-
Camping 2016: with kids AND dogs!
Summer is here and we are packing in the activities! Well, at least the few weeks have been packed so far. The kids started tennis camp today (on the hottest day ever–91 degrees in the shade and it’s only June!) and we went camping (with puppies!) the week before last. I feel like I can take the rest of the summer off we’ve accomplished so much already.
We were super excited to take the puppies with us camping but also dreading it because we really had no idea what we were in for. We can hardly handle them at home under controlled situations! But of course they loved it and it was a big, fat, dusty blast. When we came home our dogs were a completely different color than when we left. They got sooooo dirty.
My mom and dad came too and brought their dog, Speckles. It was a very dog-friendly affair.
The girls got their own tent and did really well. I thought they might get cold or lonely during the night and crash our tent but they faired just fine. Probably because they were so dead tired from having so much fun.
Camp cooking is always my favorite part. I know hiking and enjoying nature is the basic premise of camping but I’m perfectly content to stay at camp and play pioneer all day. I like to cook, eat and drink beverages while watching sunsets and admiring the trees. I have to say I’m so thankful to live in California where there are relatively no bugs. I probably wouldn’t love camping half as much if we got eaten alive like they do on Naked and Afraid. I love nature but dang, the bugs would get to me every time.
Bug and I did get a chance to take a little hike behind our camp while Payam and Joon went horseback riding. We had a really nice time following a rugged path through the trees searching for pinecones and just kicking the dirt while we discussed mother daughter things. At one point we thought we heard rushing water and we were so excited to see a waterfall or a stream. So you can imagine our disappointment when we rounded the bend and found a chain link fence protecting a water treatment plant. Denied! It didn’t even stink though. You’d think it would smell like sewage or something. But no, just green water being sprayed up in the air in a green pond.
Payam and Joon had a nice time on their horses. You might be wondering about now where we were camping. Where would they have such amenities as water treatment plants and horseback riding? We weren’t roughing it by far. We were staying at an RV resort park called Thousand Trails. We have some friends who live there who we were visiting. It was a good first camping trip for us with dogs since we didn’t really know what we could handle.
My mom and dad came too with their trailer. They’re old pros at RV camping.
Apparently RV camping comes naturally to dogs.
Dogs + Dirt = No problem! Just keep them cool and it’s all good.
Back to not roughing it. There were so many activities scheduled at this resort. There was an ice cream social, swimming, pine cone races, some kind of craft that we didn’t make it to and an organized campfire s’more making night. Actually, the organized s’more-making fire was because of fire danger. You’re not allowed to make fires in your camp (which was a huge bummer when night temperatures drop) because everything is really dry up there and the smallest little stray spark could cause a huge forest fire.
We listened to Cowboy Jack play some tunes and we had our designated one s’more apiece. It wasn’t so bad. In fact it was really cool because Idyllwild is very dog-friendly and they even had a designated dog sitting area in the campfire amphitheater. I’m sure a fire in our camp would have been nice but we probably would have gotten bored eventually and ended up either going to bed super early or playing on our phones.
The next day we went into town. Which is also very dog-friendly. Who knew! Need something fun to do this summer but you can’t leave your dog at home while you go on vacation? Take them with and go camping! There’s plenty to do in the great outdoors.
Not to completely mislead you… there was plenty of phone activity going on too.
The kids were missing minecraft pretty bad and took up Instagram to hold them over.
And then we went home! The end.
Actually, after we got home and shipped the kids off to their respective other parents, we took our dogs to the day spa and they came back a completely different color. Whiskey was a rusty brown orange and now he’s white!
The groomer cut off all his puppy fur! Or most of it. He’ll probably lose the black on his ears someday too. Good thing he looks super cute this way too. It’s so funny, we knew nothing about Soft-haired Wheaten Terriers when we got him. Joon just fell in love with this scruffy, teddy bear of a dog. I would have never picked him out, personally. I’m more of a big-dog-loving kind of person. I usually turn up my nose at small aka yappy dogs. But Whiskey is not that small and he has wiggled his way into my heart. He has sooooo much personality. He is smart and very playful. He makes Cody (who was my first choice in dogs) look like a big, lazy, stubborn oaf of a dog. Don’t get me wrong, I love them both equally for such different reasons. They are perfect and all-consuming and now I am one of those crazy dog people who can only talk about her dogs.
Sorry, not sorry.
-
Bug, Family Matters, fitness, half assed posts, instagram, place holder posts, Slow News Day, spilling my guts, the dogs
All for now.
