Our Wonderful Sammie

Thank you so much, Ann Adamus of zoolatry.blogspot.com, who not only designed and executed the first three gorgeous pictures, but also designed Sammie's banner.  And helped get the blog back up again, then directed you all here.  So much gratitude goes out to you, Ann.  I have missed blogging, and may be able to get back to it once in a while, but can't yet at this time.

Our Sammie

It has been so hard to wake up in the morning without our darling Sammie.  From the first day we met her, she 'told' us she would rescue us, and rescue us, she did.  It is still too hard to write a lot about our adventures with her - she was such a willing companion, ready to embark on whatever task we set out to do for the day, whether it be a boring shopping trip or float trip down the Truckee River.  She was enthusiastic about competitive obedience, first earning her CGC title (Canine Good Citizen).  I was as much a novice as she was as she went on to earn her Beginner Novice (BN), Novice A (CD - Conpanion Dog) and Open A (CDX -  Companion Dog Excellent) titles.  She tried tracking and dock diving, but loved swimming and hiking most of all.  I can still envision her galloping down the trail, chasing squirrels or finding gophers, sniffing at anything potentially edible (which was most things).  She saw the woods as a grand buffet.  She adored playing in the snow, snoofling and scratching up holes or catching snowballs.  She loved swimming in the Sierra lakes almost more than hiking, going far offshore to scarf up kongs or bumpers and dutifully bringing them back.  She never wanted to leave for home, even when I reminded her it was supper time.  She filled our lives with her character and antics - she occupied an enormous place in our lives.  

We miss her terribly.  Grief is the price we pay for love...  Sammie, we will love you forever. 

Run Free Sammie xxxx

Again, it has been Too Long!!!

Hello Y'all to our Pals!  Can't believe we've been so remiss about posting.  We have missed our friends here and are going to try again to begin blogging about our lives, fun and games, and places we see!  Of course it really isn't our fault.  We were having problems with our secretary all along, as you may remember.  One of our biggest motivators to get going again, was a memory we had of sharing holiday cards with y'all.  We missed being a part of that, and now feel re-connected!  Thank you Diana!  We can't wait to catch up!  When Mamma went back to read some of your blogs to us, we realized how much it made us smile to find you again and see what you've been up to.  Some of you have new brothers and sisters who we look forward to meeting.  This is one of our fave times of year, because, well, you know.  There's just so much food around that gets dropped on the floor, or that Mamma and Pops feel generous enough to share.  And who of us all doesn't like a slurp or a big handful of some yummy foodables?  Personally, we love turkey, and here's an oldie, but goodie picture of us posing.

        See ya soon!  xxxxxxxx

Hello? Belatedly Recapping the Last 1 1/2 YEARS!!!

  Mom sure has taken her sweet time getting our bloggie going again - really!!!!!  So... hi all!  It sure has been an awfully long time - Happy Howlidays!  We were on a long voyage from northern Cali on our way to Maine, when we left off in Iowa, so we'll skip over a lot to bring you up to date, but linger on a few cool places!  The above place is an Amish field in Holmes county, Ohio - a most beautious place. ( If you think you might have seen these pictures before, we posted many of them on Facebook, when we were there)  The above boy was doing a righteous job cutting this field - we were mightily impressed!  Below is a patchwork of fields that we passed in the same county!

 

 The next coupla pix are from our wunnerful time in Maine - look at that 'ster the fisherperson just tossed away!

 Pretty sunset near Boothbay Harbor!

 And mmmnnnn - look at THOSE!

 Here we are in Quebec City with the Frontenac behind us!  We loved the water everywhere we went - cause that meant... SWIMMING!!!

As in Neys Provincial Park, in Ontario, below.   This river dumps into Lake Superior - a most gorgeous fresh water ocean - turquoise colored, like the Caribbean! 

Of course, we traveled to many places between Neys and this incredible place in the pix, below - Glacier NP.  If you look carefully, there are white dots in the center R - those are mountain goats!

Below is Bowman Lake - you have to wreck your kidneys on bad roads to get there (at least when we drove out there)! But sooooo worth it -

 Isn't this meadow pretty?  We gamboled all over it!

