Dogs are the leaders of the planet.  If you see two life forms, one of them’s making a poop, the other one’s carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge? — Jerry Seinfeld

Since I have been on bed-rest, one of my tasks that has taken a backseat is cleaning up the backyard.  We have 2 large dogs that produce a lot of waste.  I used to clean it up just about daily.  If you can keep on top of it, it’s not that bad.  But if you let it go for a while, it’s like a mine field out there.  It’s been over 2 weeks now since it was last cleaned.  And of course, I couldn’t talk my parents or Van’s parents into cleaning it up for me, so it had to wait until Van had time to do it.  Enter today.

So I’m sitting outside with Ashley blowing bubbles while Van tackles the backyard.  When I would do it, I would just use plastic bags.  But the job was so large today, that Van went back there armed with a shovel and a large box!

Van’s cussing and talking to me while he’s cleaning it up.  It was the funniest thing!  I’m not sure how he thought it got cleaned up before.  I guess he thought the poop fairy came by everyday and the dog poop miraculously disappeared.  Our conversation went something like this…

Van:  Good grief!  I haven’t seen anything like this!

Me:  Yeah, it’s about 2 weeks worth.

Van:  We must be feeding them too much.  I’m going to cut back on their food.

Me:  No, honey.  They are eating just fine.  Blake’s already on a diet.

Van:  It smells so bad!  I can’t do this.

Me:  [Laughing]  Welcome to my world.

Van:  Can we sell this stuff?

Me:  I wish.

Van:  Isn’t there a service for this?

Me:  [Still laughing}

I guess he appreciates me just that much more

Ashley loved opening presents this year, too.  Last year, she liked opening bags with tissue paper.  But this year she was all about ripping the wrapping paper off the presents.  In fact, I think she enjoyed unwrapping the presents more so than the presents themselves.  She also liked bringing the presents to Van and I.  And of course the boys weren’t left out.  Toby and Blake got 2 huge bones in addition to their new beds and Jimmy got some treats and a little cat toy.

We didn’t take a lot of pictures that morning, but here are a few.

So the drive there on Thursday was quite an adventure.  You wind through the mountain, part of it on an unmarked road, to get to the house.  We saw several deer along the way.  We left a lot later on Thursday than we had anticipated, and we didn’t get there until after 6:00PM.  So it was pitch black dark already.  There were no street lights but they sky was beautiful!  It’s amazing how many stars you can see when you are away from all the city lights.  We mainly just relaxed during the day, played with the boys, and rode on the boat.  We painted Ashley’s toe nails one day (her first pedicure).  The kids napped well and slept through the night without any problems.  They loved seeing each other in the mornings and got wild and crazy at night.  We went out to eat Friday night at a Mexican restaurant for my birthday.  It was really good food!  And on Saturday night, they guys grilled hamburgers for us.  Van even tried out the hot tub Saturday night.  Hot tubs don’t mesh well with pregnant mamas so I didn’t get to join him.  But I did keep him company and stood outside with my jacket on.  It looked to be quite relaxing on a chilly night!

Then today we came home.  I didn’t want to leave.  It was such a pretty view to wake up to in the mornings (our room had a door out to the huge deck).  And if you woke up early enough, you could see the steam rising from the lake when it was really cold in the mornings.  Very pretty!  Oh, and at some point in the middle of the night last night, I heard an owl “whooing”.  Isn’t that cool?  I’ve never heard an owl in the wild before so it could have been something else I guess (I was too comfy in bed to get out and look out the window).  But it sure sounded like an owl!

We stopped by a development called The Coves on the way home.  It was on the other side of the lake.  It’s a development where you can buy a lot to build a house on the lake.  We explored around and picked out a lot that we liked   We also saw cows on the side of the road and walked up to them to say hi and feed them some bread.  Apparently, cows don’t like bread??  It was cool to see them up close and Ashley was able to “moo” at them.  Then Van and I got so tired during the drive that we completely missed our turn!  Not sure what happened, but the next thing I know Van is looking at the map on his phone and we were way off course – whoops!  If you look at the picture below, the flashing blue dot is where we were; the blue line is where we were supposed to be!  So that put us about 30 minutes off course.  We ended up re-routing it and figuring out a different way home.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip!  Not only was it nice having friends with us, but I was thrilled to be able to take the dogs, too.  It made me so happy seeing them romp around and play in the water.  I’m glad they were able to enjoy a nice vacation, too!  I’ve been to the beach so may times in my life, that I really liked the lake vacation.  It was different and relaxing.  Since we were there during the off season, there weren’t many people around so it was peaceful and serene.  The trees were pretty, the countryside was green with rolling hills, and the lake was crystal clear.  I think we’ll probably go back year after year.  It would be fun to just rent houses on different sides of the lake and find out which area we like better.  Except next year, I think we will go a few weeks earlier so we can see the trees in full color.  I can only imagine how pretty that would be!

P.S.  Jimmy couldn’t be found for the photo op

Side note – If you are wondering what a bully stick is, you can read about them here.  It’s probably not what you think it is.  But I will tell you it is highly digestible, low in fat, and much safer for dogs to chew than the traditional rawhide.  And the boys love them!