Miss Addy Turns Six

I apparently forgot to post about a big event this month ... 

Miss Addy turned six on June 5th!

I hate to admit that not only did I not blog about her birthday, I actually did not remember it was her birthday until a week later.  I am the worst.dog.mother.ever.  Luckily, I remembered the next week and immediately sent a text to my mom who helped Ads celebrate.  

Yes, she does have a birthday crown on ... she is a princess after all.  

Miss Addy has lived quite the life.  She was introduced to us as "the feisty one" and she sure has lived up to that title.  She's had a knee replacement and a hip replacement, she's lived in five states, taken a cross country road trip, flown on a plane and added a lot of joy to our lives every day for the past six years.  She's one special little lady and I hope she is enjoying her semi-retirement in Indiana!

The feisty little girl the day we brought her home

Happy Birthday Miss Addy!

Puppy Love

I caught some sweet shots of Addy the other night:

She can be such a sweetheart when she wants to be!

The Mother Visits the Pacific Northwest - Part III

I couldn't let my mom come out and visit without taking her hiking!  The weather was not the greatest while she was here, so we picked a day and crossed our fingers.  It was very dreary looking when we rolled out of bed on Monday morning, but we decided to take our chances and headed east on U.S. 2.  We had decided to hike Wallace Falls which is about 5.5 miles roundtrip and would be perfect since our days had just been drastically shortened due to daylight savings time.  

Small Falls ... the first waterfall that we came upon

Mossy trees

Addy, me, Lucy

Waterfall #2 ... Lower Falls

They are very creative with naming around here :)

My mother in front of Lower Falls with Middle Falls in the background

Middle Falls with snow covered trees above it!

Take #2 ... it was absolutely beautiful!

 Sun coming through the trees

and Take #2

Lucy and her backpack!

Addy!

Middle Falls

The top of Middle Falls

The sun was trying its very hardest to peek out

Beautiful

We finally made it to Upper Falls and to be quite honest with you, I thought Middle Falls was much more impressive

I really liked this trail ... every half mile they had a mile marker telling you how far you had gone, what the next half mile would be like (easy, medium or hard) and a trail map for you to look at.  It was great!

Lucy playing in the river

I got a few good pictures of the peaks around Wallace Falls on our way out ... they are ruined by the gigantic power lines running through, so please ignore those :)

We were SO lucky that the weather held out ... there were several times it looked very dark and ominous but we had a great time and the scenery was beautiful.  Wallace Falls was a great hike and very easy to get to!

Hiking Excelsior Mountain!

Last Tuesday, J. had the day off so we packed up the car and headed up towards Mt. Baker to hike Excelsior Mountain.  I was slightly nervous because I'd been sick the previous week with some kind of sinus/cough/cold thing and my cough hadn't gone away completely.  I also hadn't worked out in a week.  And, J.'s better than me at EVERYTHING and even if I had been 100% healthy I likely would have been slowing him down.

The morning started out very cloudy and gray, but it was supposed to clear up around noon.  We decided to trust the weather guy and headed up towards Bellingham with the dogs.  It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the trailhead and as soon as we turned off the highway in Bellingham the sun came out and the day turned gorgeous.

Starting out...

Hiking past a lake ... there were people camping on the far side of the lake.  It looked like a really cool campsite!

The view from one of the many spots I stopped to rest ...

Another view ...

J. and the dogs crossing a stream ...

Up some stairs ...

Mt. Baker from the backside of the mountain ...

And ... we finally turned the corner and headed up to the very top.

And once we turned up the final path, it was all uphill ... and not a little uphill, but MAJOR uphill.  The last part was very hard.  But I made it and the view from the top was worth it! 

Mt. Baker from the top:

Ads at the top ... enjoying the view:

And then we headed back down ...

Some more stairs ...

Addy and Lucy playing in the stream next to the trail ...

A little waterfall in the stream ...

Lucy ... I was behind her, Ads and J. for the whole hike so she would stop and wait for me every now and then.  As soon as she saw me, she would race off to meet back up with J. and Addy.  She did this every 5-10 minutes, it was adorable.

We finally made it to the end of the hike and headed home.  It was a great hike ... a challenging but doable trail and a gorgeous view coupled with a gorgeous day.  I definitely recommend this hike to anyone in the Seattle area ... as long as you're not sick!