Red Bud and Palmettoooooooo

So the first set of pictures are from Red Bud Park, where I took Charlie this past Tuesday. It was just the 2 of us at the park and and an 8 month old puppy can really wear you out! Anyways, it was beautiful out there and Charlie really loved swimming around in the water and doing laps in the open areas. I think in 2 weeks we're going to head out to inks lake to camp with the usual group and possibly Michael and we're going to try to get Charlie to head into deeper water! I'm thinking that if we send G out to the middle of the lake calling Charlie, he might go!

Of COURSE Charlie had to find the biggest stick he possibly could to run around with and gnaw on!

He really enjoyed running under this branch over and over again.

Palmetto State Park was exactly as I remembered it from when I was little. Kelsey, her family and I used to go out to Palmetto quite often in the Spring and Summer when we were in Elementary school and Middle school. It's located in Gonzalez which was only about 40 minutes from our place. They don't have a lot of water access, as the current was really strong but Charlie and Lexie loved playing on the low water crossing.

Looks like a nice hill to take the dogs down to swim!

Poor Monica fell in the mud going down the hill, dropped Lucy's leash and Lucy took off running, then ran after Lucy and sunk in the mud even more :(

However, Charlie had fun running around in the mud like a nut...check out his dirty little feet!

Completely exhausted on the way home!

The End!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unintentional Hiatus...

I apologize for the lack of updates, as I stated in the post below. Somehow that post still has the date of April 18th on it...even though I just published it today. Huh. Lets recap the past month with a couple of highlights, shall we?

April 1:

My best friend Kelsey got MARRIED! I've known Kelsey since the 2nd grade and although she ran out of Austin right after college to go to some school called Yale and then followed the man of her dreams to some state called Arizona we have remained EXTREMELY close and I couldn't be happier for her. Well, I could - if she moved back to Austin :) Here are a couple pics of us back in our prime back in the day...

She married Chris, who is the absolute perfect guy for her. I have never seen her happier and I know that they love each other so much and are a perfect match. Here are a couple of pics of her beautiful, outdoor Spring wedding in Austin at Mercury Hall! Please take note of her hair, makeup and bouquet. I'll give you a clue who did them...me. I'm thinking about opening an all-inclusive wedding salon/planning business. Actually I'm not because I don't want to work on weekends.

So Kelsey's wedding day I thought I was pregnant....kind of. I was incredibly nauseous when I woke up the morning of and felt like I was going to throw up the entire day. I had a diet Dr. Pepper in the morning, then did Kelsey's hair, makeup and helped her get ready all day. Then during lunch I had 1/2 of a 1/2 of a hamburger bun and part of a pickle slice. Then went to the restroom and felt like puking. When I came out, my dad looked at me and said, "What? Are you pregnant or something?" So one of the only pictures I have of myself and Kels from her wedding day was after my dad asked me that while I was sitting at the lunch table. Lets just say, it's not my best photogenic face ever. When I got home after her wedding that afternoon, around 4:30 or so I laid on the couch and fell asleep. I woke up around 6ish or so because we were supposed to meet Kels and the crew on Congress for some drinks and hanging out. However, I woke up sweating and freezing with a temp of 102 and was totally bummed I couldn't go out that night with them. I fell back to sleep and woke up the next morning feeling perfectly normal. And I never was pregnant :)

April 10th

This is who Garett, Courtney, Justin and I saw:

Wow. All I can say is it was a GREAT concert. Elton (we're on a first name basis) had one of the best live voices I've ever heard. He sounded exactly like the greatest hits album that I now have in my CD player in the Focus and turn on all the time. So good.... and now I have yellow brick road stuck in my head.

April 24-25th:
G and I decided to make a last minute trip out to Palmetto State Park to camp for one night with Court, Justin, Monica, Tim and the dogs. It was last minute because I had actually gone into work the morning of the 24th for my meeting and didnt' decide until about one that afternoon that I really wanted head out there. So we did, and it was relaxing and wonderful. Spring in Austin is SO nice, I just wish it would last more than a month! Pictures of Palmetto will come in the next post....

April 25:
Saw this broadway play with G and his fam:

It was honestly one of the best musicals I've seen in a long time. It was upbeat, current and had great songs...I would highly recommend it if it comes to a city near you!

Last Weekend! I had my last meeting of Spring 2010 in Fort Worth last weekend. It was for the derm group that I manage and at the end the girl that I manage said, "Well Laura, how do you think it went." And honestly, I said, "Better than I ever expected!" It made me so happy. The members were actually really nice to me, have learned my name since our last meeting and thanked me for the job that I do. The board meeting, which always makes me nervous, went great. I was well prepared and actually had a good time at the meeting. Don't get me wrong, I'm soooo glad I don't meet with them again until October...but I don't think I'll ever dread one of their meetings again!

I do however have to go to a meeting next week in Chicago Monday-Wednesday. I was nominated by my boss to attend a "New Executives of Medicine" meeting. It'll be a short trip and I get to stay at the InterContinental right on Michigan Avenue so it should be nice! Maybe I'll try to find some time to hop down to ol Michigan and do some shopping. :)

Charlie has been GREAT lately. Yesterday was Charlie's 8 month birthday and I had off because of the meeting so I decided to sleep in, then take him to Red Bud Dog park. I've been wanting to go there forever and just haven't been able to find the time with how busy G and I have been. So we went around 1pm and it was awesome. We found parking right away (the last spot) in the tiny lot they have there. I can see how it would be a problem on the weekends! Anyways, we got there and went down the walking trail for a ways. Then we found this secluded spot right on the water. I took Charlie off of the leash and he ran right in the water and swam around. He kept looking at me like, "What are you still doing up there on land??" So I took off my flip flops and waded out to my knees in the lake with him. He had a blast swimming around, then running back to the shore and doing sprints, them coming back into the water. It was nice hanging out with him for the day and wearing him out.

Of course right in the middle of GLEE Charlie had to take a dump so he sat right in front of the TV stand and cried and cried. So I took him out to the dog hill at our complex so he could run around and then dump real quick. Little did I know this outing would turn into a 5-dog play date! It ended up being awesome. Charlie and 4 girlfriends of his ran around the hill chasing each other, fighting over sticks and having a really good time. Charlie got so tired by the end of it that he laid down in the middle of the hill and growled whenever a dog would come up to him. Apparently he didn't have a long enough nap time yesterday and was the end of his rope with playtime.

Tonight we have our trick class! We signed Charlie up a couple of weeks ago for a trick class through PetsMart. This is his 3rd training class and I think he really likes it. It is so much fun for G, Charlie and me to go to each week. It gets us out of the house and also gets Charlie out and around other dogs all while learning some awesome tricks!

Anyways. I'll try to be better about updating the blog now that I'll have more free time. I'll also post some pics of Palmetto State Park and also some pics from Red Bud in my next post!

PS. Charlie is up to 38 lbs now! He's a big, growing boy...makes me sad :)