Fort Collins, Colorado

our fellow day trippers

On Sunday, we took a little day trip with Lucy and Ricky to Fort Collins. The Ricardos still get amped up (and not in a good way) when the 4 of go anywhere all together.  They usually embarrass us, but still... it's worth it to be able to bring them along.  We know there will be moments of all hell breaking loose, but they'll eventually calm down (we hope, anyway).  And the more we get them out in public together, the more used to it they'll become.  That's the thought process anyway.

The car ride was fine...pretty uneventful actually.  Beautiful, of course, because all drives in Colorado seem to be beautiful- but uneventful in that Lucy and Ricky were pretty chillax.  We were off to a good start.

Fermin had found a trail that he thought would be a fun spot for us to hike. We thought we could drain some of their energy, and then things would be calm enough that we could take them with us to the New Belgium Brewery.

But as I've been learning lately, you can have a plan, but you never really know where the heck you're going until you actually get there!

It was a gorgeous day, in the mid 60s and sunny.  We were not the only ones with this trail in mind for a Sunday hike.  There were quite a few people, and many of them brought their dogs along too.  As we parked our car by the trail head, Lucy and Ricky began their barking, howling and crying with rabid excitement routine.  It was just too much!  We saw a path that led down to a reservoir with a beach looking area around it and decided we could walk there instead, since it would be just us.

they just think they're on a tandem leash

When we got to the sandy "beach" area, we were able to take their leashes off and let them run around.  But once we gave them the freedom to roam as they pleased, they actually stayed right beside us anyway.  We were there a little over an hour, and whenever they got thirsty, they drank from the reservoir.  Lucy especially. In most of the photos I took, she seems to be drinking the water. (That, by the way, is a foreshadowing for tomorrow's blog post...)

They got very dirty, but also very worn out.  (So, mission accomplished.) We got back in the car and drove to the brewery which was only about a 15 minute drive.  However, it was long enough that they recovered and got amped up all over again.  We looked at all the people (hundreds!) and all the dogs, and quickly decided we might just run in without them so as to not cause a scene.  The last thing I want is to reward them for acting like lunatics.  So, "Sorry kids, but if you're going to be this loud, you're staying in the car."  We walked around less than 5 minutes before decided to blow this taco stand and go somewhere less crowded where we could all move around a little.  The whole point was for our little family of 4 to spend the day together, not leave them in the car while we stopped for a drink.

We went to the downtown area of Fort Collins which was so cute.  Tons of pubs, restaurants and shops- and no chains!  Reminded me a little of Pearl St. in Boulder.  I just loved it.  And we sucked it up, and got our lunatic children out of the car.  I expected Ricky to stand on his hind legs and begin his howling, but I was so happy... They made some whining noises (of course), but nothing outrageous and as soon as we got moving, they figured out how they were suppose to behave pretty quickly. 

again, they think we're using the tandem leash...

at a stop light, acting NORMAL!

The pictures don't capture it, but there were LOTS of people all over the place, and lots of dogs too.  I actually overheard some people that didn't know better say, "Oh look!  Those dogs are so good!" Some kids even pet them and Lucy didn't bark in their faces in that alarming way she usually does.  I think the hike wore them out enough that they acted like dogs that know their manners in a public setting.

It was such a fun day.  We didn't hike on the trail we planned to, and we didn't hang out at the New Belgium brewery like we thought we would.  We just sorta went where the road took us (okay, more like we catered to our dogs, and chose the places least likely for conflict) and it was perfect.

Sunday school lesson of the day: You never really know where you're going until you get there.
 

A tired dog is a good dog.

awwww