Is it spring yet? Yes, I think it might be!

Winter went on for what felt like forever. Well, what really happened was winter didn’t start until January. That was fine so we had more time to get acquainted before we had to deal with winter, but it’s gone on a bit too long. From what we understand, snow in May is common and a good thing because it’s moisture and in fire country, moisture is good in whatever form it comes in. But, we want to hike and explore and do all the things people tell us about. There is this mythical summer that everyone raves about and we’re ready. Finally, we seem to be getting there. Today was 70 and gorgeous and the week seems to be shaping up to be very nice.

So, what have we been up to while waiting for summer (or spring)? Here is a sampling of random photos that never got a post of their own. To start, we’ve  enjoyed getting out for some walks with the pooch, then it snows a foot, then we walk, then it snows a foot. Now, we’ve warmed a bit so that we have thunderstorms. And by thunderstorms, I mean thunder and little ice balls.

We saw our first deer in a while while driving Magnolia down to Boulder one evening. 

Erik has been getting out to ride his bike. He was sick of riding the trainer inside, so bit the bullet and put his tire back on and has been getting out for rides. And by rides I mean brutal inclines and a plethora of potholes (luckily the filled the road today so it’s better – they were nasty!). Thanks to Mel and Barry for the gear. He totally looks official with Tin Shed socks, leg warmers, bibs, jersey and jacket. I made him pose because I think he looks adorable 😉

We also instituted a new “no electronic devices after 8 pm rule” which has opened up our evenings a bit. We don’t have a tv, and without our iphone/ipad, we’ve been playing a lot of cribbage. I’ll gloat a little that when we started playing, I never won (ok, occasionally I won), but now we started keeping track and I have been winning more lately. It makes for some fun competition.

Dude is doing great, growing and learning everyday. His girlfriend Cairo (the neighbor puppy) comes over most weekdays and they play for hours outside. Luckily we have a huge fenced yard so they just run and play and fight over miscellaneous stuff they find (like bones – we have no idea where they all come from!). It’s awesome for our neighbors and awesome for us to have tired, exercised, socialized puppies. When it’s nice outside, they play and play and eventually collapse in the sunshine. Here is a rare moment of both of them resting.

Not much else new. Hopefully in the coming days I’ll do a few more updates including food, everyone’s favorite (seriously, we get a lot of likes and action on the food posts!) and yesterday’s hike. Stay tuned.

 

One Way to Exhaust the Entire Family

Take a hike. A serious hike.

Yesterday was beautiful – 60ish, sunny and gorgeous. Dude got a little toasty lying in the sun while we were waiting for our quiche breakfast to cook. But even when warm, he loves snuggles.

I should begin by saying we are wimps. When we got home, we realized that comparatively, this was an easy hike…ok, we’ll call it moderate out and back, but it about kicked our asses.  We have some work to do before we can do real-deal hiking. We had an end point in mind, but didn’t really know how far it was. It took us about 1.5 hours out, and the path leads toward the reservoir so it’s at least a gentle downward grade. There were some steep points, so we knew coming home would be a challenge. Luckily it was a beautiful day to enjoy some outdoor time.

The hike out was great. We had to trudge through a little snow in some shadier spots, but it wasn’t as deep as we’ve hiked in, so all things considered it was fine. Once we got out a bit, we had a nice filtered sun. Considering we ended up sunburnt (although we put on sunscreen – just forgot to do the neck!), I’m glad the sun wasn’t out in full force the whole time. The whole way out felt great. It was amazing to be back out, in the sun, midday with no hurry whatsoever.Views of the continental divide don’t hurt either 😉

About half-way out, I noticed a flower beside the trail. The was huge! Our first flower sighting in CO – like, BIG deal. We discovered it’s a  crocus, with what I understand is a common name of Pasqueflower. As you can see, they were short, with furry stems, but big beautiful flowers. Erik had to hold Dude back while we examined them because he bit off one of the flowers. 

Once we were nearly to our ending point, we looked back and saw the majestic snow-capped jagged peaks in the distance. With the white snow, blue sky and sunshine, they seemed to glow. Unfortunately pictures don’t do them justice, but you get the idea. We even attempted a family photo and as usual, Erik is making a funny face and Dude looks huge compared to me. When we got to the end of the route, we took a little break and had a snack. Dude took some time to chew on some animal leg he found along the way (and Erik was nice enough to carry it in his pocket for him to enjoy on our break). We rested for a bit, mentally preparing for the climbing to come. As expected, the way home was rough, especially the beginning part. It was so dramatically uphill and my lungs were burning. Luckily it evened out a bit after that early part, but was still hard with tiring legs.

