims. We let him play and it is interesting, he went and ran around once, but he didn't ever really leave us, he pretty much stayed close to us the entire time.

Sadly around 2:15pm we took him back to the kennel and he DID NOT want to go back there. He stayed with us until finally we had to walk back behind the gate so the people could grab him and take him back. He is such a great dog we can not wait till Friday to pick him up!

The rest of the day we went to downtown Denver, to explore Oktoberfest, it was bad and then went to the Rockies game. We had amazing seats, 13 rows behind home plate and this game was really fun! Lots of hits, foul balls and some fans unfortunately got hit when a stray bat flew out of a Diamondback's hands and landed in the crowd. Luckily no one got injured. We got rained on a bit but all in the game was fun.

Now we are off to pack and get ready to close on our house Thursday! Woo Hoo hope this week flies by!

Travis' 27th Birthday

Hey everyone, I had a birthday! This first set of pics is from over the weekend when we went to the Janz's house for a BBQ. Seth, Sean and myself all had birthdays within a week of each other and so we decided to get together and celebrate them all. Karmel hand pressed and formed burgers for us and Seth grilled them up. Pam made a cake and we brought that over a long with presents for Seth and Sean. Pics courtesy of Karmel.

Once Sean arrived we got to open the presents. We had gotten them nerf guns, with deflector shields and protective eyeware. They were pretty fun to play with. You know how it is...give some men a chance to compete against each other and we're good to go for a few hours. Suprisingly enough, nobody ever took a shot at the dog. :)

Yesterday was my actual birthday, day. If you dont' know me, I like to keep a low profile and not do anything big for my birthday. Because of this, nobody at work knew it was my birthday and I simply just went about my business like it was any other day. I got a few funny e-cards from friends and that was good enough for me. :)

After work we had our first pre-marital counseling session and it turns out we're a better couple than we thought. Pam and I had a good time joking around about our differences a bit, and Jon gave us a few things to work on these next two weeks as homework.

With the session over we then headed out to Shanghai Gardens for dinner! Nothing fancy about this place, just good inexpensive Chinese food. I can't remember the last time I had Chinese food. It doesn't really fit into our diets recently and so thats why I picked it for my birthday dinner! I got mongolian beef, and it was really good. Unfortunately, Pam and I just can't eat that much anymore, and we brought half of what we ordered home!



Back at home it was present time. Thank you everyone for sending me presents! As much as I don't really show my excitement, I always look forward to getting cards and presents. I think I'm sort of a hard person to buy for, and I like seeing what people can come up with. :) I got some good ole cash from the Proctors, a gift card to home depot from Dad that looks like I need to hang on to and return to him at Christmas, a picture of the Family minus me (great clear pic by the way what kind of camera did you use? :p) and 9 Seasons of "King of Queens" show from Caris, a few doggie things and a gift card to PetSmart from Pam, and the dog of course which we'll get next week, and another gift card and a nice leather journal from Mom. All in all a pretty good mix!

We finished the night watching a few episodes from the first season of King of Queens that I'd actually never seen. I also had a big BIG piece of cake and some ice cream. :) Thank you all very much for everything! Now I'm in the tweener stage where I'm definitely not a young mid-twenties person but the oldness of 30 is still a few years away.

Dog Names

So...the picture doesn't do Joey justice. The dog is very well built, and seems to be very happy. He was a little ADD at the dog park but I think it was because he's been in boarding and is still young. So he had some steam to burn off. I think he only ran around a few times while we were there, but most of his time was spent being the group socialite.

He has learned that typically if he touches his nose to a persons hand they will respond by petting him. Basically he passed the time going from person to person and asking for pets! He also wanted to make sure to sniff and greet every new dog and person that came into the dog park through the gate.

