More snow?!?! REALLY???

So we are having yet another strange spring storm. The weather man predicts we will either get over 6 inches of rain or 3 feet of snow. Hmmm.... do you think they could narrow that prediction down a bit for us? So far it has been stuck right at 36 degrees so it is snowing but it melts when it hits the ground. Occasionally it dumps an inch of hail and some ice and then goes back to snow for awhile before becoming rain. All of my spring flowers have died from two days of snain, rain and hail. We have gotten so much precipitation that all of of the lakes in town look like they are about to spill over. And next week it is suppose to be 75 degrees. We live in such a crazy state.

Happy Easter!

We had fun plans to celebrate Easter this weekend but due to the crud I have brought home, there was nothing left to do but lay in bed and whine and then get up and bake cookies in an attempt to feel better. Not the best cookies or icing I have ever made but at least between them and my parents package I felt a bit better about not being able to celebrate the holiday.

Still Sick and really board!

I am still really sick and I am really getting tired of sitting on the couch or laying in bed. Gardner keeps checking on me to make sure that I am ok. Every time I have a coughing fit he comes and sticks his nose in my face as if to say, "please don't die". I have been wearing a baseball hat; haven't had the energy to do my hair, and this afternoon I was so board that I put it on Gardner. He looked so cute that I got some of my other hats and took some pictures. What a good sport.

Gardner as a Wake Forest Fan!

Gardner shows off his love for New Belgium's Sunshine Wheat.

Gardner as Sherlock Holmes

I know that Gardner is a boy and it may be mean to put my peppermint stick hat on him but it is one of my favorites and I just couldn't resist.

Gardner in my Egypt hat. Doesn't he look demure?

I don't know what to call this one, but it was just too cute not to post.

It is really difficult to get pictures of a puppy in hats. He really didn't want to keep them on. Guess I can't blame him. At least he brought a smile to my pathetic sick face.

What a Gentleman!

I have been really sick this weekend and have spent a lot of time laying on the couch watching Gardner lay on his bed. This is his favorite position. What a modest gentleman! I think he is a bit mad at me because I was too sick for us to go on our typical long Saturday morning walk and yoga class.

Things were going so well

I was talking with Shawna at the GDB meeting tonight and saying how good Gardner has been so far this week. When we got home from the meeting Alex told me that I had better look in "Gardner's" room for a surprise. This is one of our guest rooms that has nothing in it but a chest of drawers and a futon. We really should put him in the crate but Alex always likes to leave him in the guest room when he goes to class. We really didn't think there was any way he could or would destroy or eat any thing in here. Well, as we should know by now, if left unattended and there is something Gardner can put in his mouth he usually will put it there. When I opened the door and turned on the light this is what I found.

Gardner had ripped open one of the pillows and obviously had fun playing with it.

GDB Meeting

This months GDB meeting was kind of sad. Alex, Bloomer and Dusty all went back this past week. They hopefully will make great guide dogs but they will be missed. Below are the puppies that are left. We all gave the puppies to non-raisers to see how they do.

Below is Gabrina patiently awaiting her next command.

Here all the puppies are practicing their "wait" command.

And here they are practicing walking in a circle without sniffing each other and not pulling on the leash.

new blanket - so spoiled

I really think I need to have kids soon because I am making way to many things for Puppies. I found the cutest fabric this past weekend and just had to make Gardner a blanket out of it. So far I have used it more than he has but I am sure he will get some use out of it.



On a side note, I was pulling out of our garage today when I looked into our front yard and there was a pair of ducks in our front yard. I guess that is what you get for living on a lake. You have to look closely, I don't have a zoom on my iPhone.

A Good Helper

I spent today cleaning the house. Gardner had to help me with every bit of it. He likes to chase and play with the vacuum cleaner. I was sitting on the steps hand vacuuming each step and Gardner sat a step or two above me and would move up as I moved up. He just looked so cute that I had to snap a picture.

He kept trying to sneak up on the attachment and play with it.

Gardner loves his new pillow, I suspect because I made it extra fluffy. The pillows are going to be huge for our next young little puppy but oh well. I am working on making some smaller ones.

What a camera ham!

Gadner has a busy morning.

Gardner is back with us for two weeks! Yippeee! We had a busy day today. It started off with him taking a shower with me and getting all clean and spiffy to go see his Yoga buddies.

Doesn't he look pathetic? Yet after I got him dried off a bit, I got back in the shower to finish rinsing off and he wanted back in the shower with me. So don't let him fool you, he enjoys it.

He just looks so darn cute when he is all wet.

After running around and going a bit nuts while I was trying to dry him off, he was told "that is enough" and finally laid down and chilled for awhile.

Everyone at my Saturday morning yoga class loves it when Gardner comes. He normally sits behind me like a good puppy should but occasionally he crawls underneath me and flops on his back causing us all to laugh. I brought my camera this week and Klara, our awesome instructor, snapped some pictures of Gardner when he was acting up. Our mats are set up in a circle so that is why you only see a few people.

Gardner being a good boy, sitting quietly on the end of my mat. I think he must be getting his summer coat in, because he was shedding so badly today at class that I kept coughing up hair balls from breathing in all of his hair that was on my mat.

A few minutes later he quietly snuck his way under me and flopped onto his side.

A pose or two later he rolled on to his back and wanted to play. In the picture I am reaching down to correct him and make him move back to the blanket near the mirror.

