Greetings friends!

I had a very busy weekend last week. It all started on Thursday when mom was all over the house packing stuff for me, Mackenzie, herself and dad. I knew something was about to happen so I stayed close by, making sure I didn’t get forgotten at home. Finally it came time for us to get in the car and I knew we were in for fun. It turns out we were on our way to see Oma & Opa in Bavaria. And something really special happened while we were there in their kitchen — Mackenzie and I got to play on the floor together for the first time. We’ve had interactions on the floor before, but I’ve never laid down next to her and really let her explore my lovely Newfieness.

She found my paws fascinating. They are pretty huge in comparison to her. Mom and dad are always telling me to be careful with them around the baby cause apparently I could crush her. I stand on mom & dad’s feet all the time — they do yelp for me to get off but I don’t think I could actually hurt someone. Or could I?

As you can see, I’m considerably larger than Mack – but that hasn’t affected our friendship. She seems to be getting bigger and taller these days so perhaps we can really play together soon without mom and dad hovering and constantly telling me to be careful. People always ask if Mack rides on my back yet. Nooooooo! I absolutely will not allow it. But maybe I’ll get a cart to pull her in one day.

Naturally there were plenty of sloppy, wet Newfie kisses given. No play session would be complete without those. Sometimes I even manage to get Mack’s head and style her hair a little. I’m a wonderful stylist and you don’t even need an appointment.

Hopefully I’ll get to play with Mackenzie a whole lot more soon. She’s a cool baby…I thought so the minute they brought her home. Things were a little awkward with us at first because she would grab fistfuls of my hair and pull, which I really didn’t like, but she’s growing out of that stage now. Now she just smacks me with her hands a bit which doesn’t bother me too much. It only really is annoying in the face since the rest of my body is so thickly covered with fur, I barely even notice her touching me.

It turned out that mom and dad were at the wedding of two of my favorite people in the world, Steffen and Steffi. I didn’t get to see them even once. But since they brought me a toy last week when they were here for Lanternfest, I guess I will forgive them. Maybe I should be holding a grudge against mom and dad instead. I hear I was actually invited to one of the wedding days, but they said it was too hot for me to wait in the car while they were in the courthouse. All they needed to do was bring me a wading pool to sit in outside and everything would have been fine!

For all of you traveling in the near future, stay cool in your cars. The summer here has been a very warm one and it’s not always easy to keep your composure. Make sure your humans have plenty of water for you and a big bowl for you to drink from. Or learn to drink directly from the bottle like me!

Until next time!

Sending lots of sloppy Newfie kisses to you,

Ayla