Lazy Friday

Well, sort of. Since it was only yesterday that I got Das Boot, today was the first day that I've really had to figure out what the heck to do with the dogs to get them exercised while trying to follow the doctor's orders (and yes, for those of you on Facebook, I did cheat last night for Bess' agility practice!). Before this all happened (I've actually been walking on it like this for the past two weeks, just not running), I had planned to either take the dogs to the beach or go to the lake for some swimming. Going to the beach is out for now because that would be a seriously sandy mess unless I can remember to snag some shoe covers and plastic booties from work. And the weather wasn't really going to get warm enough fast enough for me to feel like swimming (something I am allowed to do without Das Boot). So I decided to take the "lazy" way out and drive the dogs out to a park that is relatively close to our house. This park has a main paved trail with a barky side trail that is predominantly meant for horses. It has a very gentle incline as you head out, but nothing really taxing. However, it has tons of forested area for the dogs to explore on either side of the trail and they really love it! Plus, it's an easy trail for me to figure out how it's going to be lugging this thing around on my leg!
Bess likes to dart off the trail on the sides where there's a steep descent. I swear she does it because she likes to race back up to the trail! Can you find her in the pictures?:)

Every time I would sit down to get a picture with Das Boot in it, Heffner would come back to check on me. It's the cutest thing! He does this when we're skijoring. Every time that I would fall he would turn around and come nose me in the most adorable way. Any time I'm on the ground Heffner always comes over to check on me and "guard" me. Whether I've fallen down or I'm just on the floor at home stretching, he's there to watch over his momma. Bess isn't as concerned, but when she does come to say hi to me, she's usually quite vigorous in her attention!

It's really a pretty area with a beautiful trail. I especially love it when it seems like we have it all to ourselves!

I'm still trying to figure out this new camera and I'm having some difficulty with the action shots. They're coming out blurry, whereas our old camera had a setting for action shots and they came out pretty well. But here are my attempts at catching Bess doing some of her leaping after coming up from one of the steep descents she so loves!

And finally, getting close to the trailhead parking lot, I leashed the happily exercised beasts up and we head to the truck. We did a little over 6 miles today and all went quite well for Das Boot's first "hike."