This Morning's Walk

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  This morning, Maggie and I took our mom and dad on a big, totally all uphill (right, Mom?  wink, wink) walk.  We've been this way before and it's really fun! I thought I'd show you where we went and what we saw, OK?  Get a drink of water and come on along!

We started out on a long uphill stretch.

"I can't wait to see where we're going!"
"Me, too!"

Then continued on an uphill stretch.

"Oooh!  Up, up, and away, Cams!"
"I love going this way!"

Mom brought the camera, instead of just the iPhone, so she could get some good bird shots in.

Mr. Killdeer says, "No pictures!"

Yeah. Moving right along ...

It was relatively flat here:

I stopped to admire some Verbena:

"Look, Mom!  Verbena!  Isn't it pretty?!?"
"Oooh!  Cicada!"

Maggie came mighty close to getting the cicada, but sadly, Dad was watching her like a hawk.

More uphill:

"Another hill!"
"So awesome!"

We did see lots of pretty wildflowers:

Snow On The Mountain

Western Ironweed

Blue Sage

Sunflower

We got back on one of the main roads, and guess what? More uphill:

Maggie and me

That bridge goes over the cart path for Colbert Hills Golf Course.

When we were almost at the clubhouse, I stopped to admire the Snow on the Mountain:

"Sigh.  Snow on the Mountain.  So lovely!"

If only we had real snow. And real mountains.

We also saw some Thistle:

Thistle

Let's zoom in and check out Mr. Bumblebee!

Bee on thistle

How about more uphill climbing?

"YAY!  Another hill to climb!"
"Isn't this great, Mom?  ...Mom?"

After we got to the clubhouse, there was a little downhill stretch, before we had to walk up the hills to get to our house. Here we are, striking a pose; that's the clubhouse in the background:

"Thanks for coming with us, everyone!"
"Let's stop in the clubhouse and see if they have any cold beverages!"

We hope you enjoyed our walk as much as we did!  Last one to the water bowls has to buy a round!

Cammie!

Don't Be Blue

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  You'll never guess what we saw on our walk this morning!  A CAT!!!  In fact, a BLUE CAT!!!  We even posed for a picture with it!  Ready?!?  Take a look:

Me, Maggie, and the CAT

You might notice that Maggie and I smiled for the picture, but the CAT didn't.

"How come the CAT didn't smile, Cam?"
"Because it was blue."

Maybe it will cheer up later.

Ha roo woo roo.

Cammie!

Pawlympic Boxing

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Have you been watching the Blogville Pawlympic games?!?  There are some seriously cool events taking place!  Cam hinted at one we'll be participating in later on, but today is one I soloed in!  Sure, I asked Cammie to join me, but oddly enough, she declined!  My event?!?  BOXING, of course!

Here's a look at my entry:

"I ❤ Boxing!"

Please surf over to Casey and Jessie's blog to see the whole Boxing competition! What a great group of Boxers! We were all awarded this very cool medal:

I must say, it was an honor to be among such fine competitors!

"What do you mean I can get out of the box now?"

Sometimes, I just don't think my mom gets me.

Congrats to all of the Blogville pawlympians!!!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Wordless Wednesday

Cammie!

Walking And Posing

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Maggie and I took Mom on a very nice walk this morning.  Oh. Before I get to that, thank you for your concern over the storm pictured on yesterday's post.  Mom was right - that never hit us -- not even a drop of rain.  We were just fine - and got some nice cloud cover which made it cooler!  Anyway ... here are a few shots from this morning!

We were right about where the Hudson Trail intersects the street ...

"I'm walking on sunshine, baby ..."
"Have you and Mom been listening to the 80s station again?"

... when Maggie saw something!

"Hey!  Someone's coming!"
"I can't believe we just walked right past a bunny without doing anything ..."
"Good girls!"

She was alerting to someone up on the trail!  Mom had us wait.  And then ...

