Sage's First Beach Adventure

Lately I've been getting an overwhelming request for the same thing over and over again...

MORE PICTURES OF SAGE!!!  

Okay already!  I hear you!  

I know she's adorable, so I don't blame you at all for wanting more.  I'm happy to oblige.

So, because you've been patient and because I love you (and because I finally got through these pictures this weekend after months of being held hostage on my camera's memory card), here are the photos from Sage's first adventure in the ocean.

Every year, Ryan and I go to the same "undisclosed" location for a week-long beach vacation and top-secret tarpon fishing.  You can read all about it HERE, HERE and HERE -- this year's post still to come).  You might also remember last year's post when it was Mally's first time on the beach.  This year, we packed up the car with both pups and were so excited to see how Sage handled the ocean.  Mally's not much of a water dog (at all), so we figured that our experience with Sage was going to be much different than last year.  

Until this point, Sage had been rather timid around water.  She'd get her feet wet, but didn't seem to have the instinctual Golden Retriever love of water.  Yet.  She was only 3.5 months old, so we knew she had time, but the sooner she became a water dog, the better.  We wanted to get her in the water without scaring her or putting too much pressure on her.  We wanted her to do it on her own.

  

We got to the beach Saturday afternoon, after spending the entire day/night before and that morning in the car driving.  The pups had been cooped up for a long time and they were hot and ready to run and play in the water.  Before checking into our hotel or eating lunch or anything, we headed straight to the beach.

  

Mally was all, "Oh yeah, beach again.  I remember this.  No problem."

Old pro.

She showed Sage how to get her feet wet and bark at the waves.

Sage was a little more apprehensive.  The waves were intimidating.  

So she laid down in the water to cool off and just take it all in.

Ahhhh.  This is nice!

Yum...salt water.

This is the life!

She was pretty content to just lay there in the puddles, away from the waves...

...until her dad decided to go for a swim without her.

That was not happening.

She did NOT want to be left behind.

And that's all it took.

Full speed, through the waves, right into the water and out to him!

No fear!

A water dog is born.

Once she got out there to him, she wasn't real sure what the do.  

She refused to swim back to the beach and leave Ryan out there in the water alone.

So they hung out for a while and Ryan told her what a good puppy she was for swimming.

Mally, on the other hand, was horrified.

How dare Sage jump in the water and leave her on the beach.

She gave her an earful.

That's what big sisters are for.

Eventually Ryan got tired of listening to Mally bark at them to come back, so they returned to the beach.

Sage got lots of praise and kisses for being such a brave puppy and jumping right into the water.

Her daddy was very VERY proud of his little water dog.

Then she ran around the beach at full speed like a mad woman!

Shaking off the water and rolling in the sand.

Telling Mally about what she was missing out on by not swimming.

And then it was right back at Ryan's side so she could do it again!

We're in trouble!