Smokey Skies

I love how the sky looks when smoke is in the air.... 

We've had some really pretty sunrises lately!

Hiking and Swimming

Doug and I went for a hike last Saturday. 

It was a fairly easy hike, but hiking after giving blood is NOT a good idea!!  I was fine when we were walking to the falls.  Ruger played in the water, but the knot we tied in the leash (because he chewed it apart) came undone and the leash sucked right into the handle.  SUCKY!  Now our 26 foot retractable leash was about 3 feet long. 

We decided to hike back out because that short of a leash was going to be a pain to deal with and we didn’t have a back up leash with us.  When we got to the top of the hill (which wasn’t very hard to walk up) I had to sit down as fast as I could.  I stripped off my backpack and felt like I was having an asthma attack (I've never had one, but I imagine that's what it would feel like).  While trying to catch my breath and figure out what was happening, we realized it was because we gave blood about 16 hours before.  Whoops!!! 

The rest of the hike back to the car was miserable!  I would sit down and drink water every chance I could, but as soon as I would hear people coming, I would get up and walk again.  I was too embarrassed for people to see me that way.  One group of 18ish year olds walked by while I was sitting in the dirt and had my head between my knees.  The guy in front was so nice and asked Doug if I was okay.  I said it’s not a good idea to hike after giving blood and he offered us some of their water.  There are still decent young people out there!!    I told Doug that if I passed out he had to take a picture.  HAHAH 

We didn’t have cell reception, so getting help was going to be interesting if it got to that point.  We finally got cell reception for a few minutes, so I texted Breanna.  The messages I was typing were incoherent and I kept deleting and retyping, but then I would lose cell service again.  I wish I would have sent the messages to her without retyping them over and over so I could've see them when I got my wits about me again.  I told Doug I just wanted to stand there and cry – apparently I already said that to him, but I don’t remember it.  We finally made it back to the car and we kept the air conditioner on full blast the whole way home.  Stupid me. 

We still had to get home, make the fruit salad, get cleaned up and get to Ben’s birthday party.  We were 30 minutes late to the birthday party and I felt terrible.  I think Doug was sick of hearing me say I felt bad because he said, “Would you rather be 30 minutes late or not go at all because you’re in the hospital?!”  Ok, ok, perspective.  Fine. :) 

I didn’t get in the pool since I had enough exercise and excitement for the day, but I took pictures of everyone having fun.  Here are the guys hanging out: 

And Doug in the middle of a cannonball:

and another cannonball: 

We ate hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner and then a delicious ice cream cake to celebrate Ben’s birthday.  We stopped at Ben and Breanna’s house on the way home, so the sun was almost down when we left their house.  The sky looked really pretty; this picture doesn’t do it justice: 

Here’s a random picture from Sunday morning – I went to water our plants and a newer cactus that is growing out of the one my grandma had was covered in flowers!  So cool!!  There were 5 flowers on it and they lasted a few days:

Friday Funday

We started our day eating pancakes and watching Looney Tunes.  Ruger played and cuddled with the kids: 

We all got ready for the day, made sandwiches and headed to the park up the street.  Ruger chewed through his $40 leash – it’s 26 feet long and retractable so it’s expensive. 

Stupid dog.  I’m REALLY grateful that PetSmart let me exchange the leash!  Ruger played on the slides too: 

He wasn’t fond of the twisting slide. 

I went to physical therapy and Doug took the kids home.  Afterwards, we met up at home and then headed out for the afternoon.  We did some shopping for a fruit salad we were bringing to a birthday party, bought some shampoo/conditioner liters at Ulta (they have a great sale a couple times a year, so we stocked up) and then we donated blood: 

Then we went to PF Chang’s for a HUGE dinner – thanks to a gift card my mom gave Doug for his birthday.  We ate and ate and then ate some more…and then ate dessert!  It was delicious!  I usually take pictures of the food when we eat out, but here’s the giant horse insead:

Sleepover

We had our nephews and niece over on Thursday & Friday of our vacation.  I was a little worried about how rowdy Ruger is and if he would bulldoze the kids like he does to us.  Luckily he’s gentler with kids.  He was tired after having the kids over – a tired puppy is a good puppy!  Ruger seems to love sleeping bags.  He crawled on ours and made it difficult for Doug to roll them up after camping:

The kids unrolled their sleeping bags and Ruger wanted to lay on those too. 

We went to the pool so the kids could swim and burn some energy: 

We were hungry when we got back from the pool, so we ate grapes.  I shoved a couple under my lips and the kids were cracking up, so Doug and I started shoving grapes under our upper and lower lips – it’s REALLY hard to hold grapes under your lips and not smile or laugh to make them fall out.  Isn’t this the most flattering picture you’ve ever seen!!!???:

Clean Up

We had a lazy morning while getting ready to go home. 

We ate breakfast, went to the lake, played with Ruger and napped by the campfire. 

We cleaned up and packed up to go home; Ruger sat around and held onto his leash – weird dog. 

Clean up after camping was much easier than packing to leave.  I had a super detailed list of stuff to take with us and I really wish I didn’t throw it into the campfire.  I could have used it over and over again.

Camping Continues

Good morning!! 

Ruger climbed onto our sleeping bags although he had his own bed.  He was really entertained looking out the window….it was just TOO early in the morning! 

Breakfast of champions: 

 

Eating a tree stump – you can see the bark he already removed:

Frisbee fun!!: 

LOOK OUT!!! IT'S A BLACK BEAR!!! Oh, wait, that's just Ruger:

 Loving being dirty!!: 

More swim time: 

SHAKE!!!!  I entertained myself trying to get a good picture of Ruger shaking: 

We threw a ball too far and Ruger’s confidence was shot.  Doug got in the water to help build his confidence again.  Ruger would swim to him and try to climb on him: 

 

Doug holding him out of the water and Ruger was still paddling: 

Ruger would hold the leash while swimming back to the shore, it was hysterical!: 

His little eyes are close:

 LOOK MA!! No leash!!

Holding the leash even while Doug was holding him:

We saw some ducks swimming in the area: 

Ruger thought he could actually get those ducks…not a chance…especially since he only had 26 feet of leash: 

My tired boys: 

Ruger eating and dragging some driftwood we brought up from the beach: 

Doug gave Ruger a rawhide and he tried to bury it.  He’s never been able to bury anything in actual dirt; he always tries to bury things in the carpet or his bed.  He was pretty entertained for a while: 

These 2 pictures made us laugh because you can see an inch of the rawhide and then almost all of it in the same pose: 

We took a walk around the campsites and found a very reliable source of contact with the outside world – uh, yeah right!!: 

Filthy dog: 

My booty broke our camp chair – now both chairs are broken.  We ended up throwing both chairs away at the end of our trip: 

YAY More campfire!!: 

Doug found a bee floating in our water bucket for the fire.  He kept him on the stick and eventually the bee dried out and flew away. 

More marshmallows!!!  Look at me taking a picture without makeup on!!  (I don't wear a lot of eye makeup since it gives me styes on my eyelids, but I actually don't have foundation on!)  Look out world!!: 

Tired pup ready for bedtime: