We Had Such a Fun Weekend!

Well, the entire week was great, but the weekend was PAWSOME!

On Friday morning, we woke up to snow!!!

Friday 4:45am, Abby surveying the snow

We thought Mom would be happy to allow us to play in the snow before she went to work, but apparently she was all into hustling us back inside.  What a kill-joy!

When Mom was at work, we surveyed the Winter Wonderland from our observation deck.

"How long do you think this will stick around?"  "Noon.  Maybe."

And our snow did melt pretty quickly, but that didn't mean we didn't get to enjoy it.

When Mom got home from work, she took us on a walkie, and we checked out the remnants of the snow, and the last of the fall colors.

"We'll be doing snow zoomies in no time!"

While the plows had cleared off the streets, there was still some snow at our house.  Although someone was pretty much sick of posing for photos at this point.  Me?  I knew there were sausage treats as soon as the photo shoot was over.

"Abs - the longer you look grumpy, the longer we'll have to sit here."  "Mom will give in.  Trust me."

Mom took pity on us and just forked over the sausage treats.

While most of our snow was gone by Saturday, we were still able to get in a little early-season frisbee funballs in snow.

 

The key to a great season of Winter Frisbee Funballs is early season training, and we got in a great session! 

By Sunday, most of our snow was gone but Mom kept looking across the canyon, talking about how the fall colors would be gone soon...

Aforementioned fall colors.

And she thought a hike on the trail that loops around that hill would be fun.  So early Sunday afternoon we hit the trails.  It was an absolutely beautiful day!  Mom was a little surprised at how much snow was still on the ground, but it didn't stop us, as we are Intrepid Hikers!   BTW, biggify these photos for full effect.

"Follow me, Abs!  I was hiking these trails with Mom when you were nothing more than a thought!"

Wheee!  Snow!  Fall leaves!  Moose tracks!  It doesn't get any better than this!

Onward and upward!

"Abs, this is a Perfect Sunday Afternoon!"  "Yuh.  We should demand snowy trails and clear blue skies all the time!"

To humor Mom, we stopped for a few "photo ops."

"Why yes, we DO enhance the scenery!"

"Yeah, yeah - beautiful trees, beautiful doggies.  Now let's get a move on!"

Mom heeded our wishes and we continued on with the hike.

"Look at all the snow!  And the mud!  This is AWESOME!"

"Abs, are we The Luckiest Doggies ever, or what?"

I can see why Mom wanted to come up and look at the trees before all the leaves fall off!

Once we made it to the top (well, the top of the trail we were on - we could have gone higher up, but Mom is still getting over her sickies, and she didn't want to "push it" - she's feeling better, but she's still "recuperating"),  we started heading back down.  This part of the loop takes us through an aspen grove, and Mom kept snapping photos.

"C'mon Mom!  There are trees to be seen and mud puddles to be explored!"

"Follow the muddy brick road!"

Did I mention that we are Super Lucky doggies?

Mom keep looking up and oohing and aahing at the trees and the sky, so we let her take a picture that didn't include us.  But only one!

Okay, enough scenery.  Back to us!

"Abs, stick with me - we'll find the best mud!"

"And the best snow!"

"We should do this more often!"  "Definitely!"

"This was a Totally Pawsome hike!"  "Totally.  Maybe Mom will take us snowshoeing this winter."

It was a GREAT hike, and a beautiful day!  The perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

AND, it wore the Hippobottomus out. 

At least for a little bit.  Which is all anyone can hope for.

Because she'll be back to this in no time...

Sproing!

Have a great week!

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

Another day in the life...

As we anxiously await the RH's decision as to who the lucky gal will be who gets to go on a dream date with him, Abby and I have been amusing ourselves in the usual ways... hiking, walking, barking at things... the usual. As Jed and Abby (the other Abby, not my sister Abby...) sagely pointed out, we actually have had our dream date with Mango, so if he doesn't pick us, that's okay - we'll always have the bobsled! And we got the chance to meditate with the RH - how cool is that?!?

So, what have we been up to? Well, a couple of days ago, this deer decided to wander into our backyard. We were barking at crazy like her through the kitchen window, and I think she kept looking at us like, "What are you making so much noise about? Miserable beasts!" Or maybe that was Mom. It's hard to say. Anyway, I think she must have been a youngster, and not accustomed to being barked at from behind glass windows, because she hung around for a while... (The pictures look a little funny because Mom took them from inside the house - something about how Mom didn't want us to go play chase with the deer...)


Mom took us on a hike yesterday; our neighborhood has miles and miles and miles of single-track hiking paths, and there are access points all over the place - we've got 3 trail heads within a half mile of our house. Dad's still not allowed to go hiking where he could stumble over rocks, roots, dogs, etc, and fall, so this was our Quality Time With Mom. Abby thinks she's the alpha dog (she's not, I just let her think she is...), so she leads, even though she's not as intrepid a hiker as I am, and so she kept tugging at Mom while Mom was trying to snap some pictures (hence the quality - or lack thereof - of the next few pictures...)...

See.... What a doofus... I tried to guide her in spots, but she's a bit of a trail hog...

We love going on hikes in the mountains, and Mom assures us that we'll be doing more of this.

However, we also like going on walks with Dad, too. And we've been keeping Dad healthy by making him go on LOTS of walkies with us.

Abby and I both gave heartfelt sighs as we passed the Olympic Park. We'll never be able to walk by that again without thinking of Mango standing at the top of the 120K ski jump. Heehee!


All of our walk is on a MUT (multi-use trail), which crosses wetlands and borders neighborhoods. It makes for all kinds of interesting sights. We love this sign - these people speak our language!


(Okay, okay... we'll poop elsewhere... besides, Mom and Dad always carry baggies with them anyway...)

Anyhoo... we were walking along, minding our own business...


When we saw this family of herons!


Awww. Aren't the little ones so cute?!? I wanted to get a closer look...


But apparently Dad Heron was feeling rather protective of his family.


He squawked at us to leave him and his family alone, and once we got the hint, he joined up with his birdie family (although I think he was still keeping an eye on us...).


Pretty cool stuff, huh?

In addition to the birdies, this trail also has a little park, and I ALWAYS make sure Mom and Dad stop at the park for some tennis ball time!


And after the park, we cross more wetlands toward the smaller White Barn (there's another Big White Barn on another part of the trail, but it's miles and miles from where we are here...)


Once we get past the barn, there are a whole bunch of 'pot guts' (or prairie dogs, if you prefer). I always want to check them out, but Mom says I should leave them alone so they can sun themselves...


I just wanna say hi....


But no.... Dad and I keep walking...


Abby, on the other hand, is bit of a hot dog, and she gets thirsty quickly, so Mom has to stop and give the beastie some water...


It's a great walk, and you can see why this trail is one of our favorite places to walk!

Oh, and when we haven't been hiking and walking and chatting with wildlife, we've been hanging out.

Did I mention Abby thinks she the alpha dog? Yeah.... Apparently the Puppy Hat is the summer's hottest fashion accessory! Heehee.

Happy Sunday!

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

PeeEss: Mom thought we should change our header photo, so people didn't think we still had tons of snow. The higher elevations have snow and the runoff is pretty strong right now, but we are totally snow-free! (For a month or so...)

PeePeeEss: Sorry if we've been slacking on visiting bloggies - it's all Mom's fault - something about being 'fried out' after the hiking, and taking care of Dad, and stuff. We're making the rounds, but slowly.