Goin' Down to Texas

I have been MIA from blog land lately because I came down with a cold that kicked my butt, and then Jon and I flew to Houston! This blog will be written in highlights to get all the good stuff without making you read a whole lot. :)

• Ellie snuggled with me while I was home sick. I even let her up on the couch which she's NEVER allowed onto (shh don't tell Jon). 
• We flew to Houston and went to Brazos Bend State Park where we saw some alligators! Apparently, there are usually many more all over the paths, but it must have been too cold.
• We went to San Antonio and the weather was clear and beautiful! We walked the river walk & rode a tour boat.
• We shopped a 5k. Literally. The outlet mall in San Marcos stretches 1.5 miles (according to the odometer when we drove it to measure) and we walked down and back, plus in and out of stores!
• Ellie stayed with my mom and then my sister was kind enough to get her the last night so I wouldn't have to drive 20 miles to pick Ellie up after arriving at home.
• Ellie freaked out when I came to get her. She was super pumped about me coming home. I was too, but didn't run around in circles like she did.

Picture time!

Gator sighting

Jon climbed a tree

River walk and the boat that we rode

The Alamo

It was a fantastic trip and fun to get away to someplace new, but I'm glad to be back home. :)

Ellie is a stringbean

I often see other dogs that like to lay with their back legs out the back, but Ellie only rarely does it. So rarely, in fact, that this photo is a few months old as getting a picture of her in this position is like trying to catch a glimpse of Sasquatch.

She's long and skinny without sticking her legs out the back, that this just looks even more unusual. Cracks me up every time.

We made Blizzards!

Jon got a Blizzard maker for Christmas. Yes, a Dairy Queen Blizzard maker. We finally got around to buying half and half and rock salt so tonight was the night to finally try it out!

We assembled all of the parts and added all the ingredients and got to stirring.

It took over 10 minutes to get to the right consistency, so we took shifts :)

Look how tiny the cups are!

Finally, it's ready to eat! We crushed up some Oreos to put in.

It tasted super sweet, different from your typical Dairy Queen ice cream. Fun, but I think next time we'll just make the drive to our local DQ!

Where's my ice cream?

Port-a-Poo: Dog Walker's Must-Have!

I got this awesome gift for Christmas called the Port-A-Poo. I would totally recommend it to all dog walkers!

How it works:
Attach it to the leash (it screws on, so it's there to stay until you disassemble it)

When you've got a used poo bag, clip it into the Port-A-Poo!

 

Now you have a free hand and don't have to carry the poo bag!

Christmas fun

Post written by Ellie:

This weekend was soooo busy! First, we went to boy's family's house and there were lots of people and I tried to chase the kitties! The people opened lots of paper, and they even gave me a squeak toy wrapped in paper that I got to unwrap all by myself!

And guess what else I got! Puppy Tweets! Follow me on Twitter @Ellie_dog and you'll see some of the crazy stuff it automatically posts :)

The next day was Christmas, and mom got me some awesome tennis balls that I chewed up in about 30 seconds! Me and mom had no idea, but boy also got me a stocking!

Me and my stocking! Also, I'm wearing my Puppy Tweets tag!

Yummmm... Pup-Peroni!

Wait... is that... CAT TREATS?!?

Yes. Boy's sister, who did the shopping, accidentally picked out cat treats for my stocking. Guess she couldn't tell the difference. Oh well, they still taste good!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Flying Trapeze

This is not dog related, but last night Jon and I used our Groupon for trapeze! It was super scary at first, but they walked us through all the moves and by the end, we got to do a "catch"!
It was sooo much fun and I would recommend anyone to do it.

Watch my quick 30 second video!

Yappy Hour Meetup

Happy dog

This morning, we went to my mom's for breakfast where Ellie got to play with my mom's Rat Terrier, Jaxson. They are both high energy so it was lots of fun for them.

I had gotten an e-mail from the Seattle Active Dogs meetup group about a Yappy Hour at Carnation Golf Course which is a long drive from our apartment, but relatively close to my mom's, so we all decided to go there together since the weather is absolutely beautiful today!

Well we got there 30-45 minutes after it started so there were lots of dogs when we got there, but it quickly cleared out. No worries though, because Ellie still had a blast running all over the golf course! The course was closed to golfers because it was super muddy and wet.

Ellie chases Jaxson

Ellie came back a muddy, happy, tired mess and she has a date with the bath tub later ;)

Update: My mom just e-mailed me pictures that she took with her nice camera.

Action shot!

Water break