As we drove on west, on our way back to Cali, we stopped at Mt. Hood and ran all over the majestic mountain's shoulders!

 Mt. Hood in late September...

We couldn't go straight down I-5 without stopping at a NP our parents had never seen - Lassen!

 Above picture is of Lake Manzanita - isn't it pretty?  National Parks are not very doggeh friendly - we were not permitted to swim here at all.  Still, Mom and Dad were camping at a cool ranch, where there was a swimmin' pond where we could take our exercise!

A stream with Mount Lassen!  We stopped for holiday festivities last year and then left again for a tour of the southwest, which was also major funzies!  Below is one of the fabu sunsets we saw in Arizona from our rig! 

And we got to play a bit amongst these behemoths that we loved at Monument Valley!

 You can guess where the below picture was taken, can't you?  What a stupendously amazing place but again, we really were not allowed to play here, so we played in the nearby National Forest land!

On a trail with Dad near Sedona!

And we are guessing that you can figgur out where this is!  (Joshua Tree NP!)  Again, we were not really allowed to run around here, but we snuck in a couple of  kong-on-a-rope chases!)

We ventured north towards home base again in late Spring to see family, furamily and friends and then hightailed it to the Sierras for the summer!  We are so lucky!

 These pix are of places we hiked to - above is Summit Lake and below is me, Ava, on the Sagehen Creek hike!

 Shortly before we came back to Home Base again, it snowed a tiny bit while the leaves were in full peak - me, Sammie, just loved it here and wish I was there right now!

 But there is nowhere like home and we love our human cuzzins and the Howlidays!  We got tons of healthy YUMZERS on Thanksgiving and hope YOU did too!!!!  Sending hugs and licks xoxoxo

From Wyoming to Iowa!

Hello all- it's been a while for us - Mom's having a tough time with the new blogger, but here goes!  Cody is certainly a wild west town and first thing we did was explore Yellowstone NP!  Since passage from Jackson was closed when we were there, we swung around via Lander to Cody and entered the Park from the East Gate - woo hoo - look how beautiful Yellowstone Lake looked as we drove around it.  Obsidian Beaches just gorgeous with snow-topped mountains!

We checked out the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, below, and saw the lower falls in full glory.  So amazing!

And Sammie found a super spot in which to take a refreshing dip (we were glad the rangers didn't find us heh he!)

We loved seeing these buffalos - well, just about everywhere in Yellowstone!  The iconic symbols of the west!

 

How cool is it to see HOT, hot, hot sulphur stuffs pouring down into cold streams?  We were amazed!

So after a wonderful stay in Cody, we headed NE and checked out this sign on our way to Sturgis!

...But not before checking out this incredible site - Devil's Tower!  WOW!  We took a little hike around the base of this monument and enjoyed all the views from the top.  Then... we had a picnic near a Prairie Doggeh Town at the bottom - still amazing views!

Incredible views!

And near Sturgis, we found a holy Sioux site called Bear Butte.  Just gorgeous and a lake to boot for us to swim in!

Below... have you ever seen Mt. Rushmore in snow?  Tears seem to drop with runny noses, but we still had a great time seeing this incredible monument to four awesome presidents.

And below was one of our fave lakes in the Black Hills - Sylvan Lake; the only place where Mom hooked a fish, but couldn't land it!

And here we are in the South Dakota Badlands NP - check out the colors of these strata!  The pink were colored from crustaceans many thousand million hundred and... well... you know... years ago!

THE Badlands, fur shore!

Luv fest!

Well... we had to stop in Mitchell, SD to see this a-maize-ing Corn Palace heh heh!

These pics are so out of order, pals - we had a photo of "Welcome to Iowa" but it seems to have disappeared.  Anyhoo, we thought this cool photo would do as well to welcome you to the newest state we've never been to!  Wait til you see where we've been hangin' for the last couple of days!

Here are the famous bridges of Madison County!  Mom and Dad played us the movie a couple of weeks ago so we could brush up on our Iowa bridges!

Here's Avalon swimming under the most famous bridge of all; the Roseman bridge - we both had a ball dipping our tootsies into the river here!

We had a pawsome campfire last night, then went to check out another stone bridge today that was also featured in the "Bridges of Madison County."  Happy Trails to y'all!