July was the beginning of a very busy and at times, chaotic summer. Miley and I were able to make it to one agility class the first Friday of July and then we basically weren't going to be able to make it to another class until the end of September. I was either going to be out of town, transporting Dom to his sitters' in preparation of being out of town, or I had some sort of event scheduled every Friday night until the end of September. I didn't even really want to think about that, but I gave our agility instructor the heads up and she was understanding. Our Monday obedience lessons were a little easier to make, but barely. The beginning of July was the start of a sprint to the end of the summer. I was pretty sure that crossing the finish line would signal social hibernation time for me. ;)
The past couple years I've gotten into the rhythm of hosting a 4th of July get together that usually had some sort of entertaining theme to it. The first year was Jello wrestling. Yes there is wrestling grade Jello and in case you're wondering, that stuff doesn't just wash out of a person's back yard. It sticks around for a pretty solid 8 months after the fact. Year two brought a redneck themed party with a big redneck pool made out of a tarp and straw bales. That took some assembling and also was a process to take down and ultimately get rid of all the assembled parts. It was good times while it was up though! This year, I just hadn't had time to really come up with a good theme and we went with just a good ole fashioned BBQ with friends kind of plan. It was perfect. No added stress with setting up, coordinating and taking down. And was pretty much as much as I could handle putting together and hosting with my schedule the way that it was.
Next on the agenda was what is now our annual family camp out! This year we picked Wallowa Lake. The area is gorgeous and we'd camped there before when my sister and I were much younger, but we hadn't been back in quite some time. Two enthusiastic thumbs up! This was Dominic's first camping trip and the minivan's maiden road tripping voyage. There were some hiccups along the way getting there, but we had such an amazingly relaxing time while there. I came loaded with my now standard jumbo tent and x-pens, so that the dogs could camp out in comfort and I didn't have to have them attached to me at all times.
And I know you're going to be blown away by this, but we did get horse comments while I was setting things up. There were also plenty of entertaining comments that I got to overhear while I was at the next camp site over, since initially no one realized that the dogs and tent were mine. One little girl excitedly exclaimed that someone had gotten an entire site just for the dogs complete with their own tent! Well, I guess she's really not that wrong. The big tent did make for cozy snuggles with both dogs. :)
There was also some pretty gorgeous hiking to be had. :)
I also decided to give vlogging the camping trip a go. I started off with the best of intentions, but it wasn't until we got all set up at the campsite that I realized I had not fully charged my camera batteries and that put an end to that. I did put together the clips that I managed to take of the trip there though! Hopefully with more practice I'll get better at this. It feels INCREDIBLY awkward having a conversation with just a camera in public. I'm not quite sure how hard core vloggers do it! Without further ado, here is my attempt at vlogging the beginning of the camping trip and the snags that we hit during the trip there.....
That was pretty much the dog related excitement for July. I did get to spend a week with family on the east coast and it was definitely a realization of how much I miss everyone and that I need to make the effort to get back there more regularly. Aside from missing the dogs, it was a wonderful and relaxing trip.
Happy Sunday everyone!
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