Mammoth

We did something 4th of July weekend that we had never done before with any of our previous dogs - we took both of them on vacation with us. Matthew's dad has a place up on Mammoth Mountain and so we met Amy's parents, brother, sister-in-law, and five month old niece Eleanor (Ellie) there for a long weekend.

The dogs did great - and boy, did they get dirty! We hiked to Devil's Postpile, a natural hexagonal rock formation, one of only two in the world (the other's in Scotland, for anyone who's interested) and from there, to Rainbow Falls. The pups had never been on trail before (and really, we had never taken a dog on trail before). They were out of jacket, and were allowed to free-range a bit on leash. They were so curious about EVERYTHING! "Oooh, look! A bush! Oh, look, a pinecone! Can I eat pinecones?" The way back was a bit much for Amy, who already had not been feeling well,... and a lot of the trail home was uphill. Well, let's just say that Amy can't say that Paige never did anything for her. During the more extended uptrail parts, Amy held onto Paige - and was pulled up the hill. Can you say uphill assist?

We hiked to Inyo Crater (which to Amy sounds like a joke, but seriously, that's the name), sat around the house and played games, cooked, and basically enjoyed being "away" for a little while.

Matthew, Tai, Paige, Amy, with Ellie and her parents above, at Inyo Crater.

The other really neat thing was seeing both the pups with Ellie. When the pups had seen Ellie the first time, it was Paige who was very solicitous of the baby. This time, it was Tai, barely more than a baby himself, who was facinated by her. He wanted to be near her, smell her, lick her hands and feet (and face, as we found out when he woke her up from a nap on her play-pad). The sweetest time was when we found Ellie asleep on her play-pad, with Tai asleep with his head facing the baby.


And of all of us, guess who were the two who didn't want to go home?




It made us realize that we could go to new places with both dogs, and have a good time too. Having two on vacation was an adventure to say the least, but with Paige going IFT soon, we can't say how glad we are to have gone.