Anyways, his name is Joey right now but we're interested in changing it. Say his name and when he turns to look at you, give a treat. I don't think it will be that hard to get him used to a new name. I like picking somewhat unique and meaningful names. The dog is German, and was bred for a king name Weimar, or Weimer...something like that. He was bred for the nobles who were in need of a hunting dog and nobody outside of that class distinction was allowed to own one of the dogs. Thats how superb they used to be held. So Pam and I have narrowed our search down to three names. Let us know by completing the poll what you think and help us pick!

Kaiser - German for King/Emporer ie: Kaiser Wilhelm, King William

Johann - Interesting is that traditionally the first name of a German refers to a Saint and the second name (which we call the middle name) is actually what the person typically goes by. So Johann Sebastian Bach was known by his friends and family as Sebastian, not Johann. If a family had 3 boys the first name was likely to all be Johann because of naming after the saint, but the boys would all go by their second "secular" name. Additionally, you've got the famous intellectual, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but naming the dog Johann wouldn't really be naming it after this guy either, since Johann is not necessarily what Wolfgang Goethe goes by.

In any case, Johann has Hebrew meaning of "God is Gracious" or "God's gracious gift". Thats good enough for me. :)

Maximus/Maximilian - Max for short
We all know Maximus from the great move "Gladiator". It is a powerful name which means "Greatest". Its German counterpart is Maximilian, which certainly doesn't roll off the tounge as easy as Maximus. Either way though, we'd probably call the dog by the name Max, short and sweet. The name was popular among the royal house of Bavaria. Plus there is the added coolness factor that our name tag could read Max Power. :)

So vote, and let us know!

 What should we name our dog?

• 
  
  Maximus/Maximilian (Max for short)


• 
  
  Johann


• 
  
  Kaiser

view results
Free vote poll

Our new addition

So this last weekend, besides watching pretty much every sport that is in season right now, Trav and I have decided to adopt, adopt a dog! On Saturday morning we headed to a dog park out west of downtown Denver to go check out some Weimaraners that were in need of adopting. We met about six dogs who were all wonderful and each one individually pulled out our heart strings. We fell in love with two great dogs, Max and Joey. Max is about three years old and is currently living in a great foster home and putting weight on, he is a very thin guy due to stress issues from being in a kennel too long. Joey, is a year and a half old and just getting beyond the puppy energy. He is a beautiful dog, needs a family and will be a great running buddy. When we left we told the people we would be in touch, however we forgot to get a phone number!

Once home, we searched for emails or number and finally contact someone who then put us in touch with the correct gal. We spoke on the phone and we decided it would be best for us and the dog if we brought the dog home next week, after we move into our new home. :) So as of September 26, we will have a new addition, Joey. :)

So meet Joey:

Campin

We went campin this weekend and these were the few pics we managed to take. They are mostly taken at about 12,500 ft. The air was thin, and after a while up there I started to feel like I was getting a slight headache. Driving up the small two lane road was a bit tight in spots, and although the views were absolutely amazing, I'm not sure you would have made it Sandi! We also discovered that Pam is getting to be more and more scared of the dark!



We drove up Ute Creek road outside of Idaho springs. There were tons of mining claims up in that area and Idaho Springs is supposedly where it all started. The area was also around Mt Evans, where a few of the pics are from. We didn't get any pics from 14,000 ft because the battery went dead too quick!!

We camped just up a dirt road. We found out that it was actually a private mining claim and the arapahoe national forest was mixed in with all this private land. Lucky for us though (because we had the camp all setup already) the land had been reposessed. So from then on we decided to just pretend like we just purchased the land.

The people we went with were pretty cool. Seth and karmel were one couple and we've spent a lot of time with them already. The other couple we just met. They are Randy and Linsey. They were older than us, but nice and fun also. Linsey is from Eugene, OR so that was cool to meet someone from our old stomping grounds...or at least close enough to know what we are saying when we're talking about Oregon rain!

Up on Mt Evans, we saw a herd of either elk or antelope. Some mountain sheep, and a Doe and its Bambi. When we were hiking a day earlier we also saw a deer and it let us get pretty close up before darting off! The mountain sheep were cool though because we've never seen one before. They are very furry!