{11march2011: Wenatchee}

A couple weekends ago we headed out to try snowshoeing to meet my yearly goal of at least one hike a month.  After driving for a couple hours, going past the snowy summit of Snoqualmie, we ended up at Wenatchee Park which wasn't as snowy as we hoped for.  We ended up doing a flat hike by the river on hard packed icy ground.... not quite what we were looking for.

After walking for a bit we decided to put on Darwin's boots because we were worried about the hard icy snow on her paws.... boots + ice = very little traction.

As we walked along Darwin found a bag of something (fertilizer? bird seed?) hanging from a tree branch.  The bag was punctured and there was stuff on the ground and Darwin was so tempted to roll in it.  Of course her attempts to roll in stinky stuff happen in such slow motion we are always able to call her off before she gets down and dirty.  (Darwin will sniff at something for a long time, then ever so slowly lower her head as if she's listening to it, and slowly will lower herself down.)

{alllmmmoosssttttt theeerrrreeeeee}

As soon as we tell her no, she's back up and stinky roll free!

{wait for me dad!!!}

Showing off her Sirius Republic collar (it's still holding up well, and I love the 2" width on her).

We walked down to the waters edge and tough girl Darwin got spooked by a rock barely covered by the water.

She spent a while checking it out and circling it, inspecting if from different angles until she finally worked up the courage to get up close and sniff it.

Once she realized we were safe and the rock wasn't going to attack her, she did a "Darwin" and peed in the water.  (I don't know why, but if there's water (a stream, river, lake, puddle) she needs to pee in it.)

We kept walking and made our way to the beach area.

We hung out on the beach for a bit before heading back. 

Though it wasn't snowshoeing, and not a very difficult hike, it was a beautiful day!

***We're still taking guesses for our Fun with Friday contest.  Robin should be getting her results soon so make sure you get your guess in!

{24aug2010: Camping... lake time}

After heating up in the sun, we headed over to Cooper Lake for a hike and to dip our toes in the water.  The campground area was pretty crowded so we followed a trail around the edge of the lake to see how far it would take us.  We thought maybe it would take us around the whole lake, but after we reached the bottom of the lake the trail was less defined and trying to navigate through branches and weeds got to be a little too much.
 
 
 
   
   
   
Darwin had a blast at the water.  We'd walk along the trail and take breaks along the lake so she could get a drink.  Everytime we'd go down, she'd get a case of the zoomies, and dash from the water up to the trail and back again.  

 
 
She's still learning how to play with a frisbee.  So far she likes to dig at it and then bite it til it breaks apart.
    
    
  
Even though it was HOT out, the water was still freezing!  But I did dip my feet in for a game of tug.
    
It was beautiful at the lake, the only problem was there were TONS of flies and mosquitoes.   They wouldn't leave Darwin alone and she was only willing to chase them for so long.  I felt bad for her so we packed up our things and headed back to camp where Darwin and I could hide from the pests in our tent.
  
This picture cracks me up, because you can see where Dar's pushing the tent with her nose.
  
We even had nap time.  Darwin was funny and kept pushing my head off the pillow so she could get her head on.

Despite the flies and mosquitoes, we had a fun, relaxing time.  Hopefully we'll do it more than once next year!