"Oh, yeah.  We know that lady."
"She likes her space.  We should turn right instead of left."

Can you see her up there in the crosswalk?

We know most of the people we see out walking or running in the morning.  Not by name or anything, but by sight.  Anyway, we see that lady all the time.  She's OK and all, but she likes her space and private time.  We're cool with that.  We decided to turn right instead of left, so we wouldn't crowd her.  Maggie and I were more than happy, as we hadn't gone down that part of Hudson Trail in quite a while.

"This is so fun!"
"I've got a cicada in my cross-hairs!!!" 

We were moving so fast, all of Mom's photos came out blurry.  We decided to pose for her when we got to the end of the next leg of the trail before heading home:

"Oh, hey.  Someone's coming!"
"Ha roo woo roo.  Yeah, we should take the long way home, Mom."
"Nice try, girls!"

Can't blame a couple of Sibes for trying, right?

What a great walk! Thanks for coming with us!

Cammie!

A New Day!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!

"Look at that!  A new day is out there just waiting for us!"

Can you see it?  A new day!  Just right for taking a long walk - maybe finding some cool adventure along the way!  And it was out there waiting just for us!!!

"The new day wouldn't have had to wait so long for us if you hadn't made Mom play the 'Chase Me' game before we left!"
"I know ... but it's so fun!!!"

Chasing me around the living room first is right up there with stretching -- it's an important part of our pre-walk routine!

"Did Mom check the radar before we left?"
"Yep.  She said we're good to go."

Apparently, checking the radar for storms is part of the routine, too.  That's nowhere near as fun as playing chase, if you ask me!

I hope you make the most of today!  It's out there waiting for you, too!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Serene Scenery Sunday

Because it doesn't get much more serene than this!

Mags and Cammie!

Bed Tossing Revisited

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  So, there I was the other day, just hanging out in the living room like the good puppy that I am, when Mom noticed something was amiss with our bed that's normally by the fireplace ...

"Mags?  What's up with your bed?"
"Oh.  Wow.  Yeah.  How did it get out here?"

I mean seriously!  I wonder what could have happened!

...

...

Previously, at Ao4 Headquarters ...

"Wowzers, am I bored!  Bored, bored, bored, and BORED!"

So, yeah.  I plead the 5th.  Mom thought I was channelling my great brother Zimmie. That thought made her smile and she gave me kisses and stuff. I'm pretty sure Zim would be proud -- and like he taught me, "If Mom is taking pictures, we aren't in trouble."

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Flower Friday

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  I'm here with Mags to bring you Flower Friday!

"Hello, everyone!"
"Ready for a garden tour?"

A couple changes out front this week, before we show you what's blooming!  The first change is right here on the front porch - Mom planted a bunch of stuff in the big pot on the left:

On the left:  Fishnet Stockings Coleus, white Impatiens, and English Ivy
On the right:  Sweet Potato Vine, a different Coleus, and Blue Rush

In one of the other big, blue pots out front, Mom planted Silver Mound, some Wild Blue Oat Grass, and Celosia Intenz.  Check out the Celosia -- it looks like hot pink caterpillars!!!

WOW!

It's a great splash of color!

In the Butterfly Garden, the Pincushion Flower is still blooming:

Pincushion Flowers

And Mom's experiment at cutting back the Salvia seems to have worked some magic -- it has exploded in blooms!

Salvia

Out back, the Bee Garden is a sea of purple:

Liriopes blooming amidst the Russian Sage!

Look at who's in the Friendship Garden!

Tiny butterfly on the Beth Coneflowers

The Becky Daisies are winding down for the season, but the deadheads are still a great landing pad for butterflies!

Butterfly on daisy

Everything is still blooming like crazy in the Wildflower Garden.  Here is a bee enjoying one of our Cheyenne Spirit Coneflowers:

Bee on coneflower

The PowWow Wild Berry Coneflowers are such a bright spot back there!