On the way back, I spotted a cactus. Lower in Boulder, there are plenty of cacti, but we hadn’t seen many up here, so we were excited. This guy was so cute and little. Of course, Dude had to see what we were looking at and stepped right on it. He didn’t seem to care, but it was sharp!

By the time we got home, we were quite exhausted. Just tired feet, sore legs and ready to lay down. Dude had his tired face on.

We got home – after 3 hours out – and relaxed for a while. Dude went to lay down, got up for dinner and slept all evening. That was the most tired I’ve ever seen him. He was just like this for a good four hours. Tired puppies are good puppies (and adorable too).

This warm day has given us a glimpse of the awesomeness of the upcoming summer. Stay tuned for more adventures!

 

First grill-out

We enjoy grilling. In MN, our little smokey joe powered through many years of nearly weekly grill-outs. When we moved, the little smilie joe went to grill heaven.

Fast forward to now, it’s been 6 months without a grill. We’re ready for summer so we bought a new grill and used it last night for the first time. Ribeyes. My favorite. It was a nice sunny day. Unfortunately by the time we were ready for dinner, it wasn’t so nice.

Erik shoveled an area for our grill.

We had a nice time sitting around the grill like old times. Now we have a puppy to deal with and he was very interested in the smell of brats. But then he got cold and snuggled on my lap.

First time out was a success. Now for summer!

Dude does Boulder

Yesterday we had to be in Boulder in the morning to bring Erik to the transit station to take the bus to the airport for a quick MN trip. Dude had puppy kindergarten at noon, so he came along for the day’s festivities. We dropped off Erik and had plenty of time to kill, but it was really chilly and windy that morning so I struggled with what to do. I had a couple errands to run so we did those first – all the while Dude was in the back of the car. He doesn’t love it back there yet, so he props his front paws up over the back of the backseat. It’s not the safest option, but he’s actually pretty sturdy there on corners and such so it’s not all bad. He just doesn’t like being separate from us.

After a bit, it seemed to warm up a bit so we went for a walk. There is a creek that runs through town and trails follow it, sometimes with extra trails through wooded areas and small parks or sitting areas in others. The ducks were out in full force and the water was flowing steadily, so it’s a quite beautiful walk. There were a lot of people out, running, biking, heading to work, so it was a bit exciting for Dude. We met a very nice skateboarder who let Dude sniff the skateboard and check things out. Of course, he just wanted the guy’s coffee. Weird dog will do anything to get at your coffee. All the activity was good for Dude though, since our walks up here are lacking other people, dogs, bikes, skateboards, ducks…you know.

After our walk, I needed to get something to eat. I wanted to go somewhere with a patio so Dude could hang out with me, but it was still chilly so the patio had to be in the sun and I didn’t want to have to pay to park. There are a million awesome places in Boulder and I feel like I always go back to the same ones, but this time it was worth it. I chose the Walnut Cafe, which is next door to our chiropractor. I was a little discouraged to learn Dude could only be tied up by the bikes, which is a bit separate from the tables, but I was tired of looking and thinking, so we went for it. His leash reached almost to me, and he didn’t seem to mind. In puppy school, we work on a mat techniques so he knows the mat is a safe place to relax. We had a towel in the car, so I pulled it out and set it down. It was great so he knew to just lay down there and chill. I had a great breakfast, the sun came out and it was beautiful and it was all-around pleasant. At least 30 people walked by. He was excited about most of them. And about 90% went “OOhhhhh puppy! Can I pet him?” People love dogs, and they especially love puppies! It was good for him to meet so many new people and I could tell he was getting tired. He’s normally home, pretty chill in the mornings. Some playing, some chewing and some sleeping while I attempt to work is the usual routine. This out and about business was surely wearing him out.  But he looked cute doing it.

While eating my breakfast, the gals from the chiro were buzzing around. The doc wasn’t in yet since they didn’t open until 3, but they both (on separate occasions) stopped by to say hi to Dude. They both invited me in to do some traction while I was in the area. I had a bit of time to spare so Dude and I stopped in there after breakfast. He was smelling things and pulling on the weights, but manageable. After that, it was time for school. We learned ‘touch’ so the dog touches their nose to your open hand, which is useful for calling them to you or when you’re in a busy place. If they put their nose to your hand, you can lead them through the busy area or store or whatever. We also worked on making sure food or toy aggression doesn’t develop and we practiced go to your bed (or mat or crate). We already do this, so it was an easy one for us to work on. We also played a little and Dude’s nervousness around other dogs is all but gone. He played with two bigger, hyper dogs and did totally fine. After playing, he was worn out. This is why they tell you to bring a tired puppy to class. I never thought he’d do this with 7 other dogs around.