Gardner likes to snuggle up with me during Shavasana. He slept a bit and gave me kisses on my checks too.

After Yoga Gardner went to IHOP with Alex and I. They know him by name there and always give us a great table just for him. Today when we walked in the waitress said "A table for three?" After lunch Gardner ran a bunch of errands with me and was an Angle as usual.

It is April, Isn't it?

It was 70 yesterday and this morning we woke up with over 1/2 a foot of wet snow on the ground. I feel like I have written this before, but seriously, it's April isn't it? Should it still be snowing? We have hardly had any snow this winter so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Our backyard this morning.

A forgotten video

I was cleaning up my camera SD cards after our ski vacation when I came across a video of Gardner dreaming that I had forgotten to post. I thought I would post it now just for kicks. Its not one of the best dreams I have seen him have but is still cute. Make sure you have your volume all the way up when you watch it. He barks and chases things a lot in his dreams.

A Dream Come True!

Our cabin first thing this morning.

When we woke up this morning we had over 8 fresh inches of snow and it was still coming down. We packed up and headed out ASAP to Winter Park. We were some of the first people on the slopes and it was like a dream! It was the first time since I have learned to ski that ALL of the runs were covered in over a foot of fresh powder by the time we got there and were nearly untouched. There are not enough words for how amazing it was! The upper most runs and lifts were closed because of the winds - gusts up to 60 MPH.

This is the view of the Mary Jane Run fist thing in the morning.

Here comes Alex down Mary Jane and loving the powder.

However, just a few minutes later, this is Alex after a beautiful spill. His helmet flew off with his goggles and got full of snow. Poor guy had a cold head for awhile.

Trees along the runs.

Alex and I spent a lot of time today in the trees. The powder there is amazing and it is so much fun to zip in and out between them. I came out from a clump of trees onto a run that was full of Moguls but I didn't see them and when I hi them I went flying up in the air and landed on my face. Alex snapped some pictures of me right after I had flipped over and was trying to get up.

Skiing in powder over a foot deep is challenging but a ton of fun. We both spent a lot of time on the ground today.

Luckily all of the fresh snow makes for a soft landing.

A view of the trees we were skiing in and out of. It was so quiet, soft and beautiful. By 3pm the storm got worse and the snow was really falling like mad. The wind was howling and we couldn't even see the slopes. The temp was more than -10 degrees out so we decided to call it a day and head home. Below is Alex being pelted with snow, notice you can't even see the trees behind him.

The past four days has been an amazing adventure!

A relaxing day at Breckenridge.

I expected to hurt all over when I got up this morning, after our workout at Vail, but by some miracle I didn't. We decided to take it easy today and went to Breckenridge. It was really windy so all of the fun stuff up at the top was closed. We just took it easy on the blues. It was probably a good thing that the wind had kicked up because we were both really tired. We ended up only skiing for about three hours before heading down into the village and walking around.

Views from the top of peak seven.

This was my first trip to Breck and they have the best ski town by far! It is just so darn cute I could just wander around for hours. Alex wanted some ice cream so we wandered through the town a bit and found a shop that sold the fun hats that you put on top of your helmets while skiing. I thought maybe y'all could give us your opinions on a few of them.

This was my favorite of all of all of them.

What a sexy guy!

Luckily we didn't walk around for too long because just as we got over the pass on the way back to our awesome little cabin another winter storm hit. We plan to ski at Winter Park tomorrow so yippee for fresh snow! I just hope it isn't so much that we can't get out tomorrow night. Our cats might get mad at us if we don't get home tomorrow. God forbid bailey goes a day without food.

This is the entrance to the hospital in Breck. How great must the views from their bed's be?

This was the view out of our cabin tonight. This morning you could see huge mountains and now there is nothing but snow and trees.

Yet another great day at Vail

We had another amazing day of skiing today. We decided to go to Vail for the day. The drive there was spectacular! The mountains were all covered in snow and the morning sunshine looked so beautiful. We even passed a big group of rocky mountain sheep on the side of the road. Their horns always look so cool.

Vail was amazing as always. We have gotten so lucky to have sunshine every time we go up there. We really challenged ourselves today. We spent most of the day taking on the amazing back bowls! There is no place like the back bowls of Vail! It took us almost an hour to make it to the bottom of one of the bigger ones. We finished off the day by tackling the double black diamond runs. By the time the lifts stopped running I hurt in places I didn't know I had! Overall though I was really proud of myself that I could make it down a double black diamond, especially since I just started skiing last year.

This is the top of the Sun Down bowl. It was really warm out and the snow was so soft.

This is me about half way down Sun Down Bowl.

At most resorts out here you can find a spot on one lift where the trees are decorated with strange stuff people throw in them. For example, at keystone there are a group of trees off of one of the lifts that are covered in colorful beads. On the way up on chair five at Vail, there are several trees covered in ladies underwear and bras. There are beads too of course. The sight of them always makes me smile. I tried to get a picture, didn't turn out great but I think you will get the idea.

I didn't have anything easily removable for the tree, how sad.

Another beautiful day at Vail.

View from one of the eight back bowls.

View from a lift in he back. I just love the way the pine trees look when they are all covered with snow.

The lodge where we went to get warm and eat lunch was covered in icicles. They were really beautiful.

Our view during lunch.