We didn’t get too many pictures from last week, but here are the boys looking very serious for the camera.

(l to r) Ronan, Thistle, Levi after swimming

Levi and Thistle playing:

Here are links to videos of Levi and Ronan swimming in the SF Bay at Point Pinole.

We were so pleased to be able to watch Samantha (from the Famous Jingles litter) last weekend, especially since we’ve only seen her once since she went to her home with the Fergusons in Nevada.  What a lovely, big girl she has become!

Sam got to visit with her brother Rockie (and his “brother” Charlie):

Here are our best shots of Samantha and Rockie together:

Here’s another of them and their tongues:

Thistle thought Samantha was the cat’s meow

Sam also got to meet her brother Jackson again.  Here are a couple pictures of them together.

And a video treat!   Here is Samantha playing fetch with the Aerobie… with Thistle and Ronan following closely.

Sam also got to go on a short hike with her brother River, but, alas, we were in a rush and didn’t get photos.

Here’s a rare treat- a photo of Don with the puppies.

Bye for now!

Time is flying by, and the pups are growing by leaps and bounds!   We feel lucky that we’ve been able to see all the pups recently.   Thistle and Ronan are in Puppy 2 class at A Dog’s Life in Sunnyvale with their sister Chelsea.    Avalon visited last week, and just a couple days ago we went for a hike/swim at Point Pinole with brother Levi.

Here are links to videos of Levi and Ronan swimming in the SF Bay at Point Pinole.

We’ll get to see Jamie next week, and that’s everyone!

Ronan and Thistle had a busy 4-month birthday.  Their half-sister Samantha has been with us the last few days, and they got to chase her quite a bit at the park.   Then they got to swim at Shinn Pond with their half-brother Jackson.   We finished it off with puppy class where they practiced heeling, down-stays, fronts and finishes, and targeting.   We  were supposed to train emergency recalls but forgot!

More pictures and videos to come– the computer has been tired.  :-)

After a week of heat, the overcast cool beach in Aptos was extremely welcoming (though Rio del Mar beach was a bit too cramped for my taste).   These aren’t the greatest photos as it was supposed to be a video of Sport and Lola fetching balls on the beach, but I managed to have the camera in some time-lapse video setting so this is all we have!

We’ve been in LA for the last week, right in the middle of a blazing inferno of heat.   Fortunately it has cooled down some, but for most of the trip everyone has refused to go outdoors except late at night!   Not much to report, but here’s a photo showing that Goldens can have fun anytime, anywhere.  :-)   The pool had just been emptied, and was a great source of entertainment for quite a while!

Also, the Artisan Beer litter is now over 16 weeks old!  Here are Ronan and Thistle today.

Ronan and Thistle here.   On Saturday, we got to go meet two new friends, Arson and Xeon.   We already met their “mom” Diane during our bird testing.  She’s the really cool bird lady who shows us how to do all sorts of neat things.

Thistle: Here I am in the boat with Arson.  Bye Momma Sporty!  That’s her watching us carefully from the shore– guess she thought I might fall out, but I CAN SWIM so it really is okay!

Thistle: See, here is a video of me swimming at Croft Lake a couple weeks ago!

Ronan: And there’s our new pal Xeon in the boat, to the left of Arson and brother Thistle.   Xeon is cute and fun, and best of all she’s a puppy too!    I got out of the boat before my human mom could take a picture of me, because there weren’t any plants or cow poop to chow on in there!  (That’s Momma Sport swimming by the boat, not me.)

Ronan: We got to run like the wind, do some wading and swimming, meet weird fake ducks in the water, hear a shotgun, and the bird lady brought birds for us!  That was the best part of all.  Momma Sporty went bonkers over that, as did I.

Afterward, just for fun, our human folks decided it would be fun to do our own illustratation of the spectrum of golden colors for Golden Retrievers.  Momma Sporty is in the middle.

It was really hot out, and we were all tired, but we were good sports and let our humans take a group shot of us.  I guess I should mention we were bribed with smoked pheasant from the bird lady’s refrigerator.  Ha ha ha.  Yummy.  No way were we looking into the bright sunlight though!

We had a wonderful visit with Jamie and his people (Laurie, Bob, Kevin) yesterday!   The boys had a great time playing.   It was a bit hot out, but the pool kept the puppies and (by virtue of the splashing) the humans a bit cooler. 

Here’s Jamie at 3 months old

and lots of smiling faces (Thistle, Ronan, Jamie – sitting forward of the other two)

Some pretty good fierce faces, too (Jamie and Thistle)

Jamie Jameson is a lean, lean, running machine

This is a really cute video about how mother otters teach their babies to swim.

The boys got to visit with their sister Chelsea today, and had a grand time playing!  Here’s a posed picture of their happy reunion.

(l to r): Ronan, Thistle, Chelsea