Monday Road Trip

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a good weekend. We went to a pug meetup at our local off leash park on Sunday morning. It was raining steadily and only two other families showed up. We all had a fawn and black pug, so there were six pugs and Honey Puppy. We stayed for about twenty minutes and went home to dry off.

On Monday I rode along with Hubby while he drove some cars to eastern Washington. We took all the doggies along too. We woke up at 4:00 in the morning and were on the road by 5:30. Yikes! While it was dark all the dogs slept together in their kennel. Hubby and I had coffee and cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese. Yummm!!

We had to cross over the Cascade mountains and drove through the snow covered passes. The sun started to come up while we drove through the snowy hills. It was so pretty, all the trees were covered in fresh snow that had fallen during the night.



We started seeing a lot of road flares and finally came across this accident. A huge truck had jack knifed. That would be a frightening experience! Hubby is a very safe driver and has never crashed. At least not accidentally.

We took our first bathroom break at a dam along the way. They had a really nice rest area and some beautiful views of the river and the fruit packaging plants.

Eastern Washington is well known for apples and cherries. Chances are if you have ever had fruit from Washington, it came from here. All the orchards were snow covered. Here are the fruit boxes all lined up waiting for the next harvest.




We drove along the Columbia River and saw some magnificent scenery. The river is really wide, it looks more like a lake in some places. The water was so calm and smooth, the reflections were stunning. You can see how I was taking the pictures in one of these photos. I use the zoom feature on the camera to avoid the window and mirrors. But sometimes I can't zoom fast enough to get the shot as we are moving along at sixty miles per hour!







The pups had a nice ride and really enjoyed being with us. As the day went on, they came out of the kennel and slept on the top. Pug Pile!! Honey preferred to sleep on her own at my feet.








Ollie also got in some quality time with dad. Lots of ear rubbing and head scritching. This love fest includes a lot of adoring looks and puggy kisses from Ollie. I tried to get a shot of that too, but they are all blurry.








It was a long day, but we all had a good time. Hubby is on his own today with his charming assistant, Charlie. Honey, Ollie and I are just lounging at home.

I will be posting our Mango Minster 2010 entries soon. I am counting on you all for your support and votes in the People's Choice awards!
talk to you soon!
hugs,
puglette
:o)

Fun in the Oregon Dunes

Hi everyone!

I hope your week is getting off to a good start. We had dinner with hubby's mom on Saturday. We brought Charlie along since grandma has been out of the country since the end of November. Little Charlie was so excited to see her grandma, she piddled! We were excited to see hubby's mom too, but did not piddle. ;o)


I have another family story to share with you today. This happened during the same vacation that daughter went over Rainbow Falls. This is about one of our adventures on the way up the Pacific Coast from California.


The Oregon Coast is a beautiful place. There are miles of beaches, old growth forests and lovely small towns to see. The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is a beautiful portion of the coast. The sand dunes are huge and stretch for miles. There are many ATV and dune buggy rental and tour shops.

We decided to stop at one of the dune buggy tour locations for a fun tour of the dunes. Yay!! Family fun!! HA!

There are many choices of vehicles at these places. Large, multi person open air buses and smaller sand rails. We chose a four seater, the three of us and a tour guide. The weather was warm and sunny so we had on shorts and sandals. The tour folks recommended closed toe shoes so we all changed into our tennis shoes. We get securely buckled in and handed a helmet. Good so far, lots of safety precautions.

Off we went, driving along the lovely dunes. Up hill and down, through small patches of trees and along the water's edge. It was lovely! It was about this time that the driver started to speed up. And it was also when my loving husband told him "go faster, don't worry if my wife starts screaming...it just means she is having fun!"

The driver took off like a shot! We started zooming across the sand. Retracing our tracks, we went back to the water's edge and this time we had a spray of water behind us. We were going so fast that my head was whipping around. And boy howdy, was I screaming! The weight of the helmet along with the speed was giving me a huge headache.

But the worst was yet to come. Instead of going up and down the hills like on a normal road, we began spiraling down hill as if in a vortex. I was on the side closest to the center or bottom of the vortex. I was petrified! I was sure that the heavy helmet was going to pull my head down and hit the sand. I could not believe the pull of gravity! I was in non-stop scream mode!

I was finally able to release my death grip on the cross bar in front of me to smack my husband on the knee to signal my distress. He let the driver know we ( I ) had had enough and were ready to stop. We finally headed back to the parking lot and were able to stop and get off that crazy ride.

I was literally shaking. I was a combination of frightened and furious. I had a mouthful of sand from screaming. My mouth and chin were coated, yuck! I stood up and dropped at least ten pounds of sand out of my shorts. Needless to say, I stalked off and headed to our camper to cool down. What an ordeal!