PowWow Wild Berry Coneflowers

And the new Daydream Coneflowers are starting to take hold:

Daydream Coneflower

Last, but not least, the white Rose of Sharon Bushes down by the fence are still covered in blooms!  Mom cut them way back last Fall, and they loved it!  They're bigger than ever this year!

Rose of Sharon

We hope you enjoyed our garden tour!

Cammie!

(and Mags, too!)

Enjoying The Journey

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Maggie and I took Mom and Dad on a very nice walk yesterday morning and we thought we'd share some of the more enjoyable moments with you.  I mean, yes, we did a lot of the walk, walk, walk stuff ... but you know what they say about enjoying the journey, right?

So when we got up to the courtyard at the shopping center, we thought we'd have a little fun.

"Let's do Crazed River Otter Games!"
"You're on!"

"Uuumph!"
"BOOM!"

"No fair; Dad was holding me back!"
"OK, we'll try it again!"

"OK, Cammie!  Ready?!!?"
"Oh, I'm READY, Mags!"

"BOOM!"
"BOOM!"

It was great fun!  And that's not the only pleasant diversion we enjoyed along the way ...

"Look!  A giant puddle!"
"This walk just keeps getting better and better!"

What a great walk we had.  It wasn't where we went.  It wasn't how far we went.  It wasn't how fast we went.  We were all about enjoying the journey!

Do you remember to enjoy the journey, too?

Cammie!

Wordless Wednesday

Cam and Mags

Busy Morning!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cam.  Maggie and I have had a busy morning already - and it's only 10 o'clock!

We got up nice and early, then took Mom for a walk once the sun came up.  Here we are, exiting the garage:

Waiting for Mom to start her RunKeeper app

Please note Maggie and I had already done a nice braiding job on our leashes.  What can I say?  It's one of our talents!

We went up a lot of hills ...

"Oooh, pretty sunrise!"
"We should have worn our really cool sunglasses!"

And went down a few hills:

"Mom likes the downhill parts best."
"So do I!"

In case anyone recognized it, that is my favorite hill to go up!

"I love going UP that hill, but it's nice to go down it, too!"

Once we got home, Maggie and I guarded the house while Mom did some gardening stuff.  She put some Purple Emperor Sedum in some pots to try to root them, then put them on the back deck.  Maggie and I went out to help while she watered them.

"3... 2... 1..."
"BOOM!"

We were a tremendous help!

"You're welcome!"

No, of COURSE we won't knock them over!  ... right, Mags?

"How could anyone even think such a thing?!?!"

Before we headed inside for some water for us, Mom asked us to pose by the sedum.

"You do have treats, right?"
"You do ... don't you?"

She did, but they were just tiny ones -- so we didn't smile or huddle up or anything.  I mean ... come on!

That's the morning so far.  I'm not sure what else is on tap.  I hope your day is going well!

Cammie!

Toys! Toys! Toys! In The ... Living Room

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Many, many thanks to all of you (here in the blogosphere and on FaceBook!) for the wonderful birthday wishes yesterday!  I must say, so far being three is a BLAST!

As Cam mentioned, the weather was all rainy then hot and steamy, so a pool party wasn't really in the cards.  Instead, we got to play with some of our KONG Dental toys.  Like most toys in our house, these are "use under supervision only" when it comes to yours truly.

I got the one shaped like a ball:

Do you like my nose scrunchie?

And Cam got the one shaped like a stick:

Cammie!

It's harder to get chunks off the ball.

"OH, yeah!  Cam!  Check it out!"

... unless you're a pro at this sort of thing.

"That's awesome, Maggie!"

"Thank you!  Thank you very much!"

What a fun day!  I also did zoomies, got to have a whole baby carrot, sampled some cantaloupe and a peach, and watched a little TV.  And played with toys.  Toys.  Toys in the ... living room.  Yep.  Being three is GREAT!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher