Our babies

It is getting hard to find outdoor activities with the kids when it is so damn hot outside!! Even our early morning walks leaves the dogs panting, so we are keeping activities at a minimum right now. HOWEVER, throw a little water into the mix and you get two DAMN happy dogs that want to stay all day long. Seriously, we had to pull them out of the water. Instead of heading to Town Lake (maybe one day I'll feel comfortable calling it Lady Bird Lake) to get some water time we headed to Peace Park. They have a little stretch of leash less area (24th street to 29th street, off of Lamar) which includes Shoal Creek. I thought this would be a good area to let Abby really get a feel for the water because it isn't to deep.

It took her all of 30 seconds to realize that she LOVED the water. She had a huge smile on her face and was sprinting all over the place. We ended up having to get the leash and calming her down a bit, we are still over-sensitive/protective about her knee. The last thing we want is another hurt body part.

I love this photo... I knew I had seconds before I had to move because I'm pretty sure she would have run right into me if I had stayed in the same place

We probably stayed about 30 minutes before we decided to head down the trail. I look forward to the day where we can have Abby off of the leash and have her listen to us. We let go of her leash at the water (left it on her) but we were on both sides of the water making sure she didn't get to far away from us.


Not a great photo, but you can see the height difference of Chewie and Abby... she is gaining some ground on him! She is 6 months old.
Last weekend, I spent some time outside with the kids and the wide angle lens.

Abby is not very lady like... she loves to sleep like this, which leaves her,,, ummm,,, whooo-ha out in the open

Aaahhhhhh!!! Love this photo! Chewie is okay with her laying on him, as long as she isn't a freak and start licking him to death. This was the night after swimming, so they were both pretty tired

Just Pooh-Pa

It is easy to get caught up with Abby and her cuteness so I decided this was a post for just Chewie (also known as Pooh-pa, Chunky Chew, Sha-boo-boo, Boo, Bubba, and other combinations of those other nicknames). On Saturday, before the Farmers Market, Chewie and I went to Peace Park to walk around. There is a leashless area between 24th street and 29th street in the park along Lamar Blvd. This is the same area where people play disc golf.

Riding to the park

Lots of lush green trees and bushes along the trail. There was some water along the way, but thankfully Chewie stayed out of the water. I didn't have a towel with me.

There are lots of great trees along the trail

Chewie is going off roading here

I was a little worried near the disk golf players because Chewie is such a frisbee dog. I didn't want him taking off chasing their disks :) Luckily, he just watched and then went on his way to sniff the trail.

Relaxing in the sun


Abby was so happy that Chewie was back, she covered him with kisses

12th Annual Mighty Texas Dog Walk

This Saturday we woke up early, crossed our fingers that it wouldn't rain on us, and headed out to be a part of the 12th Annual Mighty Texas Dog Walk. This dog walk is hosted by the Texas Hearing and Service Dogs, and helps them raise money for their organization. I did this walk years ago with Taylor, so now it was Chewie and Jim's turn to do it with me. The weather the night before was pouring, so we were pretty worried about the conditions on Saturday morning, but we were blessed with just a slight mist and cloudy weather.

Chewie did a great job around the other dogs and really just left most of them alone- he isn't much of a butt sniffer. He had some rambunctious puppies try to play with him, and he just looked at them and kept walking. We stopped at some of the booths and picked up some free treats and food as well as a couple of reusable bags. Score!!

Along with being a great way to raise money for the Texas Hearing and Service Dogs, they were also trying to win the Guiness World Record title of largest dog walk. In years past this walk held that title, but then England decided to break Austin's record and take over the title. We needed to have more than 10,272 dogs walking to beat their record. I'm sure we'll have to wait and see how many showed up, but as you can see from the photos, there were a lot of people that showed up to walk!

Chewie making sure I was still behind him!
Start of the walk! We started on the 1st street bridge, walked down Cesar Chavez, looped around near Austin High School, then walked back down on the 1st street bridge.

There were all shapes and sizes of dogs at the walk.....

There were older dogs

Dogs that licked children

Dogs that kept looking back at me wondering why I kept taking pictures of them.. good thing Chewie is used to the camera in his face :)


Dogs that wore hats

Dogs that looked similar

Dogs that wore grass skirts (Dawn, I had to do a double take to make sure that wasn't Sue :) )

Long line of walkers, we were towards the front of the crowd

Dogs that wore rain slickers

I have always thought Chewie was a tall dog until he was next to this dog. The owner said he weighs 170 pounds... 90 pounds more than Chewie!

There were plenty of watering stations along the walk

Dogs wearing blankets

Dogs wearing fabric necklaces

Big ol' lumbering dogs

Small dogs riding in carts

Big dogs riding in carts

There were also dogs that were adoptable doing the walk. There were a few rescue organizations that were there showing off their dogs

Loved the feather boa

Me and my Poo-pa

I think Chewie would eat all of my shoes if I were to make him wear something like this

After we finished the race, we got a little gold medal for finishing!! Chewie sniffed it and then walked away. I'll be a good mother and hold it for him.

After the walk, we went over to Austin Java for a little breakfast. They have a nice patio area that was overtaken by people and their dogs from the race. I had a mimosa and Chewie got his treats :) The race and breakfast was a great way to start our Saturday morning!