Wordless Wednesday - Faces in Everyday Places

 From me and Katie, have a great Wordless Wednesday, everyone!  :)

The 4th of July, 2014

Jeanne, Annie, John and I had a little bar-b-que in Jeanne's shelter on the 4th of July. It was really nice, and fun.  I was worried about the storms coming my way, but the girls have this storm stuff down pretty well and weren't worried.  We were meeting at 4 o'clock, and the weather turned out to be beautiful, just perfect.

We had bar-b-qued hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, chips and dip and deviled eggs, with lemon bars for desert.  Yum.  I wish I had a plate full right now.  I took a photo right before we started to eat, but the table-of-food photo seems to be lost. 

Here are the photos of our bar-b-que:

Jake is such a leaner - here he is leaning on me:

And he also likes to stand on people's feet - below are Jake's and Annie's:

Jeanne brought out some of her home-made dog cookies for the pups - Katie LOVES them, and she got two:

Katie has never been obnoxious about taking treats from me, but for fun we practice "gentle" treat taking, and she's doing a good job as you can see:

And here she is, wanting to get out of the stroller after lunch and be down with the other dogs.  Of course, I let her down. 

Katie is reallly enjoying being with the other dogs, and this morning Renee (who we met at Bluewater Lake State Park) arrived with her two dogs, Harley and Cole.  I'll get photos of them for you to see, they are so cute.  Harley is pretty old, and the coolest dog.  Anyway, Katie wanted to meet them, and she let them sniff her, and she tried to sniff Cole, too, but he was wagging his tail so much Katie couldn't get in a good sniff.  But she did sniff noses with both Harley and Cole, and I was so pleased that she isn't afraid of them.

Which reminds me, I have to tell you what happened yesterday between Katie and Jake.  The three of us women were chatting in Jeanne's shelter and our dogs were there.  I guess something happened or someone moved behind the picnic table, and both Katie and Jake were startled.  Jake must have made a move toward Katie, she growled, bared her teeth and thrust her head and body toward Jake.  He was just sitting on his haunches, looked at her, raised his left foot and put it on Katie's neck/head and pressed down.  Totally stopped her.  He didn't make a sound or any other moves.  Katie was so surprised, she squeeled and ran behind my chair.  It was so funny.  Jake is such a cool dog.

I sure enjoyed watching Katie and Jake and Harley and Cole this morning.  We are all walking this afternoon if it doesn't rain, so we'll add Riley to the mix.  I hope to get some good photos of them all together.

One more photo - John took this of the three of us and our dogs yesterday during our walk, he's a great photographer and has good equipment - nice photo, John.  Thanks!

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!

Sunset, storm and a move

Boy have we had some weather here!  Super hot temps and the worst hail storm I've ever been in.

The other evening we had a gorgeous sunset, look at the way the sun, behind the clouds, is barely lining the edge of the clouds - it was just beautiful:

Tuesday night we had a really strong storm, lightening all around us, constant thunder, and then the hail started.  It was so loud inside The Palms.  Katie and I were in bed in our over-the-cab bunk and after a few minutes, Katie came up from the foot of the bed and crawled under the covers close to me.  She doesn't shake or show fear when it storms, but this one got to her.

I woke up before it started and saw flashing lights outside the dinette window.  I thought something with the Rangers or Police was going on near me, so I climbed down and opened the shade to see what was happening and it was lightening on the northern horizon.  Constant, flashing lights from end to end of the northern horizon.

I went back to bed and looked out the upper bunk windows from time to time.  Clear view to the lightening on the horizon.  Suddenly the rain and hail started and I pulled the curtains over again, and there was absolutely no visibility - total solid rain and hail.  It was really something. After a bit I started wondering if I was going to be stuck in mud, my site was so large it wasn't graveled all over and my front wheels were at the edge of the site.  I climbed down and started the engine and moved The Palms back, into the site more, just in case.    I also took a photo out the front window, it looked like it was snowing:

In the morning I went outside, and our tires were fine, still on solid ground, and look at the hail that was still on the ground:

See The Palms below - in the distance?

I walked over to the electric loop to check on Jeanne and especially Annie - this was her first storm in Bliss, her new rig, and I wondered if she and Jake and the kitties made it through all the rain without any leaks.  Luckily we all made it though without any damage or leaks.  (I had some tiny holes punched through some trim pieces - eight holes - but I filled them with Goop).

As I was walking over I stopped to talk to the man in the site next to Jeanne's, and he mentioned he was leaving that morning.  I was anxious to get into that campground area, so after checking on the girls, I went back and packed up and drove over to Jeanne's site and parked with her, facing the neighbor's site.  When he pulled out, we pulled in. (I've been keeping my eye on the sites here and hit pay dirt.) 

(Although I liked the site I was in and felt lucky to get it, there were two more thunderstorms predicted and I wasn't crazy about the possibility of getting stuck there.  Also, it 's such a large site and within the site is a "day use" area with a picnic table.  With the 4th of July coming, I was a little worried about a crowd coming in.  I would have welcomed them - and usually these large family groups are really good neighbors - but I'd rather be alone and have it a bit quieter.)

I love the site I'm in now, it has wonderful views and so far it's great. It looks really pretty in this photo, but it's actually kind of plain.  Here at Storrie Lake the sites have water and garbage cans in each site, and that's very convenient.  These sites are also pretty level.

I have a couple of photos of me and the dogs, the first one Annie took for me with my camera, while I was sitting in the shelter  holding Katie, and Jake and Riley were close enough to get all three dogs in one photo.   As you can see, they are all looking in different directions and ignoring each other, which is what usually happens.  They all get along, but don't interact much or play with each other.

This next photo, I've been wanting to get for a while.  Lately when I'm busy at the dinette, eating or on the computer, Katie will come up on the bench seat and force her nose under my arm and rest her head on me, wanting to snuggle.  I actually took this picture of the computer screen in front of us, acting like a mirror.  She will close her eyes and go to sleep if I don't make her move.  She's such a little baby sometimes.  :)   I was eating an English muffin when she snuck that little nose through (notice my cool locket?).

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and we're having a bar-b-que pot luck.  Should be fun!  We've had huge black clouds coming our way all afternoon and the storm just started - I can hear thunder and see lightning, and hear occasional hail.  I'm hoping we won't get a lot - they are predicting penny-sized hail and that could really do some damage, the last storm had pea-sized hail. :(

From me and Katie, have a safe and fun 4th of July, everybody!  :)

Wordless Wednesday - little sleeping cuties

From me and Katie, have a great Wordless Wednesday, everybody!  :)