Friday, August 28

Hiking

We finally fulfilled one of my dreams of dog ownership: Thursday afternoon we hiked Battle Creek Falls. It's a simple hike, just a mile, up to the top of the waterfall. The first half was a grueling uphill battle, not fun for me. We met the stream halfway up the hill, and Chess had fun walking through the water (she won't swim yet) and getting a drink. Chess had a BALL. There was nobody else out, so we let her run around off leash, and she was one happy puppy.

The end of the hike was definitely worth it. The waterfall (and the stream for that matter) were beautiful, and we found an offshoot path to the bottom of the waterfall that was all secluded and hidden. We spent some time there, took some pictures, and headed back on a nice downhill stroll.

I hope to continue this new hiking hobby.


We finally fulfilled one of my dreams of dog ownership: Thursday afternoon we hiked Battle Creek Falls. It's a simple hike, just a mile, up to the top of the waterfall. The first half was a grueling uphill battle, not fun for me. We met the stream halfway up the hill, and Chess had fun walking through the water (she won't swim yet) and getting a drink. Chess had a BALL. There was nobody else out, so we let her run around off leash, and she was one happy puppy.

The end of the hike was definitely worth it. The waterfall (and the stream for that matter) were beautiful, and we found an offshoot path to the bottom of the waterfall that was all secluded and hidden. We spent some time there, took some pictures, and headed back on a nice downhill stroll.

I hope to continue this new hiking hobby.

Monday, August 17

Good Things

I'm pretty sure that one of the better experiences you can have in this life is to be walking hand in hand with your husband, with your dog walking nicely to heel right in between you. A few minutes in, I put the end of the leash in my pocket, I didn't even need to hold it anymore.

What a beautiful day.

Monday, August 10

Fetch!

My dog is so weird. She shows absolutely no interest in toys. I've tried getting her excited... nothing. I've tried physically sticking it in her mouth... nothing.

I've been able to "train" her to fetch, by throwing a toy, running to it with her, and getting her to pick it up. Eventually, she got the picture, and would run after the toy when I told her "Go get it!!" and bring it back. I'm pretty sure it was just a job to her, though, because after 2-3 throws, she always stops and looks at me like "Seriously?! I just brought that back for you. Maybe if you'd stop throwing it, I wouldn't have to go get it!!"



BTW, we've been calling her Chess, and it really fits her. So I think that's what we're sticking with.

Friday, August 7

Our new addition...

We have an announcement to make. We're adding a new member to our family.... last tuesday.

How overdone is that joke?

Monday night, after an unsuccessful visit to the Sandy shelter, Brit let me go down to the one we've been frequenting in Lindon by myself to see if there was anything worthwhile, with the caution that I'd better not be bringing someone home. That turned out to be harder than I thought when I met this girl.

I wasn't sure about her at first when she got really overexcited at the prospect of getting out of her kennel. I was afraid she'd be too high-energy, but I kept coming back to her pretty face. So I tried it anyway. And she had a complete and startling transformation. From jumping up at the door to get out, she turned into a perfectly calm leash walker and a sweet, mellow, affectionate girl. I fell head over heels in love. I hogged her for an hour until the shelter was closed to adoptions, just so nobody else would steal her, and dragged Brit back there the moment his class ended on Tuesday. He grudgingly fell in love with her, too. He says he wanted a more manly dog, but she won him over in the end (even though she kept stepping on his shoe!). So we took her home! The shelter guesses she's between 1 and 3 years old, and a mix of chocolate lab and aussie.


Let me tell you how completely wonderful this dog is:
  • She is a perfectly calm walking companion. I go running with her in the mornings, and I have to keep checking to make sure she's still there, since it doesn't feel like there's anything on the end of my leash.
  • She's amazingly smart. She picks up commands and intentions very quickly. She knows sit, is quickly learning Down, and she picks up quickly when she's not allowed in a room, even with her separation anxiety telling her to follow us EVERYWHERE.
  • She is very cuddly and affectionate, and loves people. Even out meeting kids, she doesn't get overexcited and jump on or lick them, she just sits quietly while they pet her and love on her (and then tries to follow them home).
  • She has a very low energy level in the house, and an appropriately fun energy level when we're out. When we're sitting quietly, she's sitting or sleeping near us, never whining or looking for something to do. When we're running, she's keeping up happily, and obviously loving every minute. (When I took her out to potty this morning, she got super excited when she thought we were gonna go running again and tried to immediately go to the car. I think she was confused when I didn't let her in.)
This is her favorite thing to do in the house, really. As long as she's in the same room as us, she is content.
  • She's perfectly calm around our cat. Not that Whiskey has made many appearances since Tuesday... but she will slink around the edges of the room, and come up to investigate the new addition. Usually the dog ignores her, but one time there was a bit of a chasing incident (they are, after all, cats and dogs) so we're just keeping the dog on the leash in the house for the time being.
There's just a few things I'm worried about right now, mostly regarding her getting settled. She's still not eating much, if anything. She had a whole 2 cups of food after I left for work last night, which was an amazing accomplishment for her. She's not interested in any treats but chicken and Natural Balance dog rolls, rarely drinks, and won't play with any of her toys. I'm attributing it to nerves from being in a new situation, and hoping it goes away.

