much more fun day on the trails!!

 Tusker just gets more and more beautiful.  Ivy is all personality.  i'm afraid she may not be the curly girl...happy i have Tusker to get my curls..takes the pressure off of Ivy. you fall in love with her because she is a bundle of love. she makes you smile.  it can be crazy with the two pups and Blossom, but i'm quite happy with my current fur family.  does seem to take two dogs to begin to fill the hole left behind when Rio left us. i've had some great dogs over the years. i am always grateful for that. life would have had potential for a great deal of loneliness but the pets have always kept me loved and sane.

 today i headed with all the pups to Hatchers Pass. ended up taking Arc Angel Road and hitting the trail to Reed Lakes.  we only cruised in a few miles before turning around.  i let the pups run a bit and then we headed up to Independence mine...so many miles total.  the pups were pooped.

 they did have one play session at home before crawling in their crates but it was pretty short.

 most of these are from Mondays' walk and tuesdays walk.

 need to prep for the bear trip.  pack light i guess.  we shall see.  hope we have decent weather and amazing scenery and some cool bear sightings.  should be fun.

 loved the alaska cotten in the foreground on this.

 Ivy breaks free...haha.

 meeting another doodle pup.  a bit older and more trained.  we still need to work on the meet and greets more.  they are leapers.

 always enjoy being out with friends.

 flowers today were great...teaching the dogs "hold up" so i can stop and take pictures.

 trail today was fairly brushy...no signs of bears and there were quite a few folks on the trail.  great that they improved the road out there a few years back. so much nicer.

 i tend to hit a different trail in Hatchers, Gold Mint, but the clouds looked better up here and i'm happy for a change. needed to feel like i'm out hiking for real again.  the pups for sure have impacted the trails i've taken this summer and distance.  Blossom has slowed down these past years.  will be depressing the day i have to leave her at home. guilt inducing. she's managing well for now though so hopefully, that is much further out in our future.

 TO getting some Tusker love.  she for sure is smitten with this guy.

 thought this turned out beautiful of my other friends daughter!!  some times you get lucky with a shot.

 creek time means cooling and relaxation.  need to make a follow up appointment for Blossom at the vets and probably get these guys in for introductions...it will soon be time for their surgeries.  don't want any accidental puppies making puppies going on.

 their incisors all looking to be all adult teeth now.  today my beautiful sunglasses got snagged and destroyed while i was out mowing or prepping to mow.  just that age...if you aren't careful stuff gets destroyed.

 i was sleepy as well when i got home tonight so i chilled on the couch to watch something on netflix.  "the letters".  it was about Mother Theresa.  she wrote letters to her spiritual guide i guess it would be in a way in the Catholic church.  she had actually asked him to destroy them but after she died he felt they would help with the process of sainting her. she just needed one more miracle...i kind of think that may have happened already.

 anyway, it was interesting as it was telling how she had begun as a teacher in an order of nuns in India.  it was distressing to her to look out at the poor people suffering and to nothing.  she felt that after much prayer she was told by God to help the poor people.  the Mother in her order wasn't overly supportive of her desire to do this service and later to create her own order.  sounds like new orders of nuns are not created very often, but she was granted the permission to do so.

 it is apparently one of the few orders in the church that grows in numbers.  tough to find as many folks willing to give up their lives to become nuns and priests.

 in the letters Mother Theresa shows how vulnerable she is spiritually. always filled with doubt in regards to her faith while living her life every day to serve the poorest and most vulnerable in India.

 pretty amazing to think of someone so dedicated to the path that she felt she was directed to follow by God, still having doubts and concerns. she lived humbly to serve.  she did get a Nobel Peace Prize, but only accepted it knowing that by accepting it she would bring light to the plight of others.

 always interesting and amazing to learn more about someone like this.  so dedicated to others, so self less.  seems so rare to find such persons in this world..but they are out there.  perhaps not to the level that she was, but there are so many really lovely people who think of others and serve without complaint.

 can't believe June is almost over.  crazy how fast this summer is flying by.

 there was a car wreck in town, but they discovered the victim in the wreck was dead before the wreck. not sure what his relationship was with her or if there was one.  the paper this morning makes it sound like her death was brutal and violent and his family was also going to be charged with attempts to cover it up.  he was headed to dump her body.  are there more?  there are some terrible people out there.  be careful.  lucky, for potential future victims that this guy wrecked the car and his crime was discovered.

 always love these purple pine cones

 still lots of pictures from Holgate..i will load more just thought i'd mix in some new stuff.  keep it exciting, like my life. haha!! actually, my life is not very exciting at all.  i walk every day, i  am lazy much of the rest of the day. then there is work.

 chocolate lily. guess they can be stinky.

 more columbine

 the daisies are out.  i love these guys. simple and beautiful

 sunset almost over downtown Anchorage

 these are from Reflection Lake walk.

 the flowers are still there a bit but the peak of those flowers passed a few weeks ago.  amazing how quickly we move through these seasons here.

 beautiful skies yesterday...even if the pups were dragging me all over.

 they were better today or i was, not sure.  some days you just are more patient than others too i guess.  i'm not perfect.

 not sure what bird these came from but there were several of these out there...didn't see a body though.

 just enjoyed the big sky

 have a few more things to do before i turn in for the night.  i am beat though.

 dogs in silty water.

 another feather and a pretty butterfly

 and one from today.  Blossom looking out the window. liked that her face is in the rear view mirror. thought it was cool.

grateful for:  A.  days that look like rain, but don't rain while you are hiking. it did rain after i got home.  B. flowers so pretty, so much variety  C. the inspiration of others who are way kinder and more giving....i will never reach the level of Mother Theresa but we can all give of our selves more and be kind.

