Summertime...

Just have to say that I LOVE the summer! As I walked out of work this morning at 6:05 a.m. and realized that it was still warmer outside than it was inside all night, my heart smiled. The sun was not yet over the mountains, but the birds were singing and the air was fresh. It is supposed to be over 100 degrees today, and I will be sleeping through it all, trying not to get too hot. In spite of it all, I still love the summer over any other time. Spring runs a close second for me since it is the prelude to summer! My only near-regret is that I'm not able to spend the next 10 days or so in the Pacific Northwest, which is the best place I've ever been in the summer!

A Visit to Manti (UT)

Last Thursday, July 3rd, Heather and I made a trip down to see my sister Polly and head up the canyon to barbecue for dinner together. Sadie loves to go to Polly's. First of all, that is the general area she is from, as I got her from a farm in the next town over. Also, Polly has a great yard for her. These are a few of her favorite things:

Moe the cat, who has all the other dogs (and people) completely intimidated, is actually careful around Sadie. She is no respecter of cats, and attacks them all equally. Here he is hiding from her.


She loves the yard...there is always something to stalk... What is it this time?


The ducks! She is definitely a bird dog.


We had fun with our bbq before we almost got rained out. Sadie and Hershey (the brown border collie of Polly's) finally found a stick that they could share! There's not many toys or sticks they have ever been able to share. It was hilarious! Sadie tried to pull Hershey into the stream a few times with it, as they were playing tug of war.




Polly had just spent the last few days helping herd cattle through the town and up the mountain for the summer. She has two border collies that are great at herding cattle, and they live for it! They work together really well and know what they are doing. So we decided to drive up the canyon a little further to see what areas were left to camp in. As we went, we passed a lot of the cows that they had herded up there. Some of them were a little too close to the top fence, so just for fun, she let her dogs and Sadie out to herd the cows back down just a little ways. The two dogs (Hershey and Cuma) immediately took off barking constantly and running behind the cattle in a criss-cross pattern to herd them. Sadie, in an effort to fit in, ran after them to "go get the cows!". She had no idea what she was doing but made a good effort to do what the other two were doing. We about died laughing when the other two stop barking and start heading back, we all hear this big deep "WOOOFFF!" and Polly said, "That wasn't one of my dogs", then Sadie comes running back with them, all proud of herself! She's not much of a barker ever (which I am so thankful for!), so the fact that she barked at them once was pretty funny! We headed back down the canyon road and came upon a few more cows, so again, for fun, we let the 3 dogs back out to "herd". This time Sadie had a bit more confidence as she took off with the other 2 dogs. This time though, she ran straight for the cows, barked a couple of times as she ran AROUND it and nearly INTO it instead of BEHIND it like the other two dogs, then she came running straight back to us, very proud of herself again! She was trying to hard to fit in and do what they were doing! It was hilarious and we all got a good laugh out of that! And she was tired! This is a great picture of all of them in the truck together a few months ago.


It was a surprise to all of us that my youngest sister, Brenda was headed up to Salt Lake City for the weekend from Vegas. She came out and visited with us for a bit. Sadie got to run with her favorite "cousin", Baby, who is part blue-heeler. They love to run and play together!



After all of the fun an excitement of the day, Sadie was wiped out as we were packing it up and getting ready to go. She does not believe in expending extra energy sometimes...


And finally at home, once she got to her bed, she didn't move for hours!!