Peru at 40!

For my 40th birthday I wanted to do something special to celebrate.  Through a long chain of events I ended up going to Peru and trecking from Cuzco to Manchu Pichu.  I did not do the traditional trail that most people do but rather did the one that goes up and over the mountains.  We were up as high as 16,500 ft at one point.  I went with my friend Maddie and we spent several days in Cuzco and then went on our trek with Alpaca Expeditions.   It was the most amazing 5 days and by far possibly some of the most challenging and wonderful of my life!   I haven't had time to pull the pictures of the trip from my nice camera but below area  few that I took with my phone.

We only were aloted a very small back for our hike.  So we packed everything for two weeks, including a sleeping bag and mat into these small bags!  I was very impressed with us!!

were excited!!!!    Were off!!!

Maddie and I bought the jackets we have on from the lady in the picture.  She made them and they were absolutely beautiful!!!

While we were there they had an election for president.  It was crazy the kind of protests we saw and the armored guards and such that were around to protest the candidates. 

I finally gave in the last day before we went home and paid to have my picture taken with the cute baby lamb. 

Fresh squeezed orange juice is the best ever!!!!

This is who we did our tour with.  They were great!

We had handed over all of our essentials to the tour and we loaded our day packs... it was 4am and we were off to hike for a week!!

We are headed up that valley for our hike!

The first morning of our hike!  The views were spectacular!  At this spot we are at about 14,500ft and we stopped here for lunch before doing the 16,000 ft pass..  The mountain in this picture is about 23,000 ft high!

That is a very small bridge that was made of dirt that went over a very deep deep deep canyon.  I am not sure how it was held together.  I felt like it was something out of Indian Jones or something.

After 5 amazing days of spectacular scenery we reached Manchu Pichu.  We went up at sunrise.  It was a spectacular experience!

Had to do a sunrise selfie!  It was such a challenging hike and I went through a lot to get there and I am so glad to say that I did it!!!

This is one of Maddie's favorite fruits.  They are actually really yummy and sweet but it took some convincing to get me to try it. 

Fried Rodent anyone?

They had lots of traffic police in Cusco and they were all women and they were AMAZINGLY BADASS!!

Hanging out in the parks of Cusco after the hike.

I love the people of Peru!!

At this market they had probably over 20 types of potatoes for sale. 

How many types of potatoes does one need?

Central and south american Armies marching through the streets with big guns always fascinate me. 

With my left over change I bought this super fuzzy bear made out of alpaca fur.  

It was an amazing trip of a lifetime!!!!

cone of shame and other cute pictures.

Obie was scheduled to be neutered and finally we got the letter and the big day came.  He had to wear a "cone of shame" for two weeks because he just wouldn't leave the incision alone.  The funny thing was that he did seem to understand that the cone was really there and he would run in to everything with it on.  We tried to put bright colored duck-tape on it to see if that would help but it didn't.   He was just basically a mess for a few weeks.  Poor guy!

Obie in his Cone of shame.

The cone didn't seem to bother him to much he still would just sleep however and wherever he wanted.... the goof ball!

Ethan went to a dinosaur class put on by the city and Grandma took a sneak picture of  him during it. 

The boys having fun at Matthew's school's fall festival. 

beautiful fall colors!!

It is so sad how terribly behind I am in posting all of this but better late then never I guess.  We all went for a drive up to Estes one Saturday to see the fall colors and they were beautiful!!!

I still don't know where that Blonde Blonde hair came from. 

Matthew was into being an artist and kept drawing everything that he was seeing.  It was very adorable. 

Still being and artist and drawing this beautiful yellow tree.  He was so serious about it too. 

He had to capture it all. 

It took us FOREVER to walk the short walk way because he had to keep stopping to draw everything.  We didn't mind though. 

Ethan really did not want to have his picture taken... this was the best I could get.  : (

At least Daddy cooperated. 

One more artist shot. 

Ethan was so brave walking on the wall

After our short walk we played with rocks and general "nature" stuff. 

I never get tired of this view!

A couple weeks later I went for a hike with my friend Brianna and we carried her daughter in the backpack most of the way.  But at the end she wanted to walk to the car.  She is really teething and she likes to walk while chewing on this blanket.... so cute!

Hives in Guide Dog Puppy = Coccidia

Willoughby and I came back from a lunch meeting and within about an hour of the meeting I looked down at him and said....WOAH WHAT THE HECK!!!!   I thought maybe he had been stung by a bee or something.  I couldn't figure out what could have happened laying next to my feet in a meeting.   It kept getting worse and worse.  I gave an appropriate dose of benadryl and kept a close eye on him but I was really worried.  His mouth was huge and swollen beyond belief and then......

Look how big his poor little nose and mouth is.

Within about 30 minutes he looked like this and had started to whimper.  I was really starting to get scared and had no idea what had happened.   He had been with me the entire time so I know he didn't eat anything. 

Then all of a sudden these started showing up...  After some thinking, I realized that this must be what hives looks like in Dogs.   I had already call my vet and was awaiting a call back. 

I sat down with him in between patients and he just sat in my lap.  The poor thing obviously did not feel well.

I took him over to my nurse and asked her to keep him at her desk in case he had any sort of problems while I was in with patients.  I called my hubby and asked him to come get him. 

By the time I got home that night the poor guy looked like this!!!!   I was able to reach one of our leaders and when I showed her the picture she calmly said..."oh, he has coccidia. This is a bacteria that causes diarrhea in most dogs. 

Coccida?!?!?!  Why on earth would my puppy have hives all over from Coccida???  Our wonderful leader Sarah explained that it is a strange thing in GDB puppies that they get hives when they get it.  He had yet to have any diarrhea.    SO STRANGE!!!

Here you can see the hives as seen in is fur on his sides.  At this point he still has not had any diarrhea. 

I know beds are not allowed but he was so sick and I was afraid to not have him next to me in case he couldn't breath so I slept with him in my bed right next to me.   It was so obvious that this VERY energetic pup felt terrible.

The end of this sad story is that Sarah told me to take a stool sample and take him to the vet the next morning.  They emailed me data from GDB about this because apparently this is unheard of in regular dogs.  Sarah said that we may have a hard time convincing our vet that he had Cocidia.  Our vet was great!  She listened and agreed to treat him and then tested his stool.  His stool ended up being positive (it often apparently is negative for a long time).  Our vet was amazed and with in 6 hours of taking the antibiotic all of his hives were gone.   Such a strange presentation of a bacteria that causes diarrhea but I am so glad that he recovered quickly!!!

They are just so cute!

now that Matthew is at school he loves to walk over to his schools playground and play... they have a great playground!

Oh Phantom... You are so handsome.  What a good boy you are!

What a handsome face!

My two boys all tired out from their walk. 

Nothing like a good game of tag to make you laugh!!!

I can't believe my big guy is six and growing up so fast!

Obis is so handsome and SO HUGE for 6 months of age!!

!Yes Obie... I am asking you to get in the car.  I can stand here all day waiting for you.... "kennel! Obie.  swear the car won't bite you!  Are you worried you won't fit or something?"

Pokemon hunting... so much fun!

My friend Melissa and I took our kids down to Sunflower farm for an afternoon.  The boys had so much fun!

Baby cows!  They were so sweet and drank from bottles that we fed them. 

Playing in the sand at Sunflower farms. 

What an cool swing!

Say Cheese!

The boys loved the old plane that was on the property.  they could have played there for hours I think if we would have let them. 

I love my boys so much!!!

Obie, can that really be comfortable

Sound asleep together.. so cute... who sleeps with their legs crossed like that?