Back to Chicago

Look mom...I helped!

Bill's parent's new backyard!

This weekend found us back in Chicago for Memorial Day and to celebrate Bill's grandma's birthday. It was another beautiful weekend that allowed us to be outside planting, playing, and enjoying the long weekend. Emmy has been loving our trips to Chicago because of having a yard to play in...and lots of people around to give her lots of love. There was a lot to keep us busy and Emmy certainly tried to help! Saturday we spent a lot of time planting flowers, the Bill's parents had a part of their yard landscaped with trees and new sod. Of course it needs to be watered too...so Emmy decided to help Bill's dad. Well...help may not necessarily be the word. She decided to be like the grass and get watered too! Silly pup! I'm sure she enjoyed it though being it was a warm weekend in Chicago.

Now we're back home and Emmy seems to be pretty exhausted still this morning so I'm sure she'll sleep well. Her incision from surgery is healing very well and she is finally back to full activity now...yay! By the time the weekend rolled around she was mighty anxious to run around and play!

Emmy recovering from surgery

Emmy & Amy snuggling/sleeping

Can't....keep.......eyes..........open..............

Thanks to those of you who have posted, emailed or called to check in on Emmy. For those that missed last post, Emmy got "fixed" Monday morning. Her surgery yesterday went well and she was able to come home in the late afternoon that same day. She of course was VERY groggy and we could tell she was pretty sore. She slept most of the evening except to eat a small dinner, which was good to see. Today she has more energy but is still pretty tired of course and you can tell she is restricting some of her movements to not make her incision hurt more. She is on a pain medication but only until tomorrow and her physical activity has been restricted until next week just to make sure she has time to heal. Thanks for all your "get well wishes".

Chicago- family, fun, and emergency vet visits

Hanging out with the family at Bobby's birthday party.

Watching the guys play bean bags

Exhausted from a late night Friday

An entire lawn full of plush green grass...and she sleeps on the hard patio!

Another one of Emmy's usual "glamor shots"!

Tummy time! (below)

Exhausted from the weekend...boy does she look excited for what lies ahead today at the vet.

This weekend we went to Chicago to spend some time with Bill's family. Emmy and I headed out on Friday and met Bill, who was already there. We had great weather on Friday and Saturday, which Emmy loved because we were able to be outside a lot more. We brought Emmy's tie out and were able to hang out a lot in the backyard playing and relaxing. Friday night however, brought some issues as Emmy found a mushroon in the yard where an old tree stump is hidden underground. She got a piece of the mushroom apparently (Bill caught her in the area and rushed her away, but she must have snuck a piece of it without him seeing) which made her sick. We assumed mushrooms weren't good for dogs, but didn't realize the sickness they could cause until we looked online. In the process, Emmy vomited 3 time within 30 min. We of course were very concerned and didn't know how much mushroom she had injested, so we took her to an emergency vet close to Bill's parent's house. By the time we got there, Emmy was feeling better and we assume she had gotten it all out of her system. But, to be safe the vet gave her some activated charcoal to make sure that all the toxins were out of her body. She is now doing great...in fact she bounced back full swing the next day! We were definitely very scared Friday night though.

The rest of the weekend we spent still out in the yard (complete mushroom checks were done on the yard first) enjoying the sun. Saturday we also had a birthday party for Bill's brother Bob, so there was a bunch of family over in the afternoon. Emmy certainly loved the attention! We played lots of fetch and ran around with everyone. On Sunday afternoon we headed back to Michigan to recuperate from the long weekend- Emmy was exhausted!

Today Emmy is off to PAWS to get "fixed". We dropped her off this morning and will pick her up later this afternoon. We're assuming she'll be pretty sleepy and lethargic for the next few days because of that now!

Tulip-ed out!

Earlier that Day we met Jim & Trudi VanderPloeg and their PAWS Foster Puppies- Griffin (left) and Aspen (right)

Hanging out at the parade - (from left to right) Amy's mom, Emmy (nose is the only thing visible), Amy, and Amy's grandma

Getting comfortable!

Watching the parade go by

Waiting for more ice cubes from Amy's mom
Standing up as flag passes by

*PHEW!* Parade is over...let's go HOME!

