A visit with Garnet

On the last Saturday in April we made a trip to city where Garnet lives, about an hour’s drive away. After our usual Saturday morning chores we hopped into the car, complete with a gift for Garnet (bought at Lovely’s training session the previous night), and set off. It was a great day – sunny, warm, relaxing. We arrived in time for lunch – my contribution being a lentil salad and a honeydew melon – and after tucking in for a bite, spent the afternoon having fun! Garnet’s family has a trampoline in the backyard which the kids played on most of the afternoon while Mama Garnet and I chatted about life, dogs, the nanny situation, and everything.

Garnet has grown a fair bit since we last saw her at the end of January, though she’s still a lot smaller than Lovely. Her family expressed some concern that she’s not growing faster. I think she might end up being a smaller dog at full growth, though she does still have a good six months more of growth coming. (I hope the slow weight gain is not related to the loss-of-weight spell she had when she was 2 months old. She seems now to be perfectly healthy now!)

It seems to me that Garnet has mellowed somewhat since small puppyhood. Just somewhat – she’s still quite lively and active, but didn’t seem quite so prone to bugging Lovely as when she was little. She and Lovely got on fairly well, except when Garnet tried to steal the ball Lovely was playing with! (Actually, they mostly ignored each other, but that’s an improvement from when Garnet would bug mama and Lovely would snap at her!)

Late in the afternoon we visited that city’s version of an off-leash dog park by the river, which was a first for all of us. It was quite pleasant and not nearly as crowded as the one we go to at home. Then we had a supper of barbecued hot dogs, chips, salad and fruit.

After supper we all headed off, in separate vehicles, to another town about halfway between our two cities where Mama Garnet had seen advertised that the African Children’s Choir would be performing. When we got there – just as the concert was about to start – we were both surprised at the small number of cars in the parking lot, thinking this concert would have a big draw factor. Once inside, it became apparent that we were victims of (somewhat) false advertising – it wasn’t THE African Children’s Choir, but the Canadian-African Children’s Choir from our home city. Still, we stayed to enjoy the music, which was quite good. As nine o’clock approached, however, and we less than halfway through the printed program, I decided we’d leave at the intermission as we were all getting tired and it was getting late! But as soon as I made that decision the organizers jumped to the last two items on the program, effectively cancelling intermission, so we stayed until the end of those two items. Before heading home we availed ourselves of the yummy snacks laid out in the church basement.

It was a long day but lots of fun, and so nice to visit Garnet (and her family of course!).

Magical Monday

April 2010

After Easter, the rest of April passed fairly uneventfully. Lovely started basic training class on Friday the 9th, for eight weeks. It’s not that intensive – I think the training is as much for the owners as the dogs. I looked into a variety of training classes and operations and decided to go with the local PetSmart class, mostly because they were kid-friendly. A few of the other places wouldn’t allow children under 8 to take part, which would cut Button our. But here, we all go into the classroom and we all take turns working with Lovely. The instructor is obviously aware that the kids need to learn how to handle her as much as anyone.

The Sunday after Easter we again had a crowd, but this time I didn’t cook up a storm, mostly just thawed things from the freezer. It was still great! What was most fun was that there were eight kids and just six grown-ups, so all but the two littlest kids got to sit at their own table to eat. After lunch we again traipsed through the woods and by the pond. It’s practically a Sunday tradition!

The kids started swimming lessons mid-month. Button’s in Level 3 and Mustang in Level 4. They haven’t had lessons since the end of summer last year, but they seem to be enjoying it and doing well. I’m so glad Mustang has lost her fear of the deep end and is now quite happy to head off there for diving and jumping fun.

We had two arts excursions in April – saw a children’s theatre show and a kids’ concert, both very fun. Friend Chuckles and I also took in a play one evening, while friend L babysat the kids.

Nanny’s birthday was near the end of the month. The kids and I baked a cake and decorated it all up for her (seeing as she would be with us for supper). Their present for her was a Webkinz ferret – since she has a real ferret for a pet! – and we made her a card.

Holiday #5 (2009) - A beautiful park

Our last holiday of the summer was over the September long weekend – after school had already started. I took off a tad early from work and, about an hour and a half after the kids got home from school, we headed out, leaving Lovely and puppies – now four weeks old – once again in the care of Chuckles. This one was the longest drive away, up in the Shield area.

Actually, given the busy after-work-long-weekend traffic, we got only a couple of kilometres from home – still in the heart of the city – and pulled off the freeway to a McDonalds parking lot to have a bite of supper. Picked up some fries to complement our soup, ate in the bus, and played a bit. Finally, about an hour later, traffic had eased up the point where it was worthwhile heading out again and, tummies full, we trundled on our way.




We arrived at the campground shortly after sunset, found our campsite, and settled in for the night. This was also a fairly large campground, but not nearly so spread-out as the previous one. The kids and Laoye had their bikes and sped up and down the roadways, while even walking it went quite quickly to reach the main beachfront area. You could tell this was a well-used and serviced campground – the interpretation centre had some nice displays and talks on a daily basis, and there was both a ferry service to take you across the inlet to the path up the cliff on the opposite shore of the lake and a boat ride along the cliff edge where you could see some of the rock paintings – and observe intrepid climbers doing a technical climb up the cliff face.




We spent our time swimming, hiking, playing, and just plain having fun! The weekend was over all too soon and then – back to the city to settle into the fall routine of school, work and puppies!

Magical Monday

Like mother, like daughter.