I'm EIGHT!!!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Known today as "The Birthday Girl"!!!! That's right - eight years ago today, I was right about here ...

My (and Ragnar's!) mama CH Dancing Winds Polargold Legacy (Bebe) and me!!!

I was the first one out of the chute - my three sisters followed shortly after I made my appearance. I still like to go first with pretty much everything! 

There has been a lot of celebrating here at Ao4 Headquarters today! First, breakfast, then a nice, long walk. Unfortunately, our temps are still very, very hot, but we got over 5.5 miles in today. Here we are during one of our water breaks:

"Everybody say 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' to Mags!!!"
"Aw, shucks ..."

Mom and Dad were very pleased with how much water we drank on the walk. They seemed less than pleased with the fact that I almost snagged not one but TWO big, juicy cicadas! Man, I love those things! So close, yet so ... leashed. (Dad can be mighty quick, by the way!) 

Anyway, after we got home and had time to cool down and rehydrate, Mom said she had some special treats for me!

"Really?!?  Just for me?!!?"

I gave her the head tilt, as you can see, then I cranked it up just one notch further for the Super Head Tilt:

❤❤ Me!  Polargold's Margaret Thatcher ❤❤

Mom added the hearts.

Of course I wanted to share my treats with Ragnar, so we raced up the stairs to one of our favorite places to pose and ...

"What kind of treats are they, Mags?"
"Pumpkin-Apple, and they're MIGHTY tasty!!!"
"Good puppies!!!!"

What a great birthday so far! 

Oh, WAIT!  This just in!!!  Guess what I just got?!?!

"Could this day get ANY better?!?"

Please do something FUN to help me celebrate! 

Yours sincerely, 
Margaret Thatcher

Mistaken Identity

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags.  We were able to get a nice long walk in this morning -- Ragnar and I would have preferred it about 60 degrees cooler, but ... yeah.  That's not going to happen for a while.  Anyway, we were tooling along when I thought I saw one of my friends from the rodeo/fair!!!

"Ha roo?!?  Hey, friend!  Remember me?"
"Mags ... it's not real, darlin' ..."

Well, sure.  It was a case of mistaken identity.  But I HAD to stop and check - what if it HAD been my friend?!!?  

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Too Hot

Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar.  Yesterday morning was too hot to go on one of our normal morning walks.  When you wear a thick fur coat like Mags and I do, humidity over 90% and no breeze means a much shorter walk!  We hung in there for just over 2 miles and that was enough.  Mom thought I might need a bit more exercise, so she and I went out back to play afterwards.

She brought a couple different toys out and would throw them and expect me to chase after them.

"You want me to what?!?"

She started running after the toys herself, so I followed her and all, but frankly - I think the heat was getting to her.  It seemed kind of crazy to me.

I proposed we just hang out for a while back there and maybe do some exploring instead of running around.  I even offered to do some posing!

"How 'bout a profile shot, Mom?"

She seemed OK with that idea, so we went with it.

"Did you get the Blanket Flowers and Salvia in the shot?!?"

I really like those flowers.  So do bees.  Did you know bees are "NoNoRagnarNoNo"s?  It's true.  Interesting.

We checked on the Friendship Garden:

"Hey, look!  The neighbors are out!"

Mags and I both love staring at the neighbors.  For some reason, Mom doesn't think it's a good idea.

Here I am in front of our new-this-year Succulent Garden:

"Hi, Mom!"

Mom and Dad worked really hard on that garden and are quite happy with how it looks!

I surprised Mom with one last pose on one of the northern tiers before we headed inside!  She wasn't expecting me to jump up there.  Ha!  I felt pretty regal up there, so I thought I'd make a formal statement:

"I am Ragnar Jimmysson!  AKA Polargold's Einherjar!"

Maggie was watching out the window and gave me extra points for leaping up onto the retaining wall!

So ... yesterday was too hot for a long walk, and too hot to play "chase the toy", but not to hot to have a little fun with my mom!

Sköl!

Ragnar

Wordless Wednesday

  

Sköl! 
Ragnar

Just A Reminder

 Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags.  Even though we've hit a real hot spell here in the great state of Kansas (afternoon heat indices over 100℉), we're still out there in the mornings, getting our exercise in!  We leave before dawn, in an effort to beat the heat.  That being said, it does warm up FAST!

Just a reminder, if you're in a hot patch, too, to remember to stay hydrated!  We take one or two water breaks during our walks -

Me and Ragnar during a recent water break

We try to find a shady spot out of traffic (vehicles and people/dogs) and just take a minute or two.

"A couple more slurps, then I'm good to go!"
"Do you have any more cookies, Mom?"

Oh.  Yeah.  And get your bipeds to bring treats, too.  Might as well make a party out of it, right?!?

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

The Party's Over

 Hi everybody.  It's me, Ragnar.  I'm here under the table with Mags.  Did we mention the rodeo is over?

"Sigh ..."

 It's true.  As they say, "The party's over."  Right, Mags?

"Right, Raggi.  And we didn't even get to bring a sheep home."

Oh, well.  I guess it's on to the next adventure!

Sköl!

Ragnar

Serene Scenery Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags!  What could be more serene than one last loop through the rodeo/fairgrounds before everyone heads home?!?  Let's get walking - and find that serenity! 

This guy was not only very serene-looking, but he was one of our favorites:

Horse and sunrise

Ragnar especially liked him! 

After we walked around a bit, Dad stayed with us while Mom went into one of the 4-H buildings.

"Tell the baby sheeps 'ha roo' for us!"
"See if any-sheep wants to come home with us!!"

That's where the younger animals were. No pups were allowed in there for some bizarre reason.   Here are a couple of Mom's favorites, the baby sheeps and a goat:

Are they all adorable or what?!?!

After that, we walked around for a bit.  Ragnar went over to see his calf friends:

"Hi, cow-puppies!  Everybody doing well this morning?!?"

Both Ragnar and I love the horses, maybe especially Ragnar!  We just loved these two:

I was anxious to go see the sheeps.  I just LOVE the sheeps!!!

"I wasn't sure you'd all still be here!  It's so good to see ewe!"

Ha!  Get it?!?  "Ewe"?  

Ragnar came over to see them, too. I may have convinced him we need to adopt a sheep.

"Would any of you like to come live at our house?"
"How much room do you take up in the bed?"

Oddly enough, Mom didn't think it was a good idea.  Can't blame a girl for trying.

And ... then it was time to bid a fond farewell to this year's Kaw Valley Rodeo.

"See everybody next year!!!"
"Thanks for the memories!  We loved seeing all of you!"

What a wonderful few days it's been! Thanks for coming along with us!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

PS:  To see more photos from our trips to the rodeo, please click here to visit our FlickR album.

Saturday In The Park

Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar.  This morning, we went back to the park to see the rodeo and 4H animals!  As soon as we hit the park, we saw two new friends!

"Horses, Ragnar!!!"
"Oh, BOY!!!  I LOVE the horses!"

They both came over to meet us, which was very nice! Their people weren't around, so we didn't visit too close. We didn't want to disturb them! 

Once we got further into the park, we saw Maggie's favorite friends, the sheep!

"Hello, sheep!!!  It's me, Maggie!  And my brother Ragnar, too!"
"Hi, sheeps!"

Maggie encouraged me to go over and make friends like she did yesterday.  I acted very calmly and ...

"Nose bumps, little pup!"
"OMG!  Nose bumps to you, Sheep!"

It was so AWESOME!  I've never done that before!  It was a very nice sheep.

Next, we headed over to the carnival.  Maggie tried her  hand  paw at one of the game booths:

"I'll bet I could win at this!"

She was going to try to win the prize in the upper left corner (Husky stuffies!  You can see them here).  Unfortunately, the booth wasn't open, otherwise we'd be swimming in stuffed toys!

We spotted a cool pirate ship and went over to pose by it!

Mags and me.  Quite possibly Jack Sparrow on deck.

The pirate was busy steering the ship, or else I'm sure he would have come down to meet us.  I wonder if he's ever sailed that thing on the Kansas Ocean?!?

That was today's excitement.  The rodeo ends tonight, but hopefully our new friends will still be around in the morning.  We'll be sure to swing through the park to say "hello"!!!

Sköl!

