We got off to a bit of a rocky start, but everything seems to have calmed down and returned back to normal. All three pups brought in the new year on antibiotics for the stomach flu. We’re not 100% sure where the virus came from, but we’re fairly convinced Daisy brought it home from dog camp. That being said, we pulled Daisy out of doggy day care for the month and are awaiting a clean bill of health before returning her back to camp. In the meantime, we’ve been busy finding ways to entertain our 1-year old bundle of “get-up-and-go” in an attempt to work off some of that abundant puppy energy. Daisy loves to chase the laser pointer and she and Dan will play and play with the laser pointer for hours at a time. The attached photo is a close-up of Daisy during one of those play sessions. Daisy has also started to run with Dan on a regular basis and she is now running 8 miles each week. We’ve also ventured out as a family for a couple of great day trips. The weekend of January 19th, we loaded up the hounds and headed off to the Ojito Wilderness for a nice little afternoon hike. The dogs loved trotting along on the trails and sniffing about and Dan and I very much enjoyed the beautiful scenery and together time. The attached link will connect you to a website that describes in detail three of Ojito’a hiking options: http://www.ojito.org/explore.html. The following weekend, we jumped into the Jeep and headed out for a scenic drive to check out some of the volcanoes, craters, and lava tubes near El Malpais. On our drive, we stopped at both Sandstone Bluffs Overlook and La Ventana Natural Arch (both extremely beautiful), but we were unable to visit the Chain of Craters area because the backcountry byway was closed due to weather conditions. The attached link will connect you to a site about the El Malpais area: http://www.nps.gov/elma/. On that same trip, we also visited El Morro National Monument and hiked two of its self-guided trails. One trail was a paved ½ mile loop to Inscription Rock where ancient travelers carved permanent messages into the sandstone bluffs for future travelers to read. The other was a two mile varied terrain climb which lead to the top of the mesa where, in the 1950’s, archeologists unearthed the ancient ruins of the Atsinna Pueblo. From the top of the mesa, you can see the entire El Morro valley and, even after all my complaining, I must admit that the mesa’s panoramic view is absolutely gorgeous and totally worth the climb! Thank you, Boyfriend, for making me hike to the top! Attached below are a few photos from our trip to El Morro, together with a link to a site about the area: http://www.nps.gov/elmo/
