first monday walk of the year!!

 always fun to get back to it!

 hopefully amy and her little one will become regulars.  tanya, lena, karen and i were also along for the walk. the dogs were actually outnumbered, but not outweighed i'm sure!

 2 year olds seem to want to try and walk...i think the roots got to her though.  in the winter a sled will make life easier.  i left rio home today as well so she wouldn't have to battle all the roots, and water as it turned out.

 almost all the leaves are off in this section of the park.  those winds finally won out.  still many trees down, but the trail itself was clear.

 well, not really clear.  there has been a lot of water these past few weeks and there are warnings of flooding in  various parts of the state, including anchorage.  all the creeks and streams are running way over their normal.  amy, the other amy, joined us for coffee and showed us a photo of a local restaurant that is along the creek. their deck and chairs are under water.

 the dogs had a blast today as the trail had many very wet spots...above is the trail through on section.  we had to skirt around it.  lena and i were just here after that first wind storm and this creek bed was dry below, it was all quite dry then.  amazing how quickly things change.

 i was thinking about taking a drive down to homer this stretch off, but i think it's probably a bad idea.  so much flooding.  the roads could be dangerous. plenty to do here.

 the dog crew.  rio stayed home.  boddhi, blossom, indy and manny.  actually the picture above is indy making this weeks wall of dog shame.  he's humping poor blossom. blossom is tired tonight, a bit sore i think.  she's getting older now.

 i guess someone at work told someone else that they weren't invited to join the monday walks.  there are signs posted on the walls so that invites everyone.  people are strange.  then she mentioned an incident with our dogs, like it had just happened the other day, as being the reason she wasn't invited.  when i was told what the incident was i had to laugh. it actually happened when blossom was a puppy, she's almost 7 now.  some people hold onto shit for a long time.  i mean really??

 oh well, you can't please everyone and you'd kill yourself trying.  mostly i find people like this would never be pleased anyway so sadly, they hold themselves back.  not my problem!

 i think the dogs should all be tired tonight.  i took a short nap with rio on the couch and then headed off to the gym for some laps.  felt good.  just did 20 laps.  enough to feel like i got my workout in.  still have the dregs of the cold/sinus bug.  really hoping it doesn't get worse, but goes away.  that has actually happened a few times these past few years.  before that if i got any virus i got bronchitis. would love to skip that bit.

 haven't complained yet about the new format.  i'm trying to adapt.  it's a bother getting the picture you want as lead shot on top and any side shots are out, also you load the photo's and then select the ones you want, hit the use selected button and the program loads all the photo's on.  at least i didn't complain until half way down the page.

 her little one, i believe her name is sydney.  she is really cute.  amy had a cool carrier thing.  it has a metal bar on the bottom so the kid just stands on the bar and then is clicked in.  pretty easy actually.

 we took the photo op here at this big pulled up tree.  quite impressive in size. there were a few other trees that had partially pulled up.  i just remember one the last time we cruised through.

 kaladi's after was lovely as well.  amy and lena left after the walk and skipped the hot cocoa, katie and amy, preggers, joined those who came to kaladi's.  i had baked some cookies yesterday, but they were pretty dry and crumbly.  i never like hard cookies.  i had put them in a crapper container.  it didn't close properly.  so i brought a few honeycrisp apples instead.  those are one of my favorite apples.  you can't get them all the time.  i think everyone enjoyed them.  way better than crappy cookies.  some guy stopped me in the place as i walked past with the apples...he asked if they were honeycrisps.  obviously, i'm not the only person who loves the honeycrisp.  my favorite late night snack is cut up honeycrisps and cheese chunks.  can't go wrong there.  i have some nice white cheddar in the fridge that i'm snacking on.

 we did have to go over this one tree.  that was pretty much our only obstacle out there today, besides the water.

 actually, you can see amy's baby carrier things.  lena is taking a turn with the little one.  2 year olds rarely will stay in anything for a 4 mile walk.  we all took turns giving her a lift.  luckily, she's a good baby and didn't seem to mind who was holding her.  she napped for a bit.  too bad nash wasn't there to meet.

 one of many down trees.  lena and i had seen it all a few weeks back but it really had to be seen to appreciate the number of downed trees.  quite impressive.

 blossom woke me up early. i see she is in preheating my bed.  such a sweet dog.  thanks blossom!

 i really have great dogs.  i can't complain at all.  they are both so sweet.  the cats are cool as well.  they were pretty happy a bit ago.  i let a moth in when i brought blossom in from her porch nap.  both cats took off after that thing.  such joy!  my cats stay inside all the time so getting a shot at a real hunting experience is totally fun.

 lena, amy and karen.

 we were all impressed with the little tiny creek.  it's flowing over the little bridge there.  pretty wild how high the water level is even there.

 even blossom looks impressed.

 not sure she got herself saturated enough for me to call her clean.  i did brush her out before we headed out for the monday walk, but she was defluffed pretty fast.  she looks so cute all fluffy. i'll have to trim her face for the snow season.  she can't see if i don't.  not too many breeds of dogs need to be clipped for the winter instead of the summer.

 will have to make some calls to set up appointments tomorrow.  never got to it today.

 procrastination is the story of my life.

 do manage the walks, and the blog i guess.

so off to bed, will try for that to do list tomorrow...or the next day or the day after that!