Only Because Mom Had Treats

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Us girls took Mom on a nice, long walk yesterday morning, as Maggie showed you.  Because it was such a lovely day, we decided to take a walk after lunch, too - and took both Mom and Dad along!  Maggie and I had a lovely time.  Mom brought the good camera along and shot some portraits of us.  We cooperated ... but, as the title of this post says, only because Mom had treats!

Our first stop for photos was the Kansas Ocean:

Maggie and me at the KSO

Mom asked Maggie to smile, and since she had those treats showing, we gave her this:

All smiles at the ocean!

That made Mom pretty happy!

Our next stop was beside one of our favorite meadows:

Me and Mags in the meadow

Kind of artsy, with me in focus and Maggie blurred a bit, don't you think? Here's another one:

Meadow shot, take #2

Our last stop was in a little courtyard at Grand Mère Village, AKA the Giant's Castle. Dad had a seat and us girls posed by him:

Me, Mags, and Dad.
Dad is the tall one in the back row.

We got treats for that, but Dad didn't. I'm not sure why. He was sitting and smiling and everything. I think Dad should file a grievance with Mom.

Anyway, I hope you like our portraits! Our other treat was getting in over 4 1/2 miles. For those who may be wondering, no, Maggie wasn't one single bit tired. Mom was, though.

Cammie!

Serene Scenery Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie, here with Serene Scenery Sunday!  Cam and I took Mom on a lovely walk this morning, and we thought the scenes we saw might help you feel nice and serene!  Are you ready to go?  I'll try to keep the chit-chat to a minimum.

The first thing of note was our sunrise.

That was actually a little earlier in the day.  We saw that, then had breakfast.

Anyway ... we went down this street...

Me and Cam

... then up the hill!

Cam and me

It's the same hill we walked up when we went to the park the other day! When we got to the entrance to the Hudson Trail, I posed on the rocks, while Cammie sat patiently:

Sorry about my leash on Cam's nose. Ha roo roo roo!

Anyway, today, we got to go down the trail!!! I zigged to the left:

Cam and me

And I zagged to the right:

Me and Cam

Cammie calmly walks in a straight line. Is it just me, or is that odd?

Anyway -- we got to the entrance to the next part of the trail, and I asked if we could go down there.  Mom said, "YES!"

"Can we?  Please?"

It was great! For some reason, I got put on a short leash, while Cam was given plenty of slack.

Cam and me

I have no idea what that was all about.

Here's an un-related photo.  No, really.  No relation to anything.  Look just off-center.

See the squirrel?

We got to walk yet another segment of the trail, too!!! Here's a nice shot of Cam:

"Hello, everyone!"

I ... was still on a short leash. I promised Mom I wouldn't pull as hard, and she let up.

"Check those trees, Cam!  There are bound to be more squirrels up there!"
"Oh, Mags!"

At the end of that part of the trail, we turned up one of the streets. I struck a pose at my favorite corner:

Me, Margaret Thatcher, at the corner of Churchill and Churchill!

Cammie has a favorite hill she likes to walk up. Today, rather than walking up it, we walked down it - which Mom said is much more serene. Here's our view going down:

When we got to the bottom, Mom thought she heard geese honking, so we took a detour and walked over to the Kansas Ocean.

Me and Cam at the KSO

If you look very closely, you can see geese swimming in the ocean! After we left, they took flight - and flew right over us! It was really cool!

I hope you feel nice and serene now! Have a wonderful afternoon!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Quiet Time In The Library

Greetings to all!  It's me - Maggie.  What's everyone doing?  I'm having quiet time in the Library.

"Greetings!"

Well, not so much quiet time as much as catching my breath after zoomies with my Hol-EE Roller ball.  Anyone up for some zooming?!?

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

A Walk In The Park

No, I mean literally a walk in the park!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  This morning we took a great walk to the park, so I thought I'd show you some highlights?  Ready to go?  We took the long way home, so you might want to get a beverage first.

First, we headed up the big road that leads to the park:

Maggie and me, heading up the hill

One of the entrances to the Hudson Trail is at the top of that hill, so we thought we might go down there. When we walked past that, I knew we were heading to CiCo Park!

Right at the entrance to the park, at the corner of the big road and the road that runs along the western edge of it, they put a sign for Pumpkin Patch, a big craft fair they hold every year. This year, they used a different sign. Mom said it's very hard to read the dates for Pumpkin Patch from a moving vehicle. Take a look at it:

I gave this sign a warning "BUFF!"  Why?
1.  It's not usually there.
2.  On behalf of my mom.

I think you can see what she means about it being hard to read. ...and why she tried to go to the craft fair last weekend. Oops. Better early than late, though, right?  Think of it as a dry run.

"Hey, Mom!  I can read it OK from here!"

We decided to walk through the park a bit, then the plan was to turn around and head back home, via the Trail.

"Wow, look at all the people setting up their booths!"
"And all the trees that drop nuts and fruits and stuff!!!"

Apparently, walking through all of that once was enough, so we decided to take the long way home.  SCORE!