We concluded our Tulip Time Festivities with Amy's parents this weekend. Saturday we attended the Meijer Musikparade...basically a 2 hour long parade with over 50 bands, and equal numbers of floats and such. We brought Emmy and she did SO WELL! We were a little hesitant as to how it would all go as the first car of the parade was a police car and motorcycle who kept blasting their horns. Emmy was not a fan at all. Once that got by, she settled in between Amy and Amy's mom for most of the rest of the parade. She kept munching on treats, carrots, and ice cubes most of the time...and was happy as a clam. The only thing that caused her to get up was the drums from each passing band...but Emmy never barked...only sat up and looked with a very curious look. She also did very well with the crowds! After about an hour and a half, she needed a break, so we slipped away from the family to let her "break" and get some fresh air. When we got back to the parade, she finished in style and didn't let all the people climbing over her (seriously people...dog in cape= walk around!) bother her at all. We were so proud! When we returned home she of course got lots of love and her favorite frozen peanut butter kong. The rest of the weekend we enjoyed relaxing around the apartment- we're pretty exhausted from all the festivities this week!

Tulip Time

Emmy & Bill taking a break during the festivities!

Welkom to Holland...WOOF!

Tour Guide Emmy showing the family around!

Getting some love from Grandma

"I'm EXHAUSTED!"

Emmy at the Dutch Dancing Expo

Amy's parents and grandmother are in town this week for a visit and to check out Tulip Time here in Holland. Tulip Time is an annual festival celebrating the Dutch heritage in Holland and of course, the TULIPS! Emmy has loved having the company around and also having a chance to tag along to many of the Tulip Time activities.

First on Thursday, we took Grandma for a tour around Hope's campus because she has never been to see where Bill and Amy went to college and now work. Emmy of course helped give the tour too and showed Grandma all of her stomping grounds! Then Thursday night we brought Emmy to check out the Dutch Dancing expo in Centennial Park (in downtown Holland). Dutch dancers from all of the local high schools circle the park (which is about 2 blocks long and 1 block wide) for a huge expo. We brought Emmy and she handled not only the crowds (and lots of other dogs) but also the dancing (those wooden shoes are quiet loud on the pavement) very well! Now she's EXHAUSTED! We'll keep you updated with more Tulip Time adventures (we're going to her first parade on Saturday)!

Bath Time & Workouts

Summer is here!

Emmy had her first "big girl" bath the other day. She really hasn't been one for getting very dirty so we don't have to bath her that much. Granted, she still LOVES to hop into the bath tub and play with the water dripping from the faucet...but she has only had a few full baths in her lifetime. It was about time for one, so Emmy and mom climbed in the tub for a good ol' washing. Emmy did very well with it...but of course she wasn't the only one dripping wet by the end of it! Now she's all squeeky clean again!

It also is the end of the school year so all the students are moving out and going home for the summer. We will have a few students here for the summer as this is one of the buildings they use for summer housing, but it won't be full. While preparing for the students to leave, we decided to clean the storage room and we found "Work out Care Bear"...or that is at least what we call him. Anyway...it sings and does a "workout" with you...pretty much like Tickle Me Elmo. We tried it out on Emmy to see how effective the workout is...haha...actually we thought it would be a good test for her around Children's toys. Check out the third video!

Spring Fling

Emmy visiting Bob at the dunking booth

We had a chance to enjoy the wonderful weather today and take Emmy to Hope's "Spring Fling" - basically a large carnival of sorts in the commons of campus. There was an inflatable obstacle course, jousting, a mechanical bull, concerts, BBQ's, and LOTS of college students! We started out by visiting Bill's brother, Bob, who was being targeted by his peers at the dunk tank. When Bill took his chance at dunking his little brother (yes that's correct...the older more responsible one tried...and succeeded in dunking his little brother) Emmy got really excited and wanted to play fetch with the oversized balls they had. The splashing and noise got her all in a dither and it took some cheese stick treats to get her to focus again. During a lull in the crowd, Emmy was able to go and visit Bob while he sat in the tank. Bob even spashed a little of the water on her, which was great being it was an 80 degree afternoon!

After that, we wandered over to "The Push" which is basically a shopping cart derby around the common area of campus. A bunch of students get involved and dress all crazy, make lots of noise, and push shopping carts around, while hundreds of other students line the sidewalks to cheer them on. Emmy and Amy met up with Aspen and Griffin (two other PAWS dogs being raised by Jim and Trudi VanderPloeg) at the starting line and watched The Push start. Emmy did very well on staying controlled and maintaining eye contact, especially when students started running past us to get to the next best "viewing spot".

We obviously received lots of attention at Spring Fling too because it's not every day that students see a dog...especially one as cute as Emmy (well ok, so Griffin being only a 9 week old black lab kinda takes the cake on cuteness...but Emmy is still pretty darn cute)! After walking back home, Emmy was pretty beat. In fact, she fell asleep in the kitchen right next to her water bowl (it probably would have taken too much energy to walk across the room to lay on her mat).

It was a great day! We're definitely excited for the nice weather and a chance to go out and about the town more.