Happy Holi-dogs!

Wow! Can you believe it's Christmas time again!?! Just where exactly do the days and weeks go? As I look back over the past 12 months, it doesn't take me very long to see how blessed Dan and I have been this past year and we count our ties with you, our family & friends, among our largest blessings. We also have our health, great jobs, and a house full of happy tail wagging pups! The attached photo was taken at Three Dog Bakery two weekends ago. All proceeds from "Photos with the Grinch" went to local animal shelters. Have a wonderful Christmas and happy and fruitful new year!

Doggie Dash & Dawdle!

The AHANM Doggie Dash & Dawdle is one of the Animal Humane’s largest fundraisers and, according to the television news reports, more than 3,000 people showed up on November 4th for this year’s event. Daisy and Dan “dashed” the 5K animal friendly run in approximately 37 minutes and Scout, Bandit, and I “dawdled” the 2 mile walk in under an hour. With over 40 vendors and rescue groups, the Dash and Dawdle is certainly the premier canine social event of the year! If you're looking for something fun to do with your dog, I stumbled across this awesome website a few weeks ago: http://www.abqdog.com/. The site lists a number of interesting Albuquerque dog-related events on its calendar! Check it out!

Happy Howl-o-ween!

October 2007 – Here's a super cute photo of the spotted hounds dressed up for Halloween as hot dogs. We had two ketchup hot dogs (Scout and Bandit) and one mustard (Daisy). This photo was taken at Daisy's school, where Dan served as the photographer for all who came to the school’s first ever Howl-o-ween party. There was hot dog bobbing, a costume contest, and a pumpkin patch treasure hunt. Needless to say, great fun was had by all, and I, personally, think the event should receive a four paw entertainment rating!

Also attached is the family Halloween photo that was printed on our 2007 Thanksgiving card. The photo was taken in my parents' backyard on Halloween night by my Dad. We hope you're enjoying the blog!

Another Great Trip to Sedona, AZ

October 2007 - Dan and I decided to skip off to Red Rock Country again this month and, just like our last trip, we had an absolutely wonderful time! The weather was spectacular and it seems like we really squeezed in a lot more things this time around. We took fall foliage photos at a couple of different spots along Oak Creek Canyon Road and even went to the Out of Africa wildlife preserve in Camp Verde and watched a tiger splash show and predator feed. We also took in both a sunrise and sunset off Airport Road. We ate at the Cowboy Club one night and had cactus fries (which are much like zucchini, but crunchier), gourmet pizza and hot wings at Picazzo, and fajitas and margaritas at the Barking Frog. Oh, and I even got to go into Sage Crafts on Monday morning on our way out of town and picked up some southwestern-style scrapbook paper and a green chile background stamp!

Ahh, Fall is in the Air!

October 2007 - The balloon fiesta has come and gone, as have the leaves of the maple and oak trees of Manzano Mountains. Thankfully, we've got photos to show for both!

The spotted hounds, the Boyfriend, and I visited the Fourth of July camp grounds in the Manzano mountains the weekend of October 13th and took a ton of fall foliage photos, including the two attached "family photo" snap shots below. As you can see from the photos, it's absolutely gorgeous up there this time of year. If you want to plan a trip for next year, here are the general directions: In Tajique, NM, take AO13/Forest Rt. 55 (gravel) west 7.1 miles to an intersecting road on the right. Turn right (campground sign will be visible after turn) into campground.

Dan took the two attached balloon photos the morning of October 10th. Please see the written material that follows below for more information on the fiesta, including this year's statistics.

This year, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta kicked off the weekend of October 6th and continued through October 14th. (Note: The fiesta always takes place the first two full weekends of October, just in case you'd like to come for a visit.) Nearly 900,000 people visited the park during the nine-day festival and, despite several ballooning accidents and one tragic death, this year was one of the best years for the fiesta. Here are some of the final statistics of this year's fiesta (as retrieved from the Balloon Fiesta's official website, http://www.balloonfiesta.com):

Registered Balloons: 700
Registered Special Shapes Balloons: 96
Registered Gas Balloons: 10
Estimated Guest Visits: Approximately 899,446
States registered: 40

Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming

Countries Registered: 24

Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Scotland, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States

Pup-Peroni?

September 2007 - These great shots were taken by Dan in our backyard. What's our secret for getting such great dog photos? To be honest, there really isn't anything those three hounds won't do for a Pup-Peroni dog treat and, knowing this, we use them to our advantage every chance we get! As a matter of fact, we took Daisy on her first-ever (outdoor and in a tent) camping trip over Labor Day weekend and, after she managed to get a fairly lengthy distance away from us, the only way we could get her to return was to lure her back to camp by rattling the Pup-Peroni treat jar!

Red Rock Country

August 2007 - Despite the 100+ degree Arizona weather, Dan and I decided to take a quick road trip to Sedona, Arizona the second weekend of August. While in Sedona, Dan and I hiked around the Crescent Moon Ranch picnic area, enjoyed a chuckwagon supper and live Western stage production at the Blazin M Ranch, and took a meandering scenic drive on Schnebly Hill Road, stopping at Merry Go Round Rock (a stone carousel) to find the tree that Elvis Presley leaned against in the movie, Stay Away, Joe in 1968. Angel and the Badman was also filmed near Merry Go Round Rock in 1946 and starred John Wayne and Gail Russell. This is a photo of Dan and me at Red Rock Crossing, near the Crescent Moon Ranch picnic area.

Happy 4th of July!