Totally calm and tired. After class, we headed home. He was so tired, but didn’t want to let me out of his site. He was sitting on his bed in the back with his chin on the back of the seat. I could see his eyes slowly closing in the mirror.

Finally he gave in and fell asleep on his bed. First day alone with puppy = success.

 

 

 

An air of spring

This week has been gorgeous! Every day has been in the 40’s. yeah, I know what you’re thinking, that’s not so warm. But remember, we’re 1.5 MILES closer to the sun than Mpls. The sun here is warm, even in March. In an effort to tire out the pooch and enjoy the weather, we’ve been taking dude for long lunchtime walks. Wednesday was so muddy, it made for an interesting walk. And a bath for dude post-walk. Yesterday, we took a family hike at a nearby trailhead that we hadn’t yet explored. The snow made some sections challenging, but it was so nice being out in the warmth.

Erik was down to his t-shirt ten steps in.

dude had a good time checking stuff out and sniffing. He got a little tired by the end and had a seat…in the snow. Goofball.

A dogs life

This weekend we had nothing planned. Sometimes we have a hard time getting motivated without any agenda, but sometimes it makes for an awesome, spontaneous weekend. Friday night we took Dude to Boulder for puppy social at the humane society. He’s getting so much better with other puppies, it’s fun to watch.

Saturday morning we took him for his longest walk yet. He did awesome. Here’s a little video: 

After that, he was exhausted and slept half the day. Since it was nice outside, we decided to bring him to town with us while we did errands. He hung out outside the co-op while we got groceries (it’s common for at least one dog to be waiting out there). He did good even with all the people walking by. He got lots of attention. At one point, a lady sat on the bench, picked him up and had him on her lap. We didn’t mind but it was a little strange. Next we went to the grocery store. Dude got to hang out in the back, where he’ll be once he’s bigger. We have an all weather mat and plenty of windows for him to check stuff out. The other day I brought him to town with me and left him in the front seat for two minutes when I ran in and he got the lid off and drank half if Erik’s mocha, so lesson learned! He goes in the back!

Afte groceries, we stopped in at the brewery for a beer. Again, Dude did awesome. There were hyper women, other dogs and kids – all good got him to be exposed to. It’s amazing how much people love puppies. We get lots if attention. The best were the kids. They kept coming over and at first dude was a little excited, but seemed to get used to them. We had the older one give him some treats and he did so good with them. Finally, we headed home to make cookies and prepare for the evening activity, going to the neighbors for drinks. I should mention, the neighbors have a puppy too. Oh, and Gilbert the St. Bernard was there.

Dude did really well, except for biting and playing with Gilbert’s tail, but Cairo, the neighbor puppy, was all over Dude. He seemed more interested in playing with Cairo’s toys!

Needless to say, dude has been very calm and sleepy today. So we went for a hike. It’s windy today, but in the 40’s and beautiful. He did awesome again. He’s such a good guy.

Dude gets situated

I have been meaning to post about Dude again and haven’t gotten around to it, so here we are. He is so much fun. Puppies are a lot of work. The first couple days were a challenge for us all. He pees every 30 seconds, wants to bite everything and is afraid of going outside the fence. Now that it’s been nearly two weeks, we’re all getting into a routine and figuring everything out. Here are some pictures of little Dude over the past almost two weeks.

Dude sleeping – A not getting any work done

A sleeping Dude – adorable.

He is also very playful.

Again, the snuggle.

 

Amber and Dude – he crawls right up and gets comfy.

He loves to be held and snuggled – Dude too.

The new addition to our little family.

I know, for those of you on Facebook, you’ve seen photos so you know we got a puppy. Here is more of the story. We’ve been talking about getting a dog for years – literally years. But the timing wasn’t right, we lived in an apartment and quite frankly, we weren’t ready to give up our freedoms yet. 

