A Funny Way to Sleep

Kermit and I went to the gym today and the silly boy decided to sleep with his face all squished up near the door on the way there.    What a silly puppy.

Rainbow season!

It's finally here.... Rainbow Season in Colorado.  I love this time of year because we get lots of strange thunderstorms, while at the same time the sun is shinning.  It makes for great rainbows.  These look the same as last year but I still can't help taking pictures and posting them.

It was actually a complete rainbow but I didn't want to go out in the rain to get a full shot.  If you look closely here, you can see a second one forming behind the first one. 

Keep reading below - two posts today. 

Such a sweet dog!

Alex and I have really enjoyed having Kermit this weekend.  He is one of the sweetest guide dog puppies we have ever watched.  He is super cuddly, which I just love.  What Kermit doesn't know is that Anthony got home from Arizona yesterday.  I can't wait to see the goofball and give him a big hug!  He and Kermit are going to have a great week together playing.

Alex and Kermit played tug for almost an hour the other night.  

Isn't he a gorgeous puppy?

Kermit

Alex and I are watching Kermit for awhile.  He just turned 6 months old and is a super sweet puppy and in my opinion is very handsome as well.

Kermit and Alex get to know each other by doing a little "back time"

What a hadsome boy!  Look at the size of those paws.  He's gonna be big when he grows up. 

Time to get some energy out by playing tug in the backyard. 

A Day Off

I took a few vacation days for some R and R and finally had time to take some updated pregnancy pictures.

Everyone says my belly is really little but it feels huge to me. 

27 weeks.... only 13 more to go!

I have been feeling really tired and generally icky lately and I thought going on a hike would perk me up some.   So Alex and I went hiking today at a place near our house called The Devils Backbone.  It was a bit hot out but the walk and the fresh air did me a lot of good. 

View of the ridge on our way up - looking south.

A bit further along the trail but looking North instead. 

A happy pregnant girl, still glad she is avoiding bed rest.  I don't want to even think about what my blood pressure shot up to while I was hiking.  

Shot of the ridge on our way back down. 

Backyard friend

When we first moved into our house we had problems with moles in our back yard.  They made tons of babies and really made a giant mess out of our lawn.  We tried everything to make them go away but they wouldn't.  Then last year they suddenly disappeared.  We suspected that we must have a snake in our yard that was eating them.  We finally found the snake at the end of the summer and it was really tiny, I think there are actually two of them.

Well the snakes survived the winter again and Bree found them the other day and, I have never seen our cat run so fast back into the house in all my life.  Can a cat really be afraid of a snake?  This morning it was out sunbathing so I snapped a picture.  Its grown a lot.

I took this one from the deck with my zoom, I was afraid it would run away if I got to close.

I walked up close to it and got a better picture.  Anyone know what kind of snake it is?  I appreciate it helping to keep our backyard rodent free. 

Starting on the nursery

This past weekend we decided to start putting together the nursery.  We had received the crib and changing table we ordered a week or so ago and it has been sitting in our front room like a giant present just calling out to me "put me together....  you know you want to!"

Alex starting to put the crib together.

We moved into the nursery as we realized that once it was together it wouldn't fit though the doorway.  I only had to suggest that we "read the directions" a few times before we actually started using them. : )

And of course the puppies helped us throughout the whole process.  We were watching Betsy this weekend and had a surprise visit from miss Eve when she unexpectedly went into heat again.  She got to come play with us for the day so her raisers could go to a wedding party.  Don't periods just ruin everything sometimes?  Eve would have had fun at the party, but I think she enjoyed playing with us and Betsy too.   

Towards the end of putting the changing table together Bree, our cat, joined us to sit on the directions and make sure we knew what we were doing.  

The end product.  We're not done yet, but it is at least a start.  

My favorite part is the comforter.   Is it a surprise to anyone that we went with a puppy theme?

I love spring

We  have had a fairly rainy spring so far this year.  But it has made for great flowers!  I absolutely love lilacs and I love living somewhere where they thrive.  All over town there are huge lilac bushes in bloom.  And if you role down your windows as you drive you can smell them too.  Our lilacs are doing great this year and I have really enjoyed filling the house with the smell of these beautiful flowers.