If you ask me what I’ve been up to lately my eyes will glaze over while my mind struggles to bring up a directory of activities. I know a lot has been going on but I can’t really say what it’s been exactly. Work, kids, puppies…I guess that pretty much sums it up. If you have work, kids and/or puppies you probably understand the glazed over spinny-ball look in my eyes that eternally says, Please hold. You also understand why my eyes have dark circles under them and my yoga leggings are covered in a thin layer of white fur.
Payam and I were lamenting the other day that we sure didn’t realize what a ninety-degree-turn the puppies would take our lives. We knew it would be complicated but really? Really?!! Were things going too well? Did we have to turn it up this much?
Everything good in life takes work. Just like babies, the stages are fleeting and I have to remind myself to appreciate them while they last because someday I’ll be looking at big lazy grown dogs and I’ll pine for the days when they nuzzled my neck with their wet noses and chewed on my hair. One of these days they will not greet me with their whole mouth open.
I really shouldn’t complain because they are both super sweet dogs. Cody is slow and patient and super adorable like a big dopey oaf of a dog. He’s not as quick and crazy as Whiskey, or as emotional, but he’s bigger so when he jumps up he knocks things over and makes a bigger mess. He loves water and regularly sleeps with his head in his water bowl. His paws are giant and he makes big wet sloshy footprints all over the house. He loves to eat and is ruled supremely by his stomach.
Whiskey on the other hand is a bit emo. He will pout and whine if things don’t go his way. His tail is super expressive. If he’s happy, it flies at full-mast like a flag for everyone to see. He trots along on walks with it stuck straight up in the air like he is king of the world and everything is going his way. But when he’s sad, he puts his nose down and looks up at you through his messy hair just like a punk kid with long bangs. His eyes are strangely human-like (when you can see them) and sometimes it feels like he’s reading your mind and judging you. But then he’ll pop up and run around like a squirrel going batshit crazy and I guess that means he’s forgiven you. He loves games and will taunt and tease Cody until they have a lively brawl going.
We often get mad at Cody for picking on Whiskey because he’s bigger but if you watch them carefully you see that Whiskey actually instigates the play and he fully deserves any take-downs that Cody might give him. Oh puppies…
This is all very challenging because they got fixed this week. We were going to do one puppy at a time but then when we realized it might be easier to get it all over with with one fell swoop. Two dogs with cones is better than one dog with a cone when it comes to evening things up. It’s been a bit like Medieval Times at our house with endless cone-head jousting going on. The poor things.
They have giant lampshades on their heads and no sense of depth perception. They hit things like walls, water bowls, couches, my legs, each other at 100 miles per hour and it’s amazing they have not shattered their cones to smithereens. Cody has cracked his cone on the edge and I have a feeling Whiskey is not too far behind. I can’t believe they have to leave these things on for fourteen days. I’m hoping the vet is like the doctor counting drinks and when they say fourteen days, I’m hoping they really mean seven.
Spring is here or it was, I should say. Last week it was really warm and I took a bunch of photos with flowers. I have to say I am loving the jobs I’ve been getting lately for photography and styling. I think I will soon be able to ramp it up and buy a professional lens that actually focuses in low light.
Bug has some sort of stomach virus for a week now. She’s not been able to keep food down since Monday and she’s lost three pounds, which on her is a lot. Her knees are knobby and her hip bones stick out more than usual which makes me worry of course. The doctor said not to worry unless it lasts for more than two weeks so we’ve been giving her anti-nausea medicine and attempting to keep her on the BRAT diet. We’ve been picking up her homework from school daily and in between waves of nausea she’s been in pretty good spirits, getting things done. It has been nice to have a little person around the house but I miss the old smiley Bug. I’m sure she’ll be better soon.
Anyway, I just thought I’d check in and wave. (Hi Gingermog!) I often have daydreams of writing daily and getting back into my old swing of blogging (I miss it.) but I don’t want to promise anything and set myself up for failure. I have been going to yoga nearly every day for about five months now so that’s a huge win for me but, like usual, I only manage to keep at most four or five balls in the air at one time. Right now my five balls are: cooking dinner regularly (yay!), puppies (arg, I’m so tired!), kids (yay! except the sick one which is boo, sad.), yoga (arg, I’m so tired.) and work (yay! I love my job[s] when I get to them.). Any more than that is likely to throw off my balance.
I do like a challenge though so maybe I’ll try to get back here once a week. If only for my own personal record not because any of you are hanging on my every word. (Puppies, snore! Yoga, snore! Cooking, snore! Kids, hmmmm…I can’t really write the funny stuff because that’s *so embarrassing mom* when you are nine and ten.
All for now! xo