Once we moved, we started talking more seriously about dogs again. Everyone up here has a dog, it’s like required or something. Our landlord even said she’d almost prefer if we had a dog, it’s just part of the culture.  When Erik was about to travel so much in January, we began to look, knowing that it’d be nice to keep me company while he was gone. I scoured the shelters and humane societies and rescues of the greater Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins areas waiting to find something that seemed right. The problem was we love Erik’s brother’s dog, Winston, so much that he was kind of our standard. We knew we wouldn’t find a purebred german shorthaired pointer at a shelter, but we kept looking anyway. There was one, but it was adopted by the time we found it. There was another, but it was an adult and we wanted a young dog. Then we decided to be patient to wait for the right one to come along. The Tuesday before Erik came home, some pointer/bluetick coonhounds arrived at the Boulder Valley Humane Society. That shelter is insane – they move dogs in and out so quickly it’s amazing. So I knew they’d be popular and I had to act fast. But I wasn’t about to choose a dog without my partner in crime. So I called right away Wednesday morning when they opened hoping to put a hold on one. There were six total and when I called 15 minutes after they opened, 5 were being held or had been spoken for. One little guy remained so I put a hold on that one. That is one cool feature is they do holds (for a fee of course) so you have two business days to come and check out the dog and see if you want to adopt it. We had until close Thursday so we went in after work to meet him. Once we saw him, we realized our lives were going to change. I was ready and Erik was too, but this little guy is two months old and requires constant attention. I keep reminding myself that the benefit will be that we get to train him, we get to mold his behaviors and don’t have to deal with somebody else’s training (or lack thereof). A little sacrifice and minor frustration now will bring years of extra happiness to have a well-trained dog that we can take wherever. 

So, back to the adoption. We played with him a bit and struggled to make a decision. I knew it was right. We had looked at pictures of hundreds of dogs and commented on their cuteness but never took it any further than that. This little guy got us there for a reason. He was so cute and clumsy and playful. He’s not too shy and eager to learn. We decided he was our new puppy and proceeded to do all the required paperwork and such. Then we left, with puppy in tow.

 

We ran to the nearest pet store to get some supplies, including a crate and some toys. I was carrying the rugrat and he was so tired he just sat there. We had a successful shopping trip and ride home. By the time we got home, it was bedtime so we set up the crate and found some soft towels for him to sleep on. The crate was a project. It’s huge to accommodate his full-grown body, with a divider to make it small for him now. We let him check out his new home for a bit, which was adorable because of his big paws and awkward prancing.  But he was more interested in sleeping, on the clothes on the floor in the living room. That is where we wanted to be. 

We then prepared for a night of poor sleep. He did pretty well overall. We took him out to potty several times and were woken up by whimpering a lot. At one point, we didn’t latch the crate so next time I woke up to check on him, he wasn’t in there. Luckily, he had found the clothes nearby and was sleeping there. Of all the trouble he could’ve gotten into!

With night one over, we embarked on the first day with our little babe. And boy was it a day. I’ll try to do another post tomorrow with photos and videos of our first five days. It’s been an adventure!

Amber’s parents come to visit!

Whew. where has the time gone? It seems like we’ve started to slack a bit on the blog. Things have been busy, but I’m going to recommit. For a quick update, since Christmas, we’ve been busy. Erik is spending half of January traveling, including a ten-day stint in progress. He just left yesterday – I may go crazy up here by myself. It’s quiet and the days get long, but I have outings planned so I can socialize and get some fresh air and not work. I picked up a new client recently and a lot of the work is going on right now, in addition to just finishing up a different project, so this month has been crazy and full for me.

Anyway, on to the point. My parents came to visit us last weekend. They chose the right weekend for sure. The weather was beautiful, a far cry from the deep freeze going on in Minnesota. They arrived Friday afternoon (on the same flight as Erik), so I picked them up from the airport. Then we got some lunch at a brewpub on Pearl Street in Boulder and headed toward home before dark. The drive up the mountain would lack in its presentation of awesomeness in the dark..the effect would be lost. So we drove through town and headed toward home. After being gone all day, it was nice to sit down and rest for a bit and get a fire going. We went to dinner at a somewhat local Mexican restaurant and had a great time. Some good laughs at my dad’s expense left most of us in tears. The food was great – fun time.

