Bragging Rights

Summer quarter officially done and on the books - not too shabby for being out of school for 4 years:

Just Relax.

Both of us were (over)due for a little bit of relaxation. With nice weather playing in our favor we made sure to catch up on a little bit lazy, friend, outdoors times.

Saturday we decided to get the dog (and ourselves) out for a little exercise. Knowing it was going to be a bit roasty we didn't want to do anything too ambitious. We picked out a nice 5 mile hike near Sequim/Diamond Point (about 30 min away) that ended out on a beach on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Excellent choice. The hike was pretty flat and very easy. We were absolutely astonished to get to the beautiful beach and have NOBODY else there. Can't beat that on an 85 degree day!

Up and over the hill to be greeted by this view -

Looking down the beach with Mt Baker in the distance. It was a little hazy from the forest fires in Olympic National Park -

LOTS of swimming for Bear -

My two favorite boys after lunch -

After the hike we headed home (with one exhausted dog in the back). Unfortunately it was just our luck to get stuck on the Hood Canal Bridge. At least it was pretty and the breeze off the water felt great.

Saturday night we had a campfire in our yard. We sat by the fire and relaxed with friends for hours. We even caught a bit of the meteor shower!

Sunday we went swimming out on Foul Weather Bluff in Hansville (20 min from home). The water is really, really shallow so it stays a perfect swimming temperature for dogs and people. Our friends have a dog that Bear gets along with real well. Those two just swam and swam. Bear could keep up with me out in the water, not bad for a German Shepherd. When we got back to the car we tried to get Bear to jump up in the back of the Escape, normally not a problem. He was so exhausted that he tried to get up in the car but couldn't, Chris had to lift him up. That poor dog is still sleeping off the weekend.

Hope you guys found some ways to beat the heat. If we didn't live so close to the water I don't know what we'd do!

Summary

Now that I have my head out of the books (finished with an A! Wahoo!) I'll give you a quick rundown of the Walker household events.

Took my Mainer to a Red Sox game (Mariners game for us West Coasters!)

We met up with a friend of his from his National Guard unit.

The weather's been beautiful recently so we've had many evening walks.

Have I mentioned I love Kingston?

We FINALLY up the molding up around the front door. This is a BIG DEAL for us because anyone who's visited in the past year and a half has probably noticed it missing (since we put our new door in) ...

 

Dog's still alive and well but we've got to get him a bigger bed!

 

We went to Long Beach to celebrate Dad's birthday.

It was summer but still chilly at the ocean.

Dogs don't care though.

We had a few rounds of 'extreme crochet' in the front yard. Notice my mother is attempting to kill off my husband?!

All this makes for a tired dawg who gets special "couch privileges" at the cabin.

Chris had his first drill in his new uniform. Look at my good looking Airman!

And lots and lots of this going on.

There were many other assorted adventures in there that I just didn't manage to get any photos of. Oh well!

Hope everyone has had a great week. Time for a sunny weekend!

Awesome

There's a blog I like to follow called "1000 Awesome Things". Each day the author writes a short spot on something that is just plain awesome. Most of the time you read the title and think, "yea, that is awesome". I thought I would share it because it reminds you of the simple little joys of life.

This one from back in June pretty much sums up my awesome feeling of the week...

Nope, not dead. Just busy with school/finals.

Stand by for updates soon!