momentary impulse~a somewhat ridiculous but sweet tribute to our dog

***Warning-Really, really long post. About a boy and a girl and a dog. Bail out now if you have a short attention span.***

If you have known Chris for any length of time, you probably know that he attempts to plan out every moment of our lives. A few weeks after we got married, we had a discussion about getting a dog. In our six years of dating, we never once talked about even wanting a dog. Chris said no dogs in our brand new house. That would be destructive and would dramatically decrease the value of our home. Anyway, one Sunday afternoon, we decided to go to the GBHS, you know, just to look. Chris had never even been to a humane society (growing up, that is the only place we ever got our dogs) and didn't really think that humane society dogs were good enough. We looked at one dog, but didn't really feel a connection. We walked around one more time, and Chris told one of the volunteers that we wanted to look at this little white puppy. Actually, it was a rather large white puppy. We thought he was a few months old, but no, just eight weeks. We waited in a room, and she brought him in, cradling him. He was just chillin'. She set him down, and he started running around like a maniac. I was sitting in the floor, and Chris was standing there, watching us. Brooks (who was called Dakota by the humane society, ick) walked up to Chris, put his little giant puppy paw on Chris's leg, and looked at him with those intoxicating sweet eyes. Chris said almost immediately, "Okay, we'll take this one!" Sucker. Chris went back the next morning to fill out the paper work and get him settled at home while I was at work.

the day we brought him home-he was 8 weeks old

a few weeks later, still trying to get used to everything (I really have no idea how someone could have left him at the humane society...look at that face!)

a little bit bigger...

before we (er, I) let Brooks on the furniture, he would just nap under our bed

1st Christmas! (Trying to capture this oh-so-sweet picture is the reason our pup strongly dislikes all things Christmas.)

helping with the flower bed, he's about 8 months here. And he is STILL growing.

Check out the tongue!

one of my favorite shots ever

my guys

The photographer rarely gets her picture made...Brooks is 14 months here, and already way bigger than me!

trying his paw at retrieving

We had so much fun at the beach!

He's not so sure about this stuff...

our sweet little fam

Brooks was a spontaneous decision. Fortunately Chris and I are somewhat responsible adults and we stepped to the plate of training a puppy. I wasn't really sure about having such a big dog in the house. We became experts at crate training. When Brooks was a few months old, we got a privacy fence hoping he would stay outside some. Well, he suffers extreme separation anxieties, and prefers the crate. Except on days like this. And we have had many fun adventures, like this and this. Brooks is also the inspiration to some great posts about how wonderful Chris and I think he is . This week marks his three year adoption anniversary. I must admit (although you couldn't have convinced me three years ago that I would EVER say the following) big dogs are more fun. We like to jog as a family. Saturday we even went hiking together. He is always ready to play and never has a bad attitude, unless I am forcing him to stupidly pose for blog pictures. Brooks has really been great for our marriage. He is a very active dog and it helps keep us active. We have also had to agree on puppy parenting techniques. Now don't get me wrong, we don't regard our dog as a person, but we have definitely had to get on the same page about our expectations for him. Brooks has been a great addition to our little family and we are looking forward to many more great years with him!