Here we are, walking past the sports fields for one of the elementary schools:

It's nice and shady in there and there were a million squirrels running all over the place! It was great!

Can you tell by our ears that we liked this tree:

No, not the beautiful Autumn colors - the fact that a squirrel ran up there to get away from us!

We did like this squirrel-free car:

"Cool car!"
"It's a classic!"

We had a great time on our walk in the park - and hope you did, too!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Cammie!

Let's Get Going!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Today I thought you might enjoy going on the morning walk with Cam and me.  Ready?  Let's get those harnesses on and get going!

"Aren't you going to chase me?"
"I'm ready!"

Right. Well, OK. I really like to be chased a bit or to do zoomies first. You know, sort of in lieu of stretching.  Apparently, Mom thinks I should just wait patiently at the door like Cam does. Where's the fun in that?!?!

Since she wouldn't oblige, I gave in.  Mom can be so stubborn sometimes!

Here's an action shot!

Me and Cam, down at the corner.  Or up at the corner.  Whatever.

Here is Cam, heading up the first hill:

Cam!

And here I am:

Me!  And the sun doing cool things to Mom's iPhone.

We always walk in the middle of the street there. Something about "too much stuff a certain someone tries to snarf up on the sidewalk".  I have no idea what that's all about, I just know there is always really cool stuff over there.  Moving right along ...

Here we are at the crest of one of our hills:

Me and Cam

The sun must have followed us over there.  Oh.  And we're walking in the middle of the street there because there isn't a sidewalk.

We walked part of the Hudson Trail, but don't have pix.  There were a lot of kids going to school, so we just walked and didn't take photos.

Here we are, actually on a sidewalk:

Cam and me

The sidewalk looks pretty squared away and like there's nothing "a certain someone" can get into - right?

No comment.

What can I say?  Ha roo roo roo!

Here we are, relaxing back at home:

Cam and me.  Not plotting or anything.  Really.

Mom thinks I look like I'm up to something.  How can she even think that?!!?  I mean ... really!  I'm all tired out from the walk, right?

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

PS:  Is anyone up for a round of zoomies?!?

Wordless Wednesday

Cammie!
(and Mags, too)

Exploring!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  Did everyone have a good Columbus Day?  Maggie and I did - and in the tradition of the Ao4, we made sure to do some exploring!

Mom took these pix of me out on our morning walk.  I apologize for the blurriness - she had our GPS tracker running and that always blurs things a bit.  Either that, or I was SUPER fast!

Anyway, along one of our routes, there is a cool retaining wall - or more precisely, a collection of retaining walls.  Maggie and I have always wanted to check them out.  I thought it was the perfect time to do a little exploring in there!

"Very interesting!" 

I decided to scale the wall, in the spirit of exploration!

Me, boldly going where no Siberian has gone before!

I didn't find anything edible, other than those bushes, and I'm not that into leaves.  It was pretty cool up there, though!

"It was worth a look!"

That was mighty fun!

"My work here is done!"

I hope you went out and did some exploring, too!

Cammie!

PS:  No rose bushes or Euonymuses were harmed in this blog post.  :)

What A Great Day!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  I'd like to thank each and every one of you for the sweet wishes on my anniversary yesterday!  I hope you got to do something really fun to help celebrate the day!  Today, I thought I'd show you some of our highlights!

We started the celebration with a nice "all girl" walk after breakfast:

Cam and me, posing out on our walk 

After that, Cam and I played with special toys on the deck! Here I am with my fire hose toy:

"Yea!  Fire hose!  Fire hose!"

I only get to play with this under supervision. As Mom says, I'm why they put the "virtually" in "virtually indestructible". Go, me!

I also got to play Fetch with the fire hose toy in the yard! I ran on the middle tier:

"Got it, Mom!!!"

And I zoomed on the upper tier:

"Whee!!!"

After that, we did this:

❤ Me and Cam ❤

After lunch, we went on a "whole family" walk!

"I love it when we're all together!"
"Me, too, little one!"

After walk number two, I played with my new, black GoughNuts for a while:

"You don't mind if I play with my chew toy up here, do you, Mom?"

She didn't mind at all, so after I was done chewing, I created a little art project for her:

Still life, by Margaret Thatcher

Cam and I soaked up some afternoon sun, playing on the upper deck while Mom tended the herb garden:

"Tag!  You're it!"

Before I knew it, it was time to make dinner. Cam has been teaching me how to identify different varieties of apples! She let me have a shot at IDing last night's!

"Ooooh.  Um ... not a Honey Crisp.  Gala?  No!  Wait!  Fuji!  It's a Fuji!!!"

Cam was proud of me for getting it right.  We celebrated with a small slice.

It was such a full day, that after dinner, after only a short bout of zoomies and wrestling ... Cam and I did this:

"Zzz..."
"I'm getting soooo sleeeeepppp---Wait!  What's SGT Troy doing?"

It was all I could do to keep my eyes open during Midsomer Murders - one of my favorite shows!

What a great day, indeed! Are all anniversaries this much fun?!?

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher