6 years hiking

Proof that I'm not on top of it: this post is almost a month old.

Our 6 year anniversary (congrats to us!) was on the 1st of September and we celebrated by taking a a little overnight hiking trip. We hadn't gone all summer because we didn't know how Lucy would do. We didn't want to hike a long ways in and then have her crash and not be able to get her out. So, this was her first overnight backpacking trip! After a little drive up to Mt. Baker, about 2 hours away, we did a short 4 or 5 mile hike from Artist's Point to the chain lakes. It definitely could have been an easy day hike, but it was fun to hang out.  We stayed in a backpacking site, on a ridge, with a lake on either side of the ridge. It was great! It was so nice to be out in the beautiful sunshine and enjoy the scenery and the calm.  Get ready for 10 million pictures....

Lucy saw snow for the first time

And it made her go a little bit crazy

Not sure how the other hiker felt about the enormous puppy galloping all over the glacier with him.

Lots of beautiful views

Lucy found every bit of snow possible to leave her footprints on

Andrew setting up our awesome tent

Lucy the helper

Lucy slept in the tent between us.  She is not very respectful of space.  And backpacking tents don't have walls that are as durable as her crate.  And she is super hot.  Which made for a restless night of adjusting her and us to keep her claws off the walls, us from overheating, and her from pushing us through the sides of the tent.  Not doing that one again.  Anyone have any great ideas on where to make your dog sleep when you take them backpacking?  She will be too cold to sleep outside alone....and she would probably paw at the tent to get in.  So that's not really an option.  Any others?

We had our own private pond that was perfect Lucy playing size.  Not so good for drinking, at least not for our drinking water.  The pond also brought a ton of mosquitoes out which made hanging around not quite as comfy.  Did you know mosquitoes bite dogs?

Lucy also had her own private glacier hill.

 

This video is terrible, it was taken on an old digital camera, but at least you can get an idea of how crazy she was about this hill.

View from the hill that our tent sat on.  Gorgeous.

A worn out Lucy, looking a little forlorn that she doesn't have her cedar chip bed.

But the awesome smells on the breeze make up for it.

Another gorgeous view picture.  I love the ripples on the lake.

Andrew and Lucy going in a little cave we found alongside the lake.

Slightly spooky.

Andrew and Lucy in the pitch black cave.

Looking out from the back end of the cave.

It's a little too dark for me.

Andrew can still hold Lucy....for now.

She did a little wading, and fell in once for a full on swim. Too cold for us!

Watching grasshoppers.

Walking

Lucy watching, best hiking entertainment ever

Us

Trying to get us and the mountain....not quite as easy as just us.  Why can't Lucy learn to take a good photo?

Mountain

And more mountains

Don't we live in an amazingly beautiful part of the world!  I wish we were doing this again right now!

Daycare

Lucy had her first day of daycare on Monday! Tails a Wagging, where we take her for obedience class, has a daycare where you can drop your dog off at 7 in the morning and pick them up at 6 in the evening (or anytime in between). The trainers play with them and work with them all day long. They also brush their teeth, work on manners, and practice basic commands.  It is a little pricey at $24 a day, but we figure if we only do it every other week or so for a couple of months, it will be worth it. It's nice to have her socialized with so many different dogs, learn to play around them, get to practice commands and manners around dogs, and have practice working with people other than us. Those are hard skills for us to work on so we are hoping her time at daycare will pay off. And she came home exhausted which is a plus. And I mean really exhausted, like we've never seen her before.

A cute picture from the Tails A Wagging facebook page.  They always manage to get her looking goofy, I should post her picture from Kindergarten graduation.

Lucy playing with her friend Koda.  They met all the way back in Puppy Preschool.  Her little report card said that they played hard together all day long.  This picture is also from the Tails Facebook page.

And here are a few pictures that I copied from the webcams.  Yes, they have webcams going all day long so that you can check in on your dog.  It was funny to see how her attitude changed during the day.

That is Lucy over on the right, pinning another dog to the wall.  She knows how to use her size :)

Lucy, laying down behind the trainer, dead tired.

More wrestle mania.

Just a little hang out time.

Can you find Lucy?  Look in the far back of the picture.  She is laying down, exhausted.  She laid like that for a long time while all the other dogs played around her.

Don't you think working at a Doggie Daycare would be a dream job?

Apple Wine

Just before school started, we had a wine catch-up day. We checked all of our wines, re-racked everything that needed it, bottled our second batch of Apple Wine, and made a calendar to keep us organized on when we need to do what for each batch of wine we have left in carboys. Making wine has been pretty easy so far, it's the keeping it all organized part that is slightly difficult. I think we now have a system that is manageable and something that we can maintain throughout the school year and summer as we start new wines and bottle the current ones.  Each reracking, or time we need to check the wine goes in our shared google calendar as an event.  That way I can forget about it for the next 30 days until is shows up on my planner.  Simple right?  Don't know why we didn't think of it a while ago.  It was kind of fun to get all of our wines out and examine them all at the same time. We have some very pretty colors going on!

The apple wine settling and waiting for it's labels.

All labeled and ready to age.

Visit to Portland

Visiting our family in Portland was a wonderful last trip before the start of the school rush. My mom's parents live outside Portland in a cute little apartment. They were gracious enough to let us stay with them, even though their two cats weren't very impressed with Lucy's size and bark. Spending two days with them was fast, too fast. We spent a lot of time eating and talking and I could have kept going for a few more days. We will definitely have to do it again soon!

Andrew and I, ready to go to church with Granny & Poppy

Me, filling my plate at Uncle Clifford's and Aunt Elaine's.  In the background, you can see Neil drinking pop and Aunt Elaine holding Clint on her lap.

Caity, Clifford, and a little bit of Poppy

Kourtney giving Clint kisses

Erin, Clint, and Neil

Me & Granny

Lucy, very hot after running around Clifford and Elaine's backyard.

Andrew, Lucy, me, & Poppy

Another one of Andrew and I just before church

Thank you Granny and Poppy for letting us come stay with you, feeding us all weekend, and for taking all the pictures! Hope we get to see you soon!

Nectarine Basil Preserves

Preserves are a funny thing to me, I'm not quite sure how they are meant to be eaten. Any input? It's not really a spread....but it doesn't seem like you should just eat the whole slices of nectarines either. Whatever you are supposed to do with preserves, we have been eating it on our toast. And yes this has an unusual flavor, but it's a GOOD unusual flavor! Very unique. If you want to try an 8 oz jar, we are selling them for $5.