some days are spaz days...

 today was one of those days with the puppies.  they were just high energy and seemed like nothing i was doing was working to wear their little puppy arses out.  silly puppies!!  they are happily in their crates for the night now.

 meant to get out and do individual walks tonight and reign them in...ended up chatting on the phone too long though

 this is us unloading and getting all the gear hauled to the cabin...a process that was repeated the next afternoon when we got word weather was going to get worse

 we ended up at reflections lake today...there were loads of folks out there which was even more challenging with two spaz puppies. overall people compliment me on how well behaved they are and mellow...it doesn't always feel like that from my end, but i hope that is true.

 we used the kayaks to float gear over to cabin.

 yesterday we did a 4 mile walk out Powerline with friends.  i hardly touched their leashed the entire time.  it is always such a treat...at the same time.  nobody else was making those puppies heel so a slacker day for them.  haha.  maybe why i seemed to have to work harder today to get them back on track.  give those pups an inch...right!!

 i debated heading down to Homer for an overnighter.  it was predicted to rain down there and i just had stuff i should get done.  did get a few things done today so that is always good.  looks like there was actually some sunshine.  by the time i would have gotten myself together it would have been silly. i do head down there next week for my bear viewing trek .

 was feeling off about trek last night.  sometimes someone can make a few comments that make you feel frivolous or something. i  don't know...in the end you realize that other people can't just do these things and for some folks that is annoying to them.  no need to rain on my parade...but some people can't help themselves i guess. there are positives and negatives to every life.  being single does have some positives for me.  i don't have to answer to others when it comes to spending my money really. i have my bills but i don't have kids or other of those sort of obligations.  on the down side, i don't have kids or a spouse to help me or to laugh with.  life is all about trade offs and compromises

 no matter what anyone tries to make you feel...their lives aren't perfect either.  some folks are just better at faking it than others i think. i'd even say the harder someone works to prove to others how perfect they and their lives are the more miserable their lives probably actually are.

 was thinking of heading out moose spotting again today.  last night i went up Campbell Airstrip Road. i thought it was a bust until i got back down to the bear hibernation tree.  right about there a big black bear has wandered out on to the road.  there was a lady in the pull out there near her car so i pulled over to let her know of this bear.

 she was a bit of a character i think. hippy like...which i think in my age those hippy sort maybe turned to grunge.  anyway.  she was out there holding a guitar and then she was saying how she'd thought she heard something and her cat was really freaking out.  about then a brown tabby cat booked across the road.

 she then said she was out there with her cat taking photos of the cat for said cats facebook page. she thought she heard something in the brush so she got out her guitar was her story.  music calms the savage beast i guess, right?

 we then heard the sounds of the bear back in the brush and at that she pulled out her phone and headed in after it...wasn't the way i would have opted...i was actually trying to let her know she could come in my car if she needed to.  she was too fast though.  thankfully, most bears would prefer to not expend energy on attacking humans.

 double sided tape has been placed on a few counters..we shall see if it helps with counter surfing puppies.  they are getting tall.  i was leaning on the deck rail next to a tall chair when Ivy just made a jump up into it.  wow

 had to buy new fitbit arm bands when i found Tusker had napped mine off the counter as the guts were getting charged.  thankfully, the guts were not in there.  he demolished it pretty fast.

 ivy loves to grab newspapers and run outside and shred them.  she also loves to take all of the food bowls outside one by one after each dog meal.

 they have still not been allowed access to the upstairs...way too much for me to monitor with two pups.  eventually, but not yet.  i'm not ready ...i suspect the cats aren't ready yet either.  Tusker did climb on the sofa as the cat was in my arms there and he was easily guided to the other end and ignored Pogi.  Pogi is smart enough to not make himself too excited.  Breezy hasn't figured that out yet.

 braved petsmart today with all three dogs.

 rumors the attacker in Orlando was actually having secret gay relations outside his very religious family.

 if that is true it may have been more self loathing/anger rather than terrorist related.  interesting.  we did see lots of waterfalls out there.

 managing 3 dogs out on the trails means that i am powerless against mosquitos....haha.

 selfie

 a section of cross pass was closed for a bit due to a bear with a cached dead moose.  the chilkoot was closed on the Canadian side after a bear raided and was rewared a tent.  that one was killed.

 we got plenty of wildlife out there for the moment.

 tried to sneak in a few in black and white. always cool.

 i am fading fast  sleepy...need to try and rest while the puppies rest.

 apparently it's not just the wood frog that goes into some sort of state of deep hibernation.they are studying these species it sounds like to see if there is anything that will help with human heart issues.

 these are from out first day paddle out there.

 not a bad paddle.

 mom and baby squirrel.  always cool.

 i tried to nap while they napped and when i woke i noted that my coffee table had seemed to have moved quite some distance.  brats...

 but  they are so cute when they are relaxed

 little angels as they sleep for sure.

 this below was taken by another. it's from the Orlando Health thought it was pretty amazing shot.

 we can all get along.  survivors from the Boston Marathon came with their service dogs to the hospital there in houston

 to the park one day....they are sure cute about benches.....

 look at that cute face.  i finally put together the little kids bench.  the pups were pretty jazzed to test it out.

 i let them each have some time in the big swing. they seemed to enjoy it.

 another sweet picture i though.

 she does sleep

 i will have to get them a real puppy sized  another bench for the pups

 will hit bed before i fall asleep out here

thankful for:  A.  opportunities to get to take in the beauty that has been created  B.  warm beds, soft pillows. C.  more sunsets on round island