Can you smell them?

This is miss Betsy, she is just over a year old and is spending the weekend with us.  She is so super sweet!  And she let us sleep in this morning, what a great Guide Dog she will be!  She enjoyed helping me cut lilac's, she seems to enjoy the smell of them too. 

A Crazy Week

The last two weeks have been pretty busy for us, thus no blog updates, sorry.  We had two puppies this past weekend, Anthony and a friends non GDB puppy Zora.  They are a lot of fun together but I still don't understand where puppies get all of the endless energy from.  We took the two of them to Lory state park near our house and they both had a blast.  Zora got to go swimming and Anthony, like a good guide dog puppy just explored the shore line.

Alex walked ahead of me on the trial and I waddled behind him with Anthony. 

The puppies sniffed EVERYTHING while we sat and relaxed in the sun.

The water was really cold.  Zora loved it but we couldn't let Anthony go in, we think it is against GDB rules.  But he wasn't at all interested in going in anyways, so it worked out well. 

I don't know what is so exciting about dirt but both of the puppies tails are straight up and they were very excited to be sniffing the mud. 

After baths and dinner, we finally had two very tired puppies.  Yeah!

what a cuttie

Good news, we didn't get any more snow last night!  Today was actually sunny, warm and beautiful.  On a different note, last night was our monthly GDB meeting.  The club has three new puppies, all of which are just so amazingly cute.  Below is Lacey, she just turned 11 weeks old and is one of the most laid back puppies I have ever seen. 

Miss Lacey snored through most of the meeting.

Again?!? Really?!?

There is a saying out here in Colorado.... "Don't like the weather?  Wait 10 minutes, it will change."  This spring has made this phrase seem so true.  It is the middle of May and we had a beautiful warm weekend and this morning we awoke to 3-4 inches of very wet heavy snow on the ground again.  They are predicting another 1-3 inches tonight and it is suppose to be back in the 70's by the end of the week.  What a crazy state I live in.

My Beautiful lilac bush, covered in snow.

I really hope the snow doesn't kill the buds, they were just about to fully bloom.

Good Morning Fort Collins!

A fun family outing.

Alex and I have been waiting for the weather to be nice on the weekend so we could go down to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.   We finally had a nice sunny yet cool day.  So we packed up Anthony and headed down to the Springs.   It was a great day and it felt so good to be out for a hike!  Below are a bunch of pictures from the day.

The view from the car heading into Colorado Springs - That is Pikes Peak in the distance - it is over 14,000ft tall. 

View from the car of part of the park.

Alex and Anthony at the beginning of our walk.

Today was really good training for Anthony.  He is a fantastic dog but his two greatest weaknesses are kids and other dogs.  This park was absolutely overflowing with both.  It was a great opportunity to work on his distraction problems.   By the end of the 2 mile hike he was doing a lot better. 

Say Cheese

That's a big rock.

I forgot my set of filters at home and I was too tired tonight to mess with my pictures in the computer so forgive me if some of the pictures are not the best quality.

Anthony poses for us again.

 

It was actually really hard to take pictures of Anthony alone today.  There were so many people and other dogs around that I didn't want to let go of his leash.  We had to wait until there were gaps in the crowd.  And in a lot of the pictures Alex is actually standing right by him, I just took it so you can't see him.  Anthony is so good at the wait command that I probably could take pictures of him with a circus behind me but I am always cautious. 

What a pretty and patient boy!

Anthony and I take a breather. 

I just couldn't help taking pictures of the goofball with such pretty backgrounds. 

View as we climbed up the hill side.

Don't worry he is not really on the edge of a cliff, it just looks that way.  Can you see pikes peak in the background?

Both Alex and Anthony were so patient today with my constant picture taking.  I love them both so much!

Alex asked me to crawl up in the rocks for a picture,  It was a bit challenging with my "bump" but I made it.  

One last shot as we headed out.