Introducing...

The newest member of the Haverly Clan!

Azzura!!

"Azzura" is a variation of the word "blue" in Italian. In keeping with Tasso, and the Italian theme we have going, we chose this name for her because of her one blue eye. We call her "ZuZu" for short (inspired, of course, by the greatest film of all time, "It's a Wonderful Life.")

ZuZu is 1 year old. She is a dapple miniature dachshund/miniature pinscher mix (maybe?!). Before she came to us she was with another young couple, who were keeping her in a "no pets" apartment. (Clearly an irresponsible move, but pales in comparison to their indiscretion of naming her "Dew" after the soda, Mountain Dew. Another reason we chose "ZuZu" was to ease her transition.) When the landlords found out, her former owners refused to give her up, so they were evicted. They had to leave her behind when they moved to Minnesota to live with family.

Before they moved, the previous owners gave ZuZu to a friend, who gave her to a friend, etc, until she fell into the care of a Sanctuary in Washington called "Wags to Riches," which is how we discovered her!

The volunteer who fostered ZuZu while she was on the sanctuary's roster was also caring for 21 other dogs (including two litters of puppies), several cats, goats, chickens, sheep, and 3 horses. Needless to say, we think our poor girl got lost in the shuffle. The foster parents were also heavy smokers, so when we picked her up she smelled like an ash tray.

Now, however, ZuZu is blossoming into the sweet, athletic girl she is, and getting along swimmingly with Tasso (and she smells better too)!

As you can see, he's not quite sure what to make of her, but they are having a good time figuring each other out!

We are so excited to welcome ZuZu into our family!!

Thank you all!

With Love,

Sarah, Kyle, Tasso and ZuZu

Tasso

We would like to introduce everyone to the new love of our lives (other than each other, of course!)

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Tasso!

Tasso was intended to be a birthday present for Kyle, whose birthday is September 6th. Kyle had told me we could get a puppy once we were married, so as soon as we got back I hit the classifieds.

I found an ad for a litter of "accident puppies" so the mom and dad dogs lived next door to each other. I went out to check it out and this little guy stole my heart! I met his parents and litter mates, and they were all great. So I wrote her a check, we put a little collar on my unnamed future family member, and said I would be back the following Monday (Labor Day) to take him home. That weekend Kyle and I celebrated his birthday in Seattle where we attended a wedding. On Sunday I told him what I had done for his birthday expecting him to be simply thrilled!

Despite all the research I *thought* I had done, I missed the fine print on Kyle's lease that said "no puppies." Turned out that the apartment we lived in at the time would not accept any dogs under 12 months. I was SO disappointed, particularly since I thought I had been so sneaky and cleaver. Kyle said we would have to go back to where he was so that we could get our check back. After a rather childish tantrum from my end, we found a perfect solution: What if we moved?!?

So that's just what we did! We called his mom's owner, explained the situation, and asked if she could hang onto him for a few more weeks until we found a new place. She was happy to oblige, and we brought him home September 23rd at 10 weeks old. These are photos from his first few days with us! When he arrived he was only 3.75 pounds and now he is almost 7 - still not a lot, but he has practically doubled in size!

Tasso, which means "badger" in Italian, is a wonderful addition to our

little family and brightens every day!!

New Place!

As soon as we got back from our honeymoon and started to unpack all our spectacular wedding gifts... we stopped. We realized there was just NO way there would be room in Kyle's apartment. It was a nice little place (emphasis on "little") for just one person. It was a tolerable amount of space for two people with one person's stuff. But two people with more than enough stuff for those two people was just NOT going to happen! We debated about what to do, and if it was worth moving, but then something happened that spurred us to make the decision to move! (See next post for the full story =-)

After quite a bit of searching we found a beautiful little condo, almost double the square footage of the old place, with several other serious upgrades! Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry room, a loft, vaulted ceilings, patio, and a ton of storage, indoor and out!

We absolutely could not resist such an amazing place! The commute time to Kyle's work was just about the same. We moved in the last weekend of September, with the generous help of my brother Geoff. We still aren't completely moved in! It seems like we just keep putting things in closets and cupboards, but slowly and surely we are getting all settled.

It has been a beautiful step in our new life together!

Photos coming soon!

Honeymoon!

Kyle and I got back from our honeymoon and were excited to be getting things off the ground as "real grown-ups!"

Our wedding day was absolutely beautiful! We were so very grateful to everyone who was able to attend and everyone who was so helpful! It would not have been the beautiful day that it turned out to be without all of you!

Monday after the wedding Kyle and I whisked away to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, where we stayed at the Sandals Grande Ocho Rios all inclusive resort. It was absolutely magical!

We are lucky enough to have traveled a great deal in the past, but most of it has been very "Type-A" travel; "get up by this time, be at this place in time to beat the line, eat brunch at 10 so we can get away with only buying two meals a day, train leaves as 6 pm."

So we were really grateful to have a vacation where the most stressful decision was where to dine, and what kind of drink to order from the swim-up bar. It was heaven!

We stayed in a private villa suite with our own butler service. Marvin and Shelley were amazing! They both were so helpful and catered to our every need! They helped us with out stressful decisions too - which of the eight restaurants should we go to tonight? Which of the seven pools? And of course they drove us there in our private chauffeured golf cart. Needless to say, adjusting to real life has been a little more difficult.

Trash the dress

The day after our wedding we did something a little crazy! In keeping with a new wedding trend, we did what's called "Trashing the dress." It essentially encourages brides to embrace the fact that you will never wear your wedding dress again, your daughter probably won't wear it, and you paid WAY too much to only get one day of wear out of it.

In that light, why not do something really crazy to it? Kyle and I decided to head to Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane to play in the Rotary Fountain. It was a pretty early morning, but it was totally worth it!

It was a beautiful sunny morning, and we got soaking wet! My huge dress weighed at least 20 pounds when it was wet, but it was so fun and liberating! People gathered around to watch as our photographer and videographer documented our adventure. We felt like celebrities!

We walked back to the hotel alone, however, which, considering we were only wearing bathrobes and carrying soaking wet wedding attire, was a little awkward!

Wedding! 8/15/09

I'm just going to start at the beginning: "The Haverlys" officially began on the 15th of August. We were married at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Spokane, which was a perfect and beautiful place! The dean of the Cathedral, Bill Ellis, was the priest at my church in Bend for 15 years, so has known me practically my entire life! He was one of the (many) reasons we chose to be married in Spokane.

After the ceremony we traveled in a 1911 Rolls Royce to the Davenport Hotel, which turned out to be the PERFECT location of our reception. After the cocktail hour in the Hall of the Doges, where lemon drop and chocolate espresso martinis (yellow and brown were the wedding colors), our guests were introduced to the Grand Pennington Ballroom. We like to think our 247 guests had a wonderful time. We chose sunflowers to decorate the day, and I'm sure those cheery flowers (and perhaps the open bar) helped put people in the dancing mood!

It wasn't until after we cut the five tiered chocolate raspberry alternating with lemon chiffon cake, everyone cut loose! Our DJ swore his goal was to get everyone onto the dance floor, and I think he did! At one point our conga line actually connected with the other wedding going on in the hotel that night!

At the end of the day we were exhausted and completely happy! It was truly one of the best days of our lives! Thank you so much to all of our friends and family who were able to celebrate with us!

~Sarah & Kyle

Married life is as good as it gets!

We are so excited to be married! It has been a whirl wind. Since we got back from our honeymoon we have moved, got a new puppy, and I took a photography class and got a new job (more on each of those later). So far things are just great - we are having a lot of fun in Portland, reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.