This and that

I have not been very good about taking pictures on any of our recent adventures, but we've been plenty busy.

A few weeks ago we took the dogs on a Float Trip (a St. Louis term that basically means taking a tube/raft/canoe, etc out on a river for a few hours.) Within the first five minutes Tuesday jumped ship (or raft in our case) and took off for shore. This resulted in Ryan, me and Irie all bailing out and chasing her down. Thankfully, she came back to the river. We were literally in the middle of nowhere and really had no chance of finding her. After that adventure, we tied her leash to the boat. We decided having to drag the raft with her would slow her down. The river was low, so we had to get out and pull our raft over many shallow spots. So between that and the river just generally running slow, it made for a long trip. I think we were all pretty much done with the whole float experience by about hour 3. Unfortunately it lasted another 2 hours. But once we got out and back on solid land, we had a better sense of humor about it all. I think it's a good lesson that next time we will want to either a) make sure the river is running faster or b) select a shorter trip. The dogs weren't totally psyched about all the water and swimming but they were truly exhausted for the rest of the weekend (as were we.)

In other dog news, I've got Irie back in agility class, which she is eating up. We've actually made quite a bit of progress and more importantly she loves it. We've gotten a few videos (see below). They don't totally do her justice, but it can give you a sense! She's consistently faster (though not always better) than the instructor's dog who is also in the class. We brought Tuesday with us the other night as well and she got a chance to play on the equipment after class. I don't think I've ever seen a happier dog. She was absolutely loving it. So, I'm sure we'll be getting her started soon. (In the meantime, we're busy teaching her how to roll over. - Now if we could just get her to come when she escapes!)





On the home-front, we have several home improvement projects that are in the works. We have purchased new tiles for the downstairs bathroom, but we haven't yet figured out the whole "scheme" for the bathroom, so no real work has begun yet. We're also trying to figure out how to do the whole sequence of things in there as we want/need to replace the toilet in there, so we need to plan everything accordingly. I have finally gotten a new duvet cover for the master bedroom that doesn't clash at the very least with our brilliant wall color, but I'm still having a very hard time finding decorative touches that work with that color.

This weekend we're headed down to Southern Illinois to do some hiking, camping etc. We've rented a little cabin (so I guess it's not really camping), but we're looking forward to getting away and having only nature to be entertained for a little while! I'm looking forward to getting to re-explore some of my favorite hiking/state parks from my younger days! Perhaps I'll actually get some pictures taken this weekend!