I can still imagine that feeling of trying to keep my head off the sand. I was sure I was going to end up like Isadora Duncan. I finally stopped being angry and hubby and daughter stopped laughing at me...well at least not so boisterously. I am not ashamed to say I am the wimp of the family.

I would love to go back to the Oregon Sand Dunes. It is a beautiful part of our great nation. I would even take another tour of the dunes. But next time I will be in the big bus, with all the other chicken old ladies!

until next time!

hugs,

puglette

:o)

The Little Green Boat

Hi everyone!

Happy Friday! WooHoo! I hope you all have some fun weekend plans.

As promised, today I will share another Puglette and Hubby adventure tale. This is another story about our little green boat. I first introduced you to our boat in this post. Today I thought I would tell you about our very first exciting adventure in the little green boat.

Hubby bought the boat from a former co-worker many years ago. It was exciting to have a boat, we have many small lakes around us. At that time hubby was really into fishing so the little boat would be a great addition.




He brought the little boat home and we decided to try it out on a local lake. Now I am not sure why we did not go to the lake that is about three blocks away from home, but we didn't. We went to a lake about ten miles away. It may have been because we needed to visit his mom...but I digress.

The boat was small enough to shove into the back of our SUV. It stuck out a bit, but was definitely manageable. Off we went to test out our boat! We were so excited!





It was a lovely summer evening. We are fortunate to have daylight until late into the evening during our summers. We were happily drifting along, just put putting slowly with our one horsepower, electric motor. It was so nice, quietly sailing along with the sunset turning Mount Rainier pink.




As we were calmly cruising the lake, we suddenly hear a boat engine in the distance. No big deal, there was enough room on the lake for everyone. Until we see the motor boat speeding along...straight for us! And the motor boat driver was not looking our way, he didn't see us!

We were sitting ducks. There was no way we could out run a large, expensive motor boat. I started screaming and waving my arms, hoping to catch the driver's eye. Hubby started moving us out of the way as fast as possible. But let me tell you...one horsepower versus 300 horsepower, well you know who was on the losing end of that equation.




The motorboat driver did not see us, he was still looking away from us. We both thought we were about to crash and started to stand up, ready to jump overboard. But phew! the motorboat turned away from us just enough at the last moment. We were almost swamped but just rode out the swells from his passing.




As soon as we knew we would be safe, I said these infamous words to my husband "Get a bigger motor"! He could not believe his ears! I was actually telling him to make our boat go faster! Me, the woman that squealed every time he went over the speed limit! Go Faster!! Well, that's what being a sitting duck does to you. You say goofy things.

We did get a bigger motor, five horsepower! And we continued to have lots and lots of fun in that little boat. But we did have a few more exciting adventures...but those will have to wait for another blog post.

Have a great weekend, my friends!
hugs,
puglette
:o)

Yummy Treats!

Hi everyone!

I have been asked by DogTime Media to review three dog treat samples from VitaLife. And I have to say that these are wonderful!

We received three different treats to sample. VitaLife Duck and Sweet Potato Twists, VitaLife Chicken and Banana Wraps and VitaLife Healthy Hips and Joints. We were sent full size packages.

VitaLife Duck and Sweet Potatoes were just that. A piece of dried duck wrapped around a real sweet potato stick. The three dogs were each given one treat after their regular dinner. I knew the pugs would gobble these down as they love fruits and vegetables. Honey is not a huge fan of either. However, they all loved these!


Later in the evening after performing some easy obedience work we tried the VitaLife Chicken and Banana Wraps. Again, the ingredients were easily identifiable. A piece of dried chicken wrapped around a banana chip. All of our dogs like banana chips so these were quickly eaten up.

Just before bed we gave everyone the VitaLife Healthy Hips and Joints treat. These are strips of chicken that have been supplemented with glucosamine and chondroitin. These treats look like chicken jerky, fairly large and flat. I am really happy to try these treats as both Honey and Ollie have joint pain. I have personally used a glucosamine and chondroitin supplement and felt some joint improvement.

(This is the image I was sent, but the product received was the Healthy Hips and Joints. The chicken strips look the same.)

All three of the products we tried are free of added salt, glycerin and preservatives. You can really identify the ingredients. They all looked like something we could eat. Good quality ingredients.


Our three doggies loved each of these treats. Their review is three wags up out of a possible three wags. :o)

I have not received any compensation to write this review other than the free samples. DogTime Media asked me to review the product and I agreed. I looked at the VitaLife website before I agreed and what I read impressed me. I would definitely buy these treats for our dogs again.

If you would like more information, including where to buy these yummy treats please check out http://www.vitalifemadewithlove.com/.

Thank you for taking the time to read my product review. Tomorrow more true tales taken from the adventures of puglette and hubby!!
hugs,
puglette
:o)