Summer has begun!

Hey all - 

Hope you are all well and enjoying lovely weather. Summer has officially started here and we're doing our best to enjoy every minute.

Eddie is having a blast!

Man, does this dog love to swim.

And doesn't the pool water look nice?  Here he is admiring the view (check out Eva on the other side).

And here's Glenn with their undivided attention...

Eddie still thinks he's a lap dog.

One of our friends commented on this pic, "You're gonna need a bigger lap!"

Ok, so I have a ton more Eddie pics, but I'll spread them out a bit. So last week we found out that our house is actually at the end of the rainbow.

If you look closely, you'll see it's actually a double rainbow.

We have so much natural beauty down here - Glenn made me this arrangement from clippings from one of our bushes outside.

We also recently had my office floor redone - it was previously moldy gross carpet, so we had it replaced with the same wood-look tile we have throughout the main area of the house. So much nicer!

In other news, we've now returned to eating out on the weekends. Here's us on one of our first nights out at Parts of Paris.

And here we are in front of the famous dog (and cat) mural in Dunedin. The sign, which you can't fully read here, says "Welcome to Dogedin."

Our other big project we had done after the office was having the entire exterior of the house painted. It desperately needed it but it was kinda a pain - we were pretty much trapped inside for three days as everything was taped over and tarped. We couldn't even look out the windows or let the dogs out, unless we leashed them up and took them through the garage door. But it turned out really nice.

If you look back at the rainbow pics for comparison, you'll see the yellow is more vibrant and everything looks cleaner. 

Oh, hello!

Whatcha doin'?

Here are some pics from Glenn's morning bike rides.

Catching some rays

And I even got a shot of an elusive Florida kangaroo.

Kidding! That's actually this guy...

On Sunday, we took Eddie to a dog trainer in the morning and he was the only one in what was supposed to be a group class. So, essentially, we got ourselves a personal dog trainer. She was excellent with him and encouraged us to take him out more to dog parks, stores that allow dogs, and other places to expose him to lots of people, other dogs and settings. (She also taught him how to do puppy pushups and "Relax").

So Sunday afternoon we took the dogs to John Chestnut park, which has a nice dog park. Despite being a little nervous at first, Eddie did great. He played with all the other dogs and was very friendly and polite (to their owners too!) Eva was being antisocial, but it was fine.

Dirt mouth

Glenn is the Dog King

We also had a herd of deer show up right across the road from the dog park. 

And there were three giant woodpeckers hanging out there too!

All three are in this pic. Bonus points if you find them all.

Skipping back to Saturday night, we had a date night at St. Pete Beach. We had planned to take a sunset cruise, but the boat company canceled on us due to an insurance issue on their end. So, we went to dinner at a nice restaurant called Castile, and then went to an old place in Pass-a-Grille Beach called the Hurricane which has an awesome view from their rooftop.

As the sun went down, we went down to the beach to be closer to the action.

Yeah, that's a lot, but it's been a while. :-)

And just for tradition's sake, I'll end this post with a pic of a sleeping puppy.

Love you guys!

Re-entering society (but not too much)

Hi Everyone - 

Sorry it's been a while. Business has been great which is keeping me too busy to blog (if I'm not getting paid for it. :-) But here I am.

Glenn and I are both fully vaccinated now so we've gone out a few times to eat at restaurants with outdoor seating. Here we are on our first big night out at Caretta's on the Gulf - an awesome restaurant on Clearwater Beach.

After we went down to sit by the fire pit and listen to music and get blasted by sand.

And here's a pic from another night when we got pizza at Nona's.

We also got some new things for around our lanai. We got new lanterns and flowers.

A new plant stand.

And new lights around - and in - the pool. (Long story, replacing the lightbulb in the pool triggered a series of unfortunate events which ended up costing $1,500. Still, it looks darn nice!)

Ok, so you want some puppy pics? Fine.

Just kidding! Although Eddie may be part gator. He loves to swim and bite things.

What?! I'm totally sweet and innocent!

So when we want to eat undisturbed, we typically put the dogs on the other side of the door from us.

And I took these pictures while I was "at work" the other day. You can tell Eva takes her job very seriously.

Eddie, not so much!

I haz a ball.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

Eddie loves to swim and it's a great way for us to wear him out, so we've been letting him swim every night. 

Here he is with his new sea turtle.

So here are a couple cute videos. 

Warning: In this one, he is skinny dipping!

In other news, we bought a new couch - which is white - but so far it has been holding up pretty well, and I really like it. It was a saga getting it in here and assembled (it came in 26 boxes and we had to hire a guy to put it together which was the smartest thing we ever did).

Anyway, here it is when we first got it in.

Here it is with Eddie posing like a supermodel.

And here it is with some throw pillows that we bring out for company.

It's very comfortable!

Our friends Chad and Lisha just took a trip to Iceland and texted us this picture. (Yes, there is a volcano erupting behind them.)

I told them, this makes me feel like the most boring person in the world. Here are Chad and Lisha starring in the next James Bond film and I am putting a chicken and broccoli casserole in the oven. Sigh!

But, in VERY EXCITING NEWS - today, for the first time in 15 months, I went to the hair salon. It took 4 hours but I went from this:

To this:

I feel 10 lbs lighter and 10 years younger! Whew!

Anyway, that's all we got for now. Hope you all are well. Love you!