Ragnar

Rodeo Time!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags!  Guess what's in town?!?!  The Kaw Valley Rodeo!!!  And for us, that means CiCo Park is packed full of horses, cows, bulls, calves, goats, sheep, chick-hens, turkeys, pigs, and who knows what all else!??  Mom and Dad know how much we love farm animals, so for the past three mornings, we've made sure to take a swing through the park on our walks!

We put together some of the best photos Mom took and thought we'd share them today!  Ready to go?!?!

"Let's hit the rodeo!"
"Yeah!  Let's go make some new friends!"

Mom saw the giant cowboy boots and wanted us to pose by them first.  Sounded like a good plan. 

"I think Mom wants pink cowboy boots now."
"Look at the SIZE of these things!"

You just never know what you're going to see at the rodeo!

The first animals we ran into were these cow-puppies!  They were adorable!

"Hey, Mags!  They're coming over to see me!"

The dark brown one on the far left especially liked us.  He followed us all along the fence line.  I was interested, but someone else had already caught my eye!

"Look, Ragnar!  A bunch of bulls!"

They were so cool!  

We also saw lots of horses!

"Mags!  It's HORSES!!!  HORSES!!!"

He LOVES the horses; they're definitely his favorite! 

Today, we sought out the horses early on and made friends with this guy:

"This guy is super nice!"
"He sure is!  I 💙 horses!"

While we were walking around the fairgrounds we saw these guys!

"What in the world are those, Mags?!?"
"It's SHEEP, Ragnar!  SHEEP!!!"

I remember how excited I was the first time I saw sheep! I just LOVE them! In fact ...

"Hello!"
"Hello!"

The sheep liked me, too!  We did nose bumps!  Wowzers, what a great couple of days!

Hopefully, we'll get to go again tomorrow.  We'll be sure to take you along, if we do!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Wordless Thursday

 

Ragnar and Mags

Wrapping It Up!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags.  Obviously, this isn't Wordless Wednesday.  It IS Wednesday, but Ragnar and I wanted to finish giving you our tour of the Kansas State University campus.  We'll do Wordless Wednesday on Thursday, which ought to help our mom with that whole "day of the week confusion", as she calls it.  Hey.  We're here to help!

Anyway, we heard the cool place to be on any campus is the Student Union, so we headed over there for a water break.

"This is pretty cool, Mags."
"Yeah.  I see something even cooler!"

Just across the courtyard ...

"NOW we're talking!"
"Oh, this is tons of fun!!!"

It was just what we needed!

We did some more exploring and found this amphitheater:

"I'll bet they hold classes or lectures out here!"
"Yeah.  We should sit in!"

"Do you feel any smarter, Mags?"
"Not yet.  But ... you know.  We're Siberians, so we're on a whole different level."

Plus there wasn't really anything going on, what with it being Summer and Sunday morning and all.

Lots of the trees had signs by them, which was especially interesting to Ragnar.  This tree was planted in 1833 and is 70 feet tall!

Thornless Honeylocust tree

In case you're wondering, no he didn't. 

That's about it for our tour!  We did about the southern half of campus.  We'll go again soon and do the northern part!  To see more photos from our trip to the KSU campus, please click here to visit our FlickR page.

Time to head home!

"This was so fun!"
"We should come while the students are here.  I'll bet we'd get lots of ear scratchies and stuff!"

Thanks for coming with us!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Back To School!

 Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar!  Let's get back to our tour of the Kansas State University campus, OK? We saw lots of cool, old buildings like this one:

 

We wandered all over - Mags and I did lots of snoofing; Mom and Dad did lots of reading and looking at buildings and stuff.

"Let's go this way!"

We took turns choosing where to go, which was really fun!

Remember the Wildcat we saw? 

Mags, me, and the Wildcat.  

We ran into him at the World War I Memorial Stadium.  We actually hit that place twice!

"We should do the track again!"
"Great idea!"

"This is so fun!"
"I think so, too!"

I learned the stadium is "inside" and we don't lift our leg there.  By the way, what is "astroturf"?

Anyway, close by, we saw this obelisk and thought we'd pose on it:

Me and Mags!

We also walked past this big building:

"What's a field house?"
"Mom?  Is this where the Wildcats play?!?"

Ahearn Field House is where the KSU Basketball team plays!  We didn't see any basketball players, though.

That's a wrap for today -- more to come!

Sköl!

Ragnar