Snowshoeing...or not!

Shawn and I planned on going snowshoeing today!  We went to church last night, and we left home around 7:30 in search of snow.  We spent some time last night, looking at a guidebook and checking online to find some options for a good trail.  We decided to go back to a trail that we hiked last summer, the Lake 22 Trail.  (It's the trail that we first hiked on the 4th of July.)  According to the guidebook, it's good for snowshoeing from late December to early April or something like that.  It also had the added benefit of being a place that we knew how to find.  :)

So we packed up, loaded the car, and drove to the trailhead.  Look at all the snow!

Yeah....there was no snow at the trailhead.  We took our snowshoes anyways, though, since we know that the trail has an elevation gain of about 1200 feet.  It was definitely possible that we'd hit snow not too far up the trail.

Or not.  Before too long, we were both shedding some layers (like jackets, hats, gloves, earmuffs).  It was pretty foggy and a bit "misty," but that was it.  Satchel loved this hike, though, especially since it was pretty deserted, so he was allowed to go off-leash for most of the hike.

We did eventually find some snow near the top of the trail.  There was never enough to bother putting on the snowshoes, but at least we got to touch snow!  And Satchel enjoyed running around on it a bit.  Here are some pics from the upper part of the trail and the lake.

So...we didn't actually get to do any snowshoeing.  Oh well.  At least we got in a nice hike today!  And now we know that if we actually want to use our snowshoes around here, we need to get a lot closer to (or even on the other side of) the mountain passes. 

Summer Catch Up

Okay...I'm going to try to limit the details here, since I have no idea if anyone is actually going to read this.  :-)

In early June, Shawn and I went to Denver!  The main reason that we went was to watch a rugby tournament, so we spent most of Saturday and Sunday doing that.  There was a lot of good rugby, and there was the added bonus of getting to watch the matches with a bunch of good friends.  I still had to work while I was there, unfortunately, but that gave Shawn some time to hang out with Jarid in the mountains, and I did have the chance to meet up with a few good friends, too.  Our last day there, we spent a good chunk of time with Shawn's mom.  She volunteers at the Denver Botanic Gardens, so she took us there and basically gave us a private tour.

We found what I think may be our new "go to" hike not too far from here.  It's the Lake 22 Trail, and it's beautiful!  It actually reminds me a bit of Colorado once you get to the top, where there's a lake (hence the trail name).  There was even snow to play in on the 4th of July!  Satchel enjoyed the snow.

The downside of the summer happened in June.  I found out on June 15th that I was pregnant, but I confirmed the following week that it was another early miscarriage.  (The first was in January.)

But anyways...we had a fun party at our house in late June with a bunch of our friends, and we did another hike in July.  This hike was rainy and cool (of course), but it was still really pretty.

In late June, I learned that I had 5 vacation days that I had to use by July 31st, or I would lose them!  So we planned a couple things.  Shawn, Satchel, and I took a 4-day weekend and explored the Olympic Peninsula.  We spent the first two nights in a beachfront condo, and we did some "car camping" (in a campsite) the third night.  It was cool and foggy most of the time we were there, but we still had a great time!  Satchel was able to go off-leash on the beach, and he was ecstatic!  We're very fortunate that he doesn't seem to have any intention of running very far away from us.

For my other vacation days, I left Shawn at home.  :-)  I went to St. Louis to stay with my friend Jane...and all of the other Hydra members decided to come to St. Louis, too!  So I basically got 5 days to hang out with my best girlfriends from college.  It was awesome.  Since we were last together (for Shannon's wedding last summer), there have been two new additions...Rachel's Libby is on the left, and Shannon's Kateri is on the right.

Jane's daughter Theresa was my little buddy for the weekend.  I spent a large part of my time hanging out with her, carrying her on my hip, and flipping her upside down.

Unfortunately, Jane's youngest, Lucy, got sick over the weekend.  The last night all five of us girls were together, I didn't think to take a group picture, so the closest I got was four of us.  :-(  But we all had a great time, and I'm looking forward to our next reunion...probably in a couple years.

