Easter at the Beach

Well, it has been quite a while.....I have lots of blog post ideas but no time to write them!  I have been busy finishing up my master's program at school and I am almost finished with my clinical hours.  Soon I will be taking a couple big tests and looking for a job as an NP!  The end is in sight!

I took the day off on Easter and the wife and I decided to take the doggles to the beach.  It was a beautiful and clear day.  Elka is now 10 months old and she is so smart and sweet.  At one point she got distracted and lost where we were standing (we were watching her and saw she lost us) and we waited to see what she would do.  This little smarty pants went over to where we had set our bag and sat her butt down to keep looking!  So smart!  She kept looking around from that spot and we called her name and she came right over.

Here are the goods:

Nala left: Elka right

Kain front: Elka back

Bear and her frisbee

Close up of the Bean

Kain getting in the water!

Nala swimming, Elka running

Two Germans

Nala Bear

Happy Easter!

Dog Vocabulary

Our dogs know a few words, but I doubt they know 165 words as claimed by this article, even considering that German Shepards are on the top 5 smartest list.  But they do seem to differentiate between places we go regularly.  Now, Elka is still young and she really doesn't seem to understand where we are going until we arrive; but Kain and Nala, they know what's what.

Of course they know all the regular words that most dogs know; sit, stay, come, hungry, treat, walk etc. But they have definitely picked up some additional vocabulary.  If I say the word "beach", "mountain", or "island" they get really excited.  Even without a word though, Kain and Nala get excited as we get close to the places in the car.  How do they do that?  Is it the landscape, the familiar turns?  Who knows?

Now 'beach' is pretty self-explanatory, but 'mountain' and 'island' could use some elaboration.  There is a mountain about 10-15 minutes from our house that we like to hike located within Mission Trails Park. it's called Cowles Mountain.  We usually hike up the back side on the fire road to avoid any congestion of people, but the whole thing is dog-friendly and our kids love it.

Now, onto the island.  In Mission Bay, there is a little island called Fiesta Island.  It is about 4.5 miles around, there are beaches and places to have bonfires, but the best part is....wait for it....a leash free dog park! With access to the bay!

Not only do the dogs love it but it is great for Noell and I too because one person can take all 3 dogs, and you don't have to hold 3 leashes.  The dog park is on one end of Fiesta Island and is surrounded on 3 sides by water and one side is fenced. It is little over 1.5 miles around and it makes it perfect to do a quick 3-4.5 mile run.  Over the many, many times we have been there, our dogs have (mostly) learned to stay out of the water unless we give them permission.  But every once in a while, just when I get into a good running groove, I look over and there is one of my dogs heading for the water....That makes for some entertaining yelling on my part.  

So last week I ended up with an unexpected day off and headed to the island, with 3 dogs in tow.  I brought my camera along for the ride and here is what our trip was like.

Elka is excited, even though she has no idea where we are going!

Checking things out when we first arrive.

Practicing a few 'call backs' at the beginning to make sure the doggles have on their listening hats.

Up on the rim, over that edge is a hill that leads to the beach/water.

Looks like the Germans are interested in the water.  Sorry girls, not today.

Beautiful day.

Kain runs ahead, Nala stays close to me, and Elka Bean can never decide what to do, so she alternates running with Kain and hanging back with Nala. 

FINALLY! A decent picture with all three butts.

Follow the leader.

Kain in front, Elka sprinting to catch up, and Nala hanging with me. 

Nala Bear, 8 years

Elka June, 7.5 months

 

My sweet bo-beet, 9 years

Laundry, Costumes, and Dirt

I do all the laundry at my house.  Noell and I have a deal to trade certain chores that we don't like to do.  I do the laundry (wash, dry, fold) and she takes out the trash (empty cans, new bags, cans to curb).  Lately the laundry has been a little different than the norm.  Noell's laundry offerings haven't changed at all, but my laundry provisions have included mainly pj's and work clothes.  Very few workout clothes, going out to dinner clothes, or relaxing clothes from my closet.  It's funny that this is what made me notice how much I am working.  Obviously I realized that my schedule was non-stop lately, but I was on auto-pilot, just waking up  going to the prescribed place for that day (clinical site or work), coming home, working out when time allowed, all without giving it much thought.

