Ash is adjusting well and seems happy!

The past couple of months I have been traveling more, and because David also travels during the week Ash needed to spend some time with family. It was heartbreaking for me to leave him behind, but as is clear in this picture he is too big to travel in the cabin with me:

When we bought his crate they also gave us a travel bag and a dog bed - he clearly doesn't fit in this travel bag, and needless to say, he absolutely hated it.

The first time I was gone he spent one week with my mom, the weekend with David at home, and then the second week with David's mom. This past time he has spent the whole two weeks with my mom. Luckily for us, Ash LOVES being with Coal, and Coal loves being with Ash. This means that, while I know how happy he is to be back at home with me and David going about his normal routine, he doesn't seem to mind being with my mom  because it means playtime with his brother (and he quite enjoys snuggling with her and Tommy). He also loves David's mom and both of our sisters, so spending time with them is also a treat for him. The weekend I was in London he drove to VT with my dad - happily co-piloting the whole way! My dad isn't really a dog person, but since he was getting home so late he offered to let Ash sleep with him and then go to my mom's house in the morning. I was shocked that Dad offered, but very happy! Ash had met my dad before and seemed comfortable enough with him, and Dad said things went fine, Ash slept curled up on his bed all night and even put his paws on his shoulder once to say hi and see what was going on.

We have actually found that the more Ash spends time with other people and then comes home, the better adjusted he seems to be. We are hoping this means he is finally feeling more confident that David and I are taking care of him in life, and that he has a forever home. He certainly loves to be at home with us - anytime we walk in the door he bounds about super excitedly! He is following me around less at home, and will stay sleeping or playing when people walk by or if I move to another room. Previously, he tagged along everywhere like my shadow. He is much less jumpy, and seems to be more independent - a transition we are very excited to see! I've recently started playing hide and seek with him, which is an absolute blast. I'll run around the house and hide behind doors or in corners, and I can hear his nails clicking on our wood floors as we wanders around looking for me. When I know he is close I jump out and yell "boo!" and he bounds about the house letting me chase him and chasing me back. We also took Ash and Coal to one of the Somerville dog parks for the first time the other day. Coal wasn't as good with the bigger dogs (liked to bark at them) but Ash got along pretty well. It was clear he was a little bit nervous, but he was still interested in what was going on and went around sniffing all of the other dogs :)

I've posted a bunch of pictures and a couple of videos below, with captions. Enjoy!! He's an awesome little guy, and we can't imagine life without him.

He quite likes the snoopy bed David's grandfather got him, particularly when it's located close to one of us! 

He often sleeps on his back

He has learned to enjoy peanut butter from his kong

We have been working on a "haircut" we like, and in this picture I trimmed his face and ears myself to get it right. He looks so cute! 

This is one of our most favorite pictures. Every time he is left alone in the house, he rearranges our shoes and laundry. Then, each time we get back, he is SO happy to see us (look at his face and tail!!). This picture was taken just as I walked in the door one time. I can't help but laugh when I imagine him carrying one of David's large hiking boots around. 

I also love this picture. He has become very tolerant to us holding him, and he'll fall asleep in our arms. Here, he is on his back in the crook of my elbow and he was snoring. 

The yard is one of his most favorite places to be.

Sometimes while I'm working he likes to sleep in my lap or on my shoulder. It makes typing a challenge! 

He loves looking out the window even more now that its warmer. I made his perch a bit more comfortable in this photo.

An adorable picture of Coal on the way to the dog park.

The dog park was very dusty, so we gave both of them a bath when we got home. They look so cute together! 

 

Coal was a bit more worried about having a bath in a strange place.

He usually loves to chase after this green toy, but today he was more interested in why I had the camera out. 

I tried to capture a video of him doing some of his tricks, but it wasn't as successful as I hoped. He normally does wave much better, but I because I had the camera in one hand I was waving with the "wrong" hand and so it took him awhile to catch on. 

Engagement!

On the night of Friday, March 23 David walked in from the airport (he'd been finishing up in London) and, as is his usual routine, said an excited hello to Ash and then to me. I had just gotten back from climbing and dinner with one of my climbing friends, and I had heard some great news from one of my other good friends, so I jumped right in telling him all about the exciting things I had done and heard that night. When I slowed down for a bit David asked me to stand up so he could give me a hug hello, and so I did. I think I then continued to ramble on for a few sentences and then he said "Caroline, I love you. And I have no doubt that I want to spend the rest of my life with you." I was thinking man, this sounds serious, but even at that point I didn't really guess what was going on. Right after he said that though he quickly knelt down and at warp speed said "Caroline will you marry me?" and THEN I was very surprised and I looked at the ring and said "WHAT?!!! YES!" It turns out that he has been working on the ring since the middle of February, and he decided in London to propose when he got home so he had his friend Matt help out and pick up the ring for him, and then hand off the ring to David while picking him up at the airport. Sneaky! The ring is absolutely gorgeous - David walked me through the whole process of what he was looking for, what options were shown to him, and ultimately how he designed the ring himself at a small jewelry store in Boston. To me, it's perfect! 

More pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/111337432367013111703/albums/5723467708745491633?authkey=CIGcvtLNuOXd0wE

The funniest part of it all is that last week I was out walking Ash and decided to give Dad a call on his cell phone. While we were talking his office phone rang and I heard him say "Hey! How are ya? Man that came through as a strange number. I'm talking to Caroline! Do you want to talk to Caroline?" then to me he said "Caroline, I gotta take this call, I'll call you back." I continued on my walk trying to imagine who would have gotten that type of hello, been interested in the fact he was talking to me, AND potentially want to talk to me. Considering Dad said the number looked strange I started to think it might have been David, who was in London. Then I thought, wow, there is really only one reason I can imagine David would call my dad and my dad wouldn't tell me who it was... though I also didn't think David had plans to talk to my Dad before proposing. It was all very perplexing, and when Dad called back I asked him who it was and he changed the subject, so I asked again and he said "David from rotary" and I thought "why would he want to talk to me..." then Dad changed the subject again so I dropped it, but that just added to the suspicious-ness of the whole thing! I don't blame Dad's answer though, because I think based on what I heard when he answered the phone it wouldn't have mattered what he said, I still would have suspected David. It was just very coincidental that David and I both called Dad at the same time of day! I felt guilty that I might know David called my dad because David has been so focused on having the proposal catch me by surprise, so I emailed David and told him I thought it was him to give him a chance to change his plans if he wanted to. He said it wasn't him, and I decided to try to forget about it (I didn't really believe David either, but he introduced sufficient doubt in my deduction). Anyway, the funny part is that even with all of this knowledge I was still incredibly caught off guard and surprised when David proposed Friday night! I asked David about it after he proposed and he said that he called more to inform my dad, especially because he thought based on when my dad went to bed he might be the last to find out. In the end David proposed pretty late at night and none of my family found out until the morning, but it was nice that David thought of my dad. 

We spent most of Saturday morning calling/emailing friends and family, and it was a fun and exciting day to say the least. Since then we have spent some time picking a date and looking at venues. We are planning for the fall of 2013, and looking to have it near Burke, VT. We have some appointments to see a few different venues next weekend, and we are excited by all of our options!! It is good that we decided to start a few steps of the planning process early as Fall dates in VT are very popular - there are already several weekends that have been taken for 2013! It will be an exciting 1.5 years with my graduation and our wedding!