We're pretty sure she has separation anxiety as well. She follows us everywhere around the house (and outside, for that matter), and doesn't want to go out into our fenced backyard without us. We have to force her out if she does, and then she just sits by the door. Her first night home she was perfectly quiet in her crate alone in the basement, but the second night we brought her crate into our room when she started whining and I started stressing, and last night Brit kept her in there in case she needed to go out after actually eating something for the first time. In fact, we've really never had to leave her alone. Brit's home while I'm at work, and while he's at school, I take the dog running with my friend in Orem. It's nice that we can spend so much time with her, but we really need to start putting her by herself for a few minutes at a time so she gets used to it!

She still doesn't have a name (obviously, as I've been calling her The Dog this whole time). Our current top contenders are Chess, or River. Bodi was recently eliminated because I seem to be the only one who likes it, but I think it fits her best. Bella also fits her well, but I worry that people will get the wrong idea. Any suggestions? I'm going to put up a poll in the sidebar. Vote on my dog's name!


I love my puppy!!!

Wednesday, August 5

"Pal"

This is what happens when two important members of the family are missing on the most anticipated vacation of the year:
  • The sun makes only a few appearances, preferring to hide behind clouds
  • Pre-rain wind storms crop up so badly the anchors have to be redone
  • The generator goes out on the houseboat
  • The batteries lose so much life that the TOILETS stop flushing before the backup generator arrives
  • The seawater pump on Branch Office (my father-in-law's boat) starts leaking, rendering the main boat essentially unuseable
  • The friend coming down halfway through the week accidentally brings the wrong replacement part
  • The local boat shop that said they would overnight the new pump in for us somehow fails to get it before we have to leave
  • Something goes wrong with the OTHER boat (my brother-in-law's) and he has to pull it out and grease..... something or other.... I'm not really a boat person, ok?
Lake Powell missed you, Ryan and Heather!!

This is the end of the post as far as they are concerned.

Actually, the week was pretty amazing. It's hard not to be. It was exceptionally weird, especially the weather, and it made me smile a few times and really think "Aw, Lake Powell is sad cos Ryan and Heather aren't here!"

My parents were there for the first half of the week, and it was cool and cloudy until they left. The day they left, the sun came out and stayed out. Which turned out to be very convenient, since my mom doesn't handle the heat very well, and that's what she was most nervous about. (I actually wore PANTS one day! That's craziness!)

Branch Office wasn't ACTUALLY unuseable. We were afraid it would be, but then we started using it anyway, and even though we couldn't take any big day trips, we went out plenty of times as a family (minus 3) to hike Split Rock, wakeboard, tube, and sit in the boat and read like lazybums while the babies slept. Honestly, boat rides are the BEST nap-inducer in the world.

Toward the end of the week, our canyon became the Grand Central Station of passing boats. It was nuts. SO MANY people came buzzing through, including a Super Cool speedboat full of bikini girls and guys with stylish hair jumping off cliffs and shooting videos for VooRay. Meanwhile, the entire family sat in adirondack chairs on the beach under an Easy-Up shade watching the kiddos play in the water, with bowls of chips and salsa and binoculars to better watch and mock the people across the lake. It was a bonding experience. Look for videos of our awesomeness to appear on VooRay.com any day now.

I went tubing twice... Gary really knows how to manipulate the boat for maximum pain. I caught air several times. I went wakeboarding a few times, and managed to get outside the wake behind Branch Office on my last run the morning we left. (Trust me, that's an accomplishment. I suck at wakeboarding, and Branch Office has a scary big wake (actually I just suck at wakeboarding)).

I had so much fun. And honestly, my favorite part is hanging out with family. I have the most awesome in-laws. I can't wait for next year!