I think that's actually more or less gotten you all caught up!  Work was absolutely crazy for me for a couple months there, and Shawn was pretty busy, too.  But the summer session is winding down for me, and Shawn's big project was completed...so hopefully things will slow down for us now!

I know I've said this before...but I'll try to get back to posting more often.  :-)

My Weekend

Shawn found out late Thursday night that he was going to get to go to Dallas with the rugby team on Friday.  So Friday morning, I drove him to the airport, then I came home to work.

My job has been going well.  We've hired a number of new English teachers, so I have begun to mentor some of the new teachers.  I have 4 "mentees," 3 of whom live in Washington state.  The 4th one used to live in Seattle...but has recently moved to Denver.  Ironic, don't you think?  From what she has told me, I think she lives about a mile away from where Shawn lived before we were married.

Anyways...after putting in a few hours of work on Friday, I took Satchel to the vet...to get his claws trimmed.  Shawn and I agree that we just don't feel comfortable doing it ourselves, and our vet is only about a mile and a half from our house.  I'm so glad I did it!  It's nice that Satchel no longer scratches me when he steps on my foot when I have no shoes on.  :)  Because of my various errands on Friday, I ended up having to work until about 11:00pm Friday night.

Since Shawn had gone to Dallas, poor Satchel was restless and confused Friday night.  If Shawn's gone at night, he's usually at rugby practice and comes home between 10:00 and 10:30.  By 10:00 on Friday night, Satchel was trying to sleep on my lap...but every time he heard a car door slam outside or any other noise, his head would pop up and he'd start looking around.  I really think he was looking for Shawn.

On Saturday, Satchel and I went hiking with a couple girlfriends of mine!  We went to Wallace Falls, which is a hike that Shawn and I have done a few times.  The weather was absolutely perfect for a hike (upper 60s and sunny), and the trail was packed.  The girls I went with had never really been hiking, so it was strange for me to actually be the experienced hiker of the group.  :-)  Satchel had an awesome time, and he did so good!  He gladly did the entire 4.75 miles with us (roundtrip), and he happily let lots of people pet him (I honestly would estimate that more than 100 people petted him on Saturday!).  He also played nice with every dog we encountered...which was a lot of dogs!  Unfortunately, none of us had a camera, so I have no pictures from our hike.

Poor Shawn...the weather was perfect here, but Dallas was about 35 degrees and rainy!  The weather for the game was pretty much miserable.  But his team won!  They've now started their season with 2 wins...which is more wins than they had all last season.  I took Satchel with me to the airport to pick him up Saturday night, and Satchel was definitely a happy pup.

Finally...today.  We started off early, since I was the lector for 8:00am Mass.  Then we brought home McDonald's breakfast.  We were thinking of going to Meadowdale Park with Satchel, but the beach access is closed until this summer so they can repair the tunnel.  We decided that it's not really worth it to do the full hike there if we couldn't access the beach, so we tried a new park not too far from here.  It was great!  It was a super easy trail, so not strenuous.  There was a pond area with some tall grasses and weeds...and Satchel's retriever instincts totally kicked in!  It was fun to see him get super excited and start bounding through the grasses, and this was the first time we've seen him happily walk into the water.  I think he would be thrilled to be a hunting dog if we trained him for that.

On our way home, we stopped at a local co-op feed store and bought Satchel some better dog food than what we've been feeding him.  We're hoping that he'll be healthier (read: less gassy).  :)  Truthfully, this stuff is more expensive, but our trainer pointed out that since this food is higher in protein, the adult dog will eat much less food and still be full (and have enough nutrition)...so ideally, the cost will end up being lower in the end.  As of today, our dog is eating better than we are!  (His new food contains things like roast duck, roast quail, blueberries, sweet potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes.)  We also got him his first bully stick, which he loved.  It also kept him busy for about 2.5 hours...so I'm very tempted to stockpile these things and give him one every time I have something important to do for work!  :-)  (And yes...I do know what bully sticks are.  I've also eaten Rocky Mountain Oysters...so it seems that Satchel and I are even.)

So...I think that's basically our weekend!  I would promise to update the blog more often...but, well, I've been making that promise a lot lately, and you can see how well that's gone.  :-)