Sharing the Love: A fine weekend to fall in love....

This bank holiday weekend has been an absolute beauty. Lots of fun has been had with family and friends and I'm sat on the sofa writing this post with a big smile on my face!

So, what have the hubby and I been up to?

We started the bank holiday with a chilled out Friday and then Johnny went off for an epic 11.5 mile walk in advance of his Ben Nevis charity walk in June for Alzheimers. The three boys went off early at 7am and ended up rewarding themselves with a full English breakfast!

We then checked out our local dog rescue site, as we've been thinking about offering a dog a new home but needed to find the right dog to fit our lifestyle. We were nervously excited to see there was a possible match, so we headed straight out to meet him.

And boy, did I fall in love! He was beautiful! He's a beagle that has obviously been very well loved (or fed!) but not well walked. He is double the weight he should be and is quite low energy as a result. He needs someone who will build up his walks slowly and support his new diet regime. Well, this seemed just perfect to us. Both Johnny and I want an incentive to exercise more and as I would love to see the transformation in him! I'll be honest, I would be more than happy if I shifted a few pounds myself too!

We decided to sleep on the decision (to make sure we weren't just getting over excited!) and spent that evening out celebrating my father in law's birthday talking to Clive, his lovely girlfriend Pat & my parents about it. They of course, let us know all the downsides (a parent's job is never done!) but seemed to agree that he was the perfect match for us.

So, on Sunday, we decided to go on a dog route recce and headed off in the morning for a 3.5 mile walk. We explored out the back of our house and my god, it was beautiful! Poor Johnny was trying to set the pace for us as we only had an hour, but I couldn't resist taking a few cheeky snaps.

The walk really made us realise how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful area and have all of this just beyond our back garden! I also clocked that our route took us past one of our fave local pubs, which is dog friendly. Great excuse to go for a walk and then sit in a pub garden in the summer, or all cosy by the fire in the winter!

After our walk, we got showered and dressed in record time to make sure we got to the dog rescue right at opening time. We didn't want to risk anyone else getting there first. We also took my sister Siobhan with us too. She LOVES dogs and was super excited. She also kindly offered to move into ours to look after him whilst we're on holiday. Which is in just over a weeks' time. I know, not the most well planned timing to bring home a new dog, but the rescue home said he's so laid back, he probably wouldn't mind. Also, better to get the holiday out of the way before he gets too upset with us leaving him (and vice versa). Luckily Siobhan is super excited about this prospect - and considering we booked to be away for her birthday, I'm glad we've made that up to her! (Although secretly worried he'll love her so much that by the time we get back, he'll not be interested in welcoming us home!).

So, thankfully, Johnny fell in love too! They had a play and a run together whilst Siobhan and I waited with baited breath to see whether he'd say yes. And he did! So we headed off to a BBQ at our friend Bec and Alex's (and their beautiful 7 month old son Max) and celebrated in style. Thankfully the rescue centre conducted a home visit today and they agreed that we could adopt him. Very happy! We were right in the midst of a bank holiday BBQ at ours (we had parents, friends, a friends' dog and a baby Max all chilling out in the garden - thankfully our friends' dog Mojo was showing how chilled our garden is, thanks Mojo!).

So, here it is. We are going to be responsible adults and first time dog owners. The rescue centre don't know what our gorgeous dog's name is, so we're going to call him Snoop (Snoopy was a beagle and I like the idea of him having his own song!)