Today was an absolutely beautiful day. So we decided to all go to the Beaver Pond together. I was so excited because it's rare now that we ever get to do things all together anymore. So off we went.
It was absolutely perfect. The weather was great, we had the whole place to ourselves, and we were together. Since no one else was around the girls got to be off leash the entire time.
Just as we started the walk, mom found a snake. Of course Mike had to try and catch it - which he easily did. At first Asami didn't want to get near it as it looked slimy. Mike convinced her it was slimy at all and convinced her to touch it.
Hmmm, not so bad. So then Mike convinced to hold it.
Mike then put the snake back and it easily slithered away. But the terror had just begun. Asami was all upset that her hand now smelled like "nature." I had her wipe her hand on some bushes. While this wasn't perfect, at least she could continue on the walk. Ha ha. Silly Asami. But I give her kudos for holding it! She's come a long way since she was little.
We got to the first bridge and looked out over the Beaver Pond.
It's really pretty and often times there is a lot to see. We didn't really see all that much today but Wazzu thought she'd better look just in case.
Sure enough, Wazzu spotted a duck.
This isn't wildlife but I still thought it was a beautiful sight!
Normally we can see a lot of turtles sunning themselves on the logs. But it must have been too warm as we couldn't find any turtles. Finally I spotted one. But it was pretty far away so you'll have to look really closely to see it.
We also saw some beautiful cattails.
Mom decided she'd walk Boogie as Mike was walking Slugger and I was trying to take pictures. The problem she learned very quickly is that Boogie has a lot of energy - and he doesn't go in a straight line much. He'd run back a ways to sniff something and then zoom forward trying to catch up to Sparkie. Poor Mom was running all over the place just as fast as she could go.
As we were walking along we suddenly noticed that Sparkie was missing. Then we noticed a tree that was spewing dirt. Huh? You guessed it. It wasn't the tree at all.....it was Sparkie inside the tree!
Of course Boogie wants to be just like Sparkie so he wanted to go under the tree and help dig. But we didn't let him go as we weren't sure we'd be able to get him out! He got covered with dirt as Sparkie was digging just as fast as she could. It was going all over him but he didn't care one bit.
The dogs were really happy when we got to the creek. The girls splashed all around, Slugger did his usual stand in the water and punch at ....who knows what, and Boogie - he just wanted to do whatever Sparkie did. Sparkie, however, leapt across the creek in one bound. Boogie had to walk across.
But that didn't deter him one bit. He's not afraid of the water at all. Somehow he made it across and once again started his training for the dogwalk.
After leaving the creek, we once again had to cross a bridge. Asami decided to cross it a little differently than the rest of us.
Wazzu saw how proud we were of Boogie for walking across the little log at the creek and decided she should show us all how it's really done. Now who are we proud of?
Shortly after that we came across a tree that had fallen in the storm this past winter. It's amazing how such a skinny tree can have such a wide root span. You can see how large this is in comparison to the height of people.
Dad saw the dogs practicing their dogwalk skills on logs so he thought he would try as well! I was actually taking a picture of mom and Asami but was lucky enough to capture dad and his great balancing skills.
Somehow Boogie could figure out how to walk the length of a log but couldn't quite figure out how to jump over. I have no doubt he'll figure it out pretty soon as I swear he is quite a bit bigger each day.
After all this walking, Asami was excited to see a chair made out of the root of a very large tree and decided to take a rest. As you can see, Sparkie is thinking maybe somebody is up in the tree.
We made it back and Boogie had run the whole way. Mom had him for the first half and Asami had him the second half. He tired both of them out! We really thought we were going to have to carry him most of the way since he had been awake all morning. He'd had a huge playtime in the off-leash area then when we got to mom and dad's house, Boogie and Sparkie wrestled for a good hour before we went on the walk. The walk around the Beaver Pond is about two miles and Boogie ran back and forth a lot so he definitely did more than two miles. I'm pretty sure we can't tire this little guy out.
On the way back, we stopped about three miles from home and let dad and Sparkie out. They then jogged the rest of the way home. We thought that might be a little much for Boogie. But of course Sparkie thought it was easy.
All this walking and jogging can make you hungry - especially on such a hot day. So we piled back in the cars and went to Cold Stone for some really good ice cream. Asami should have brought a couple of the dogs along as she couldn't come close to finishing her ice cream. The bowls look so little - but they pack a lot of ice cream in them so she got the same size as Mike. That's a lot of ice cream - at least for me and now we know it's too much for Asami as well. It sure hit the spot though. In fact, we were all so full that none of us wanted dinner.
Being Wednesday it's the sailing club's day to get together and go out on the water. There wasn't any wind today so not many boats were out but it was still pretty.
Unfortunately, the time came for Asami to leave. It was really hard to say goodbye. We managed to hold our tears until she was out of sight.
Asami, have fun on the rest of your stay. We'll miss your smiling face. Please come back soon.
Debbie
8/1/07
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