July 2007 - Well, we survived the dog food recalls during the monh of March, but we were unable to escape kennel cough. For those of you unfamiliar with kennel cough, it's a highly contagious upper respiratory infection caused by either bacteria or a virus. The most common form of kennel cough is caused by the bacteria called Bordetella Bronchiseptica, and hence the name of the vaccine. Kennel cough presents as a dry, hacking, coarse cough, complete with retching and gagging, that only worsens at night. Daisy was kind enough to bring it home from school and share it with her brothers - twice! Oh what fun we had with all three being sick for the entire month of July!

Welcome to the Dog Days of Summer!

June 2007 – Shortly after Daisy’s arrival, we discovered that she absolutely, positively LOVES water. And, for a fairly long period of time, she would jump into the shower with Dan and I and lick the water off our legs, but she has slowly grown out of that little habit. She also loves Grandma and Grandpa’s backyard fountain, the squirt bottle, and the garden hose.

In an effort to keep her entertained (and out of the shower), Dan ventured out and bought Daisy a fancy dancy kiddy swimming pool. Daisy and Dan had a blast jumping in and out of it and Daisy had fun rolling and splashing about. She even stuck her nose under water and blew bubbles! Here are two photos of Daisy enjoying her newly purchased backyard swimming pool.

Obedience School Graduates

May 2007 – Well, our lives seem to pretty much be back to normal. We enrolled the hounds in basic obedience classes and all three passed with flying colors. Scout and Bandit graduated from Family Dog Class at the tail end of April and Daisy graduated from her Puppy/Beginners Class on May 12th. We decided to enroll the spotted hounds in obedience courses so that we would be better able to handle them during our two week road trip to Minnesota. On our trip, we visited everything there was to see between New Mexico and Minnesota, including the Great Sand Dunes in Alamosa, Colorado and Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands in South Dakota. While at Mt. Rushmore, the hounds met Monique Ziolkowski, the daughter of self-taught Crazy Horse sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who stopped to introduce herself after she and her sister recognized our black and white pack from having visited the Crazy Horse Memorial earlier in the day. Ms. Ziolkowski spoke with us for quite a few minutes and then graciously thanked us for visiting her home and wished us well on our journey. May was an extremely exciting month and, as you might expect, there’s really no shortage of photos for the month of May.

Whoo-hoo! Spring has Arrived!

March & April 2007 – These were two fairly busy months for us new dog parents, but we did sneak in a few trips to the Isotopes ballpark and even took in a Scorpions hockey game with our friends, Steve and Roberta. Dan loves to practice his sports photography at the games and, even though not featured here, Dan has even managed to capture a few nasty hockey fights on his digital camera!

Daisy Joins the Family!

February 2007 – This six week old little cutie, a border collie mix, came from Lubbock, Texas. Her name is Daisy. The hounds, my friend Linda, and I drove to Lubbock and picked her up from her foster mother, Connie (a volunteer of The Haven Animal Care Shelter), on Saturday, February 3rd. Daisy has eight brothers and sisters and she was the only black and white puppy of the litter. Her mother is a smooth coat border collie, but the breed of her father is unknown. Scout and Bandit wanted absolutely nothing to do with her those first few days, but, through the course of time, they have all three become the best of friends. Those are Linda's feet in the photo below.

Vegas, Baby!

January 2007 – As an early birthday surprise, Dan organized a quick road trip to Las Vegas, Nevada with our friends, Vernon and Shelly. To this day, I have no idea how Dan managed to pull this off without me catching wind of it, but Vernon and Shelly surprised me at the check in counter of our hotel. We stayed in Laughlin, Nevada for one night and then went on to Las Vegas the next day. We stayed at the Stratosphere and spent much of our time visiting Fat Tuesday’s for margarita refills. We also visited Madame Trusseau's wax museum and took in a Cirque Du Soleil show at Treasure Island. We also went down to Fremont Street for the light show and ate our fill of 99 cent shrimp at the Golden Nugget. Thank you, Boyfriend, for this fabulously great weekend and thank you, Vernon and Shelly, for being a part of the big surprise!

Holy Cow! What a Snowfall!

December 2006 – We woke up to about six inches of snow the morning of December 30th and absolutely HAD to go out and play in it! Scout and Bandit weren’t too overly sure what to do with all that white stuff at first, but it didn’t take them long to figure out how to leap and bound through the fluffy, chest deep snow. These photos were taken in our front yard, along the sidewalk.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 2006 – Here’s a photo of me and the hounds as taken by Dan on Thanksgiving day. Shortly after dinner, the four of us decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and work off some of the great eats of the day and Dan snapped this photo along the way. As you make your way through this blog, you’ll probably notice that Dan is missing from a large majority of the photos. This isn’t because we don’t like him, it’s simply because he’s the “man behind the camera” on most occasions. Scout and Bandit really seemed to enjoy our walk and did quite a bit of loose leash running in and around in the park that borders my parents’ neighborhood.

Welcome to My Very First Posting!

October 2006 - Here’s a photo of me, my friend Christy, and her two children enjoying a hay ride at McCall’s Pumpkin Patch in Moriarty, New Mexico. I realize you might be sitting there wondering why it is that I decided to kick off this blog with a photo from October of 2006, but, if you’ve found this site it’s probably because the address was provided to you in this year’s Thanksgiving card, so it makes perfect sense for me to start this blog with a photo chronicling exactly what it was that we were doing approximately one year ago. That being said, there are plenty of things to do at McCall's and Dan and I very much enjoy visiting the farm. You can feed the farm animals, take a hayride to the pumpkin patch, or get lost in the corn maze. You can also race a pedal cart, mine for gemstones, or launch a pumpkin from their pumpkin cannon. If you’re interested in visiting McCall’s next year, here’s a link to their site: http://www.mccallpumpkinpatch.com/index.htm. Unfortunately, the Boyfriend and I were unable to make it out to McCall’s this year, but last year we were lucky enough to have three of our dear friends join us for the day! Thanks guys!