Mesa Verde Boondoggle

We took a trip to Mesa Verde National Park and enjoyed a day of snowshoeing and sightseeing.  We started off the day getting breakfast burritos at a local Mexican Market.

We stopped at the Visitor Center and checked it all out.  Lydia got to do some training while the kids got to look around.

Then we went on snow shoe hike around the campground.   We followed up the hike with lunch in the parking lot.

After lunch, we drove up on the top of the mesa and checked out the cliff houses.  That was so cool to see.  

The early people lived in houses on the top of the mesa at first but then moved to the cliffs.  The pic above is of the house at the top of the mesa.

 

Colorado Boondoggle

We got snow for the first 3 days of our trip in Colorado which we loved!   The dogs played like crazy while Jim and Kyle did snow mitigation.

The dogs would sleep by me while I worked and sometimes look out the window or just stay curled up in front of the fire.

Had to make sure I got a pic of the orange formica counter tops!   While here, Jim is helping them get ready for the cabinets which will come the week we leave.

I also had to get a pic of the ugliest arches in the world!   Mari can't wait for them to come down so she has a better view.

Avery is the biggest Labrador fan.  And it was so good for Lydia to get some time with kids.

A quick hike the morning before the snow arrived.  Brr....

The pups posing by the world famous wolf jacket!

This is where my I worked in Colorado.  It was a beautiful spot right next to the fireplace!

This is Kyle knocking the snow off of the roof.  Unfortunately he also knocked off the icicles that I liked to look at while working.
 

Jelly Beans

We had a big jelly bean tasting event!  Four different types of jelly beans: Peeps, Sweet Tarts, Now and Later and Starburst.  We each tasted them at the same time and then picked our favorites.

EVERYONE, except William, hated the Peeps marshmallow flavor.  The favorites were the Starburst.  In between all the tastes, we used cucumber to cleanse our palette.  

Such fun for all!

 

Astrid Update

 We received Astrid's monthly report card yesterday.  The highlights are:

• She got a new trainer 
• She continues to be highly distractible
• Her responsiveness is lower with a new person
• She still is forging and lunging but finally walks nicely on a leash (not sure how she can be doing both but that is what the report says)
• She is changing her food due to loose stools

Overall, we continue to think that she has low motivation, high distractibility and some anxiety - especially with the new stool issue.  We keep expecting her to be released and others who see her report card think the same but they must see something in her that they like.

Tooth Fairy

We are in Colorado visiting Mari and Kyle (and kids) for a couple weeks while Jim helps Kyle with some renovations.  While here, Lydia lost a bunch of teeth which we never found so we left a note for the tooth fairy explaining that Lydia "lost" the lost tooth.  The tooth fairy left Lydia this duck toy!

Doggy vacation

This place we are staying allows dogs.  So Oak and Hops were the lucky canine invitees. There is one rule for the dogs - please keep them out of the bedrooms.  We want to respect their rules so we have beds in the family room for them.   But the rule backfired.  I am working at the kitchen table and turn around and see this.  They might be out of the bedrooms but those idiots helped themselves to the couch.  Good thing we put blankets down.

Lydia's vacation update

Reports from Lydia's puppy watcher are good.  She and Oprah seem to have hashed out a lovely friendship - although I am suspecting Oprah is questioning Lydia's lack of personal space awareness.

It is so good for her to experience other homes, people, dogs and schedules.  I checked in yesterday morning and Eric reported they slept fine and that he had them up at 1 am to play for a little bit?!?!  What??  That is prime sleeping time.  But, he has different lifestyle than us and its good for her to experience it.