More adventures with Kylie

A few weekends ago we went hiking with Kylie. We hiked up Iron Mountain which had a vertical climb of just over 1,000 feet, and was 3.5 miles each way (7 miles round trip). It was a hot Santa Ana day in January (we had a really warm and dry January). We figured it would be a good way to let Kylie explore more of the outdoors and to try and make her more tired at night. She has so much energy that she is up and ready to go usually between 5:30 and 6:30 AM every morning! No more sleeping late for us.

Anyway, we had bought a doggie back pack from REI and decided to put a couple water bottles in it thinking the extra weight might tire Kylie out even more. Well, she bounded right up the 3.5 mile trail, up 1,000 vertical feet, right to the top of the mountain! Here we are taking a break at the top of the mountain. The pictures are all from our cell phone so they are low quality...
















From the top of the mountain you can see out to the ocean and see to downtown, although the pictures aren't high enough quality to see.

Kylie did indeed seem tired by the end of the hike and she slept in the car on the 45 minute drive home, but alas she was up and ready to go again first thing next morning!

Also, the other day we took Kylie to the off-leash dog park at Balboa Park. It is a fenced in area where dogs can run off leash. Well, they have this drinking fountain with two spigots, one up high for humans and one down low for dogs. Obviously dogs are not clean drinkers and the water gets everywhere and the ground is really muddy in that spot. Within 5 seconds of having her leash off she was rolling around in that mud! We were so mad, but she was having fun. We learned from animal experts at the zoo that was a behavior from when dogs were wolves (domestic dogs evolved from wolves as humans bred them over the last few thousand years. Wolves roll around in the mud so they can hide their scent when they are approaching animals. That is why you see lots of dogs still flop in the mud!). Here is a picture of what she looked like after we wiped her down with our beach blanket that was in our car. She was still really dirty. She got the back seat of our car really dirty when we left. So, we took her to a dog wash, and while Colleen cleaned Kylie, Jim cleaned the back seat at the car wash across the street. When anybody saw Kylie while she was muddy, they always said "Oh looks like somebody had a lot of fun!". It was both frustrating and cute at the same time because we know she is so happy to be outside playing.

This weekend we are going to Tahoe for a few days of skiing! Jim got Colleen the trip as a combined birthday / Christmas present. We have a small cabin, with a hot tub on the deck! There is nothing better than hitting the slopes during the day and then relaxing in the hot tub at night while snow falls on your head. We can't wait, we'll take some good pictures of Colleen speeding past Jim on the slopes!

Also, we are still waiting on the North Carolina jobs. The City of Durham is ready to present Jim with an offer, but they have a hiring freeze in the City except for this position, so Jim's potential boss has to jump through extra hoops to get the offer letter from the City Manager. The US DOT will be contacting interviewees in mid-February so we are keep are fingers crossed that Jim will get a call in a week or two from the feds. We'll keep everybody updated if we find out anything new!