Have I mentioned how much I adore the desert?

I need to write that right here, right now, so I can come back and remember how dear it is to me in July when we are all melting and gasping for breath in the heat.  
Ha!
But really, the desert is pretty glorious right now.  
All the palo verde trees are bursting with yellow blossoms and we are just winding down the orange blossoms, which penetrate the air with my most favorite scent in the whole wide world.
In the midst of it all, Dave and I are training to hike the Grand Canyon the day after school gets out.

I’m using “we” very liberally since mostly it’s my friends and I hiking any morning we can coordinate, and one Saturday Dave and I went together.

And I loved it.

But I secretly don’t want him to train too much because he can hike circles around me and I want to be able to kick his booty on that trail.

So I “let” him come with me a couple weeks ago and it was such a perfect date.

In honor of spring Lucy and I have decided it’s perfect weather for walking to school…with Bo in tow.

I love when we get to the school and these two can hardly stand to separate from each other:

Bo howls and yelps as I lead her away and Lucy blows kisses as she goes through the gate, her cheeks wet from Bo’s slathering of kisses before she leaves.  (Gross I know, but she eats up that puppy love.)

A few pics. from some of our hiking adventures:

We loved taking in that army of saguaro cacti spreading out below us.

Another day of dog walking…obviously before Bo’s haircut when she could hardly see:

We love that pup but not so loving what she’s doing to our yard:

Yikes!  Gotta figure out how to fix that grass.

The big girls have been working their tails off soaking up springtime at tennis twice a week, which I have no pictures of, but here’s one of Grace, fresh from soaking up colors at the school color-run:

 And Claire’s been racing her heart out at track:

 It’s her first year…the first year anyone in this family has done track, and it’s pretty fun.

More on that soon…last home track meet is today!

The book fair at school came and went.  In preparation these girls decided they needed to have a lemonade stand to earn money for it just like they did last year.

And boy howdy they raked it in.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to stop for those cute faces?  They each earned enough for a few books and were pleased as punch about that little fact.

I just want to remember these little snippets of Spring right while we’re in the middle of it.

Because school is out in a matter of WEEKS, and I’m still trying to figure out how Christmas is over!

11 Comments

  1. That is what our grass looks like from our dog. On the bright side, I would much rather have that outside….than the alternative of cleaning it up on the inside. It just means ya'll are doing some kind of awesome training Miss Bo!!! As you're learning they are so worth it. Those pics of Lucy and Bo….so sweet!

  2. Adding tomato juice to a dog's diet (which they tend to love!) helps balance the pH of their urine and takes care of those spots! Our vet recommended it to us and it totally works!

  3. Shawni,

    We have 3 dogs, and no patches. Bo's urine is acidic, so you'll need to add alkaline foods to her diet. We feed our dogs mini tomatoes as treats, and you can also serve tomatoes (healthier) or ketchup (not as healthy) with her food.

    ~Kiki~

  4. wow! life's so different here in Europe, school isn't over until at least end of June! but the weather should be getting warmer and we can start going out more

  5. The dietairy (sp?) tips will probably help, but our previous dogs we trained to go on a gravel spot in our garden. I should do that again with our dog, the little guy is pretty great about spotting poo but the occasional accident does occur (which has nothing to do with the yellow spots in your grass but will solve that problem too!)

  6. So in England there is a product called Dog Rocks which you add to their water and it stops the scorched lawn. Perhaps that might help 🙂 I'm sure that there is a similar product in the US.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *