Spring Break
I like that title: "Spring Break." Not only did the kids have their Spring Break from school the week before Easter, but I ended up taking an unscheduled blog-break this Spring. Not quite a month, but almost. My apologies to family and blog-friends who may have come to check on me a couple of times, only to have the same old stuff come up. As you know, it happens.
John didn't have any time off during the kids' Spring Break, so things were pretty low key, we stayed home other than a few day trips. The kids and I went up to Olympia one day (with the dogs in the car!) Audrey and I had a really nice hike with the dogs one afternoon while James went back to Olympia with his friend Collin's family to go to the Olympic Flight Museum. I took James and Collin to the beach at Ft. Stephens (that's the one with the wreck of the Peter Iredale) while Audrey took a 7 hour Red Cross babysitting course.
It wasn't a good day for pictures, being kind of dark and damp, but there isn't such a thing as a bad day at the beach. Except for the horses. (Big) SIGH. I had the dogs W-A-Y down the beach from the rest of the people who were there climbing on the ship wreck and digging in the sand and flying kites and doing all their own beach stuff, and I let the dogs off-leash. They live to be off-leash, they really do, and they were having a great time running around and splashing in the surf, UNTIL. . . UNTIL the STUPID HORSESS came trotting out of the mist. Unfortunately the dogs and I saw them at the exact same instant, and the dogs gave chase the moment they saw them. This was a traumatic thing, and I'm sure I have many new gray hairs from it since the STUPID DOGS took off after the horses, which happened to be part of some fancy pay-to-ride-horses-with-guides-dressed-like-Lewis-and-Clark-while-going-to Lewis-and-Clark-sites group. Sigh I haven't Googled what business is running these Lewis and Clark horse tours, but let me tell you, they have a bunch of lovely, tame, Well Behaved horses, because this was the dogs' first horse experience and they were absolute terrors. Callie was content to bark her head off from a distance, but Cozy got right up into the group, barking and snarling and trying to grab the prominent ligament above the horses back knees, just like she was a trained Roman battle-dog who attacks horses on a daily basis. Oh my goodness, it was terrible. But eventually I was able to call them off and the horses continued on their way. There was no actually physical contact. The horses were marvellous, fidgeting but not actually unseating any tourists. No harm, no foul, right? And no more dogs off leash at the beach until they actually PASS an obedience course. (Sigh. They failed to get their certificate in Puppy Kindergarten.) It was a close call.
John didn't have any time off during the kids' Spring Break, so things were pretty low key, we stayed home other than a few day trips. The kids and I went up to Olympia one day (with the dogs in the car!) Audrey and I had a really nice hike with the dogs one afternoon while James went back to Olympia with his friend Collin's family to go to the Olympic Flight Museum. I took James and Collin to the beach at Ft. Stephens (that's the one with the wreck of the Peter Iredale) while Audrey took a 7 hour Red Cross babysitting course.
It wasn't a good day for pictures, being kind of dark and damp, but there isn't such a thing as a bad day at the beach. Except for the horses. (Big) SIGH. I had the dogs W-A-Y down the beach from the rest of the people who were there climbing on the ship wreck and digging in the sand and flying kites and doing all their own beach stuff, and I let the dogs off-leash. They live to be off-leash, they really do, and they were having a great time running around and splashing in the surf, UNTIL. . . UNTIL the STUPID HORSESS came trotting out of the mist. Unfortunately the dogs and I saw them at the exact same instant, and the dogs gave chase the moment they saw them. This was a traumatic thing, and I'm sure I have many new gray hairs from it since the STUPID DOGS took off after the horses, which happened to be part of some fancy pay-to-ride-horses-with-guides-dressed-like-Lewis-and-Clark-while-going-to Lewis-and-Clark-sites group. Sigh I haven't Googled what business is running these Lewis and Clark horse tours, but let me tell you, they have a bunch of lovely, tame, Well Behaved horses, because this was the dogs' first horse experience and they were absolute terrors. Callie was content to bark her head off from a distance, but Cozy got right up into the group, barking and snarling and trying to grab the prominent ligament above the horses back knees, just like she was a trained Roman battle-dog who attacks horses on a daily basis. Oh my goodness, it was terrible. But eventually I was able to call them off and the horses continued on their way. There was no actually physical contact. The horses were marvellous, fidgeting but not actually unseating any tourists. No harm, no foul, right? And no more dogs off leash at the beach until they actually PASS an obedience course. (Sigh. They failed to get their certificate in Puppy Kindergarten.) It was a close call.
posted by sherry at 11:57 AM
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