I am off today (1st time in 10 days) and I am really enjoying it.  Even more so than when I get regular days off each week.  I actually was looking forward to doing my errands and workout.  Funny how a busy schedule gives me a change in perspective and a gratefulness for the everyday routine.  Does that happen to you?

Yesterday at work we had an event that takes place twice each year for nurses.  It is a meeting with guest speakers and we receive some continuing education units (CEUs); but the committee who organizes it always tries to make it fun too.  Because it was Halloween, we had a costume contest.  Our region of San Diego dressed up as "mixed nuts".  We all had different nut costumes and our supervisor made a can for us to all stand inside.  We tied for 1st place.

Peanut

My super-cute nephew John dressed up as a pirate this year.  Unlike last year, he was able to muster up a few words such as "trick-or-treat"  or "thank you" without too much prompting.  When I was growing up in St. Louis, we had to tell a joke or do a trick to get our candy.  We couldn't just merely say "trick or treat"; we had to have something to offer.  John would have never survived it, even saying "trick or treat" was quite a task for this little one.  Isn't he cute though?

Arrrrggg!

In other news on the Z team, I have struggled with Elka digging up my flower bed.  It started out of nowhere,  the flower bed is not new, it has always been there.  I guess she just hadn't discovered it yet.  Here is the first day she figured out that she likes to dig:

Where's the sidewalk?

 Then I found the broom that we keep outside to sweep the patio had been reduced to this:

Poor little broom

So here is my remedy to that situation, using old paver blocks that we already had.  Turned out pretty good I thought:

Not too shabby

Elka apparently disagreed and I found this earlier today:

So after consulting with my wife who is much  more knowledgeable about how to deter dogs from digging, I headed to Home Depot to gather the recommended supplies.  Here is what we have now:

Not very pretty, but it's working so far....

I am hoping this digging phase is over by the time I want to plant my yearly sweet peas in this spot.  I love sweet peas:

Sweet peas 2010

Introducing Elka June!

We had planned to add another young German Shepard to our brood of animals which consisted of 2 dogs (Nala and Kain) and 2 cats (Punky and Deedle Deet) for a while.  We were casually browsing rescue sites and looking for a German Shepard that would catch our eye and fit into our family.  We saw a few here and there that looked interesting, but none of them really stood out.  Noell (the wife), received a text from a friend of ours about a police officer she knows whose dog had an accidental litter of puppies before getting spayed, and did we want to adopt a puppy or adopt the mama-pup?  We agreed to meet the German family with the intent of adopting the mama (who was only one year old).

The owner brought Mama German and her 4 puppies that were available, over to meet our animals.  Mama German didn't really jive with Nala Bear (our female german), plus she also chased our cats. :/  No deal on Mama German.

Of course the puppies were very sweet and Noell liked one in particular who followed Nala around like a teeny shadow.  After some discussion, we decided adopt one of the puppies.  Honestly, I couldn't tell them apart that day, but Noell knew exactly which one was ours.  We found out that the puppies had been born on 6/2/12, which was a super awesome to find out because that is the day that Noell and I were married!

We adopted Elka June on 7/26/12.  Elka was a name that we had seen on one of the rescue sites and remembered, plus as a bonus it sounds like a german name.  Her middle name is June in honor of her birthday month and extra meaning of her birthday being our wedding day.

Meet Elka, this was her first day with us.



About to get a bath!

She has grown like a weed ever since that day.  She was house trained really quickly...I'm talking 3-4 days!  This girl is smart!



Ears are still floppy. Let's play!
Ears are up! 8/26/12

She fits in really well with our family.  Kain took a little time to warm up, but he has come around.  Nala and Kain are happy to have a new play mate.  They both are really helpful in occupying her when we are trying to get things done!

We are buddies.

Waiting for me to give the "go ahead" to eat their dinner which is on the floor in front of them.

Elka is growing so fast, she was 33 pounds on 10/3/12 and today, 10/6/12, she went back for a rabies shot and she was 35 pounds...that's 2 pounds in 3 days folks!

We love our new girl so much!