Ollie's First Birthday

My fur baby is officially one year old! His birthday was yesterday, May 24th. I cannot believe how fast he's grown up and how much I absolutely adore my not so little guy. He has made both J and my life complete and we couldn't imagine our life without him in it.

In his honor I thought I'd share some of my favorite pictures of him with you again. You may have seen some of these throughout my blog but here they are all together.

My first picture with my babe

He has grown up into such a good, handsome, smart boy and I'm so proud to call him mine. Unfortunately, given the schedule of my sisters graduation, I couldn't actually be with my baby on his big day. I knew I'd be back home in CO so last week I made him some homemade dog treats to show him how much I love him. I told J to give them to him on his birthday and share them with his other fur friends at the park.

If anyone is interested in the recipe for these treats let me know and I'll do a post with it soon.

Don't you just love your fur babies?

Turn Your Tassels Right To Left

Graduation weekend was such a success!

Everything went off perfectly... our gowns were ironed, our diplomas were handed out, the ceremony was only a little bit too long, the party after was a big hit and we got to spend quality time with our families. There are plenty of other pictures that didn't make the cut and others that I haven't gotten from other family members yet but here's a little peak into our amazing celebration weekend.

(Click to enlarge pictures)

I couldn't be more amazed that the last four years are over already, more proud of everything J and I have accomplished, and more excited to be moving on to the next stage of my life (even if I don't know what it holds yet.)

The Time Has Come

Today was my last final of my last semester of my last year at SDSU! I cannot believe the day has come. Walking past the dorms this afternoon and seeing all the freshmen (now sophomores) moving out with their parents made me kind of nostalgic. It's still supposed to be me moving out of the dorms after freshman year. Heck, it's still supposed to be me graduating from high school but instead it's my little sister. These past four years have flown by and in celebration of the end of an era, I spent the rest of the day having some fun!

I got my nails done with one of my best friends in San Diego. PS- If you haven't heard of gel nails you must look into it. They don't ruin your natural nails like acrylics but won't chip like regular manicures.

The trip to the nail salon also included a pedicure to match my graduation dress.

You'll be seeing more pictures soon of the full dress soon but here's a close up for color purposes.

While we were out, I stopped by the grocery store and ordered cupcakes for our graduation party (complete with red sprinkles for school spirit) and we stopped for lunch and a pitcher of beer. And to top it all off, our lunch was paid for by the random money that was rolling on the ground as we were walking. I love anything that's free!

I came home and added J's Master's hood and my completed set of chords to our gowns hanging in the doorway.

I can't believe we are both graduating tomorrow and I'm so proud of all the accomplishments we've had along the way.

The rest of my day includes a power nap, dinner with my amazing BF and a trip to the airport to pick up family. I cannot wait for the rest of the weekend either. Quality time with both of our families, the actual commencement ceremony, lots of graduation celebrations, and hopefully some amazing San Diego weather. Then it's a quick flight and I'll be back home for a week to celebrate another important graduation next week.

Here's to all the grads around blog land. Congrats!

A Quick Pup-date Update

Since I am busy studying for finals, getting ready for graduation and company coming this weekend along with cleaning the apartment, baking homemade dog treats for Ollie's birthday and about 100 other things, I thought I'd share this with you.

I took this while Ollie and I were on our most recent hike, while he was still enjoying the thought of walking. I always make sure to hydrate myself and my pup when we're out and about and him learning this makes it that much easier.

Thirsty Dog from Simple Sweet Life on Vimeo.

For those of you wondering, his blisters and feet are healing up fabulously. The nasty flaps of skin have fallen off, he doesn't limp anymore and the new callous is starting to form. He does have one spot that keeps being red (but we never actually see it bleeding) and it's pretty sensitive still but he is 100x better than he was last Friday. Thank you all for your kind words about my little guy.

Happy Tuesday from a rainy San Diego

Hike Turned Injury

Do you remember the last time that O-dog (as J has started calling him lately) and I went on a hike? Well we decided to go back this past Thursday. It was my first day off, now that classes have ended and it was a gorgeous day outside again.

This time though I decided that we'd make it to the top. He's been building up his endurance at the dog park lately, we weren't pressed for time at all and I figured, "why not?"

He loved every minute of it and was running up those hills like a champ. He sported his classic pant with his extra-large tongue and even learned to drink out of my Camel-back.

Once at the top, 1.5 miles of trail and ~1600 feet in elevation, we enjoyed the 360 degree views...

and I even shared my banana (his favorite) with my happy pup.

We spent a good 20 minutes at the top. It was a gorgeous day and definitely a nice place to relax.

We were both pretty tired after our trek down the mountain and I assumed we'd both have some tired and sore muscles. I let him rest for a good bit while I showered and had lunch before I went and volunteered. He limped a little bit when I took him out before I left but I didn't think anything was really wrong. He did hike farther than he'd ever gone and I thought I checked him out pretty good.

Welp, I was wrong....

Turns out my little pup got blisters on the pads of his feet from our hiking adventure. My heart breaks for him.

Just like the blisters we get, there were flaps of skin and lots of tenderness. His limp got worse over the course of the night so with some Googling we decided it was best to start handling the situation. I cleaned his feet in soapy water, wrapped them with gauze and covered them in socks. (Hospital socks so he didn't slip, obviously.)

My poor baby. :-(

Even though everything I read online said that they will heal on their own with time, we decided a trip to the vet the next morning was our best bet. The doc assured us that his feet were by no means the worst that she's seen, told us time heals all, gave us some cleaner, antibiotic gel and some pain meds and set us home with our limping pup.

He is already getting much better, isn't acting so depressed and has even started doing his classic gallop down the hallway. He's not nearly in the clear yet; we're supposed to keep him out of the dirt and at low activity for a week but I'm so happy improvements are being made.

We do put socks on him when we're not home, just to keep him from not licking and even though it's sad he's hurt, I can't help but think how cute he looks in Daddy's dress socks.

Here's to a happy Saturday and a quick recovery!