Saturday was warm again, probably in the 50’s and it was downright warm in the sun. We spent some time walking along Pearl Street, going in shops and grabbing lunch from a hot dog vendor. After an afternoon outside wandering around, he headed out to go to the hot springs. We made a pit stop to get some ice cream, like, the best ice cream in town – homemade, hand-scooped, delicious ice cream. With a nice sugary snack in our bellies, we headed out of town. The hot springs are probably an hour drive down from Boulder to Golden and then West to the town of Idaho Springs. We went to the same springs we’ve been to a couple of times. I would really like to branch out and explore more, but so many of them are far away or far enough for an overnight. This one is a bit spendy and indoors, but it’s nice that it’s so close. The place was really busy, but the warmth was so nice I hardly noticed. My mom was really wanting to go, so this was a special outing for her. When we were halfway there, I remembered my dad isn’t a fan of water (which is the nice way of saying he’s terrified and can’t swim -a nasty combination!). He assured me he’d be fine, since the pool is only chest deep, and he did. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in water that deep before so it was interesting. After an hour or so of soaking, we were hungry and set out. After battling a headache all day (both dad and I actually), we both were feeling better, thanks to the healing natural hot spring water.

We did dinner at a local Italian place in Idaho Springs and headed home, full and exhausted. It’s amazing how the springs will prepare you for sleeping. Too bad the drive is 45 minutes…

Sunday morning we got up without much of a plan. We had done the things we wanted to, so we were pretty flexible. Erik, unfortunately, had some sort of illness. We’re unsure if it was food-related or a mild flu, but it was stomach/digestive only. He wasn’t up for being out and about, so we left him home to rest. We headed toward Boulder, but made an impromptu stop for ice cream – same company, different location. We sat outside and ate our ice cream in the sunshine. It was amazing.

After ice cream, we decided to do the Celestial Seasonings tea tour, since they are based here. It was on my to-do list and I was excited someone liked tea enough to join me. It was really fun and informative. And I only bought three boxes while there. We got to wear awesome hair nets and dad had to wear a facial hair net covering. He’s such a good sport. My mom has some photos, so maybe once she shares them with me, I’ll edit this post.

After the tea tour and sampling a bunch of teas, it was suggested that we go to Black Hawk and check out the casinos. We had driven through the prior night and discussed the oddness of how a town in the middle of nowhere is a total casino hub. Driving through is like a time warp of billboards, lights and signage…on a road of curves, hills, tunnels and a whole lot of nothing. It blows my mind, but Erik isn’t much of a gambler so we haven’t been there. I was game. So we left Boulder and took an alternative route up the mountain to Black Hawk. Of course, there isn’t a straight shot at all, so we sometimes get creative with driving routes to avoid boredom. We arrived in Black Hawk and found a parking garage. Once I pulled in, we realized it was valet only. There was no getting out once we were in. Luckily, it’s a casino, so parking is free – even valet. We then went in and attempted to find a place to get a snack. We walked through three or so different small casinos before we found a clearly marked snack bar. It was pretty shabby, with few options, but we opted to get a couple of hot dogs. I know, I’ve filled my hot dog quota for the year in two days! After the snack, we were ready to gamble. We went back to the first casino and found some slots to play. I was on my second machine, and doing decently, getting to play some bonuses and getting some playback. Then I hear my car description, license plate and name over the loud speaker. What the hell! So I went and found security and found out the valet guys apparently can’t drive a manual and let it roll back into another car. It was just a ding, you know, not full-speed or anything, it mostly was their license plate to my bumper. Only they had a studded license plate frame that punctured my bumper. It was totally minor damage, it didn’t affect me getting home or getting everyone to the airport so I wasn’t all that upset, but it was annoying to go through the hoopla of providing info, getting info and what not so I know what to do to fix it on their dime. Finally I made it back down to the slots. I didn’t do that good on that day but we were all able to play and had fun. After a couple hours, we headed home to pick up Erik and then get a simple dinner.

We went home and everyone prepared for the travel the next day. Erik was going back to MN for the week, before heading to Baton Rouge for a couple days. My parents were headed to Vegas, and then Arizona, so it was a busy travel day for them. We dropped Erik off at the airport, then went and got breakfast before dropping my parents off for their flight. I was a bit tired when everybody left, but sad too. It was a fun weekend. I wonder who our next visitors will be!

Wood wood wood.

As Erik mentioned in the previous post (axe sharpening), we got another cord of wood last week. With some of it wet, we decided to thoughtfully sort, split and stack so we had different piles. Dry kindling, wet kindling, medium wet pieces, huge unchoppable wet pieces (to not use for a while) and dry wood. We hauled, separated, chopped and stacked this weekend. The weather was 30’s and sunny. Perfect for outdoor projects!

We would’ve gotten a lot more done if Erik wasn’t playing fetch with the neighborhood dog, Rope. And if the wheelbarrow didn’t have a blowout.

But we had fun, got outside and got some nice work done. After using propane heat for a week, we were both pleased to have the woodstove back in action.