LONG WEEKEND

Due to some generosity from my boss and some PTO for Murph we were able to enjoy a stellar four day Fourth of July weekend. It. Was. GREAT! We both were able to check a lot off our to-do list including:

• Finished all painting of trim and walls
• Stained the floor of the deck a 2nd time
• Replaced and stained the rotting stairs on the deck
• Cleaned the house like crazy people
• Did a ton of laundry
• Picked lots of fresh raspberries from our bushes
• Weeded the entire back yard
• Arbor take down
• Had friends over to grill Saturday night

It is so nice to not see piles of paintbrushes and tools all over the downstairs, now I can focus on decorating :)

I think the best part of our little break was a trip to Maffitt Reservoir with the pup on the 5th. The reservoir is a little south of Des Moines and we thought a little hike / picnic sounded perfect for our day off. I'll say we were underwhelmed. We walked a little over 3 miles on a grass path through trees the entire time. Little elevation change, little path maintenance  LOTS of flies and little view of the reservoir. But Willy loved it and we got in some exercise so it was all good.

My favorites leading the way

After we saw that Wills was getting hot we broke for our picnic lunch of summer sausage, cheese, cherry tomatoes, and bread/crackers. We lounged on the picnic table and let Willy rest up.

One hot dog!

My love

Before we left for home we decided to head down to the water and see if Willy would like to play. It was the best. He ran through the water and Greg even lured him out far enough to get him to swim. He pumped those little legs of his and was a little panicked at first but eventually got the idea. I loved every minute of watching them in the water.

Swim lessons!

After the dip in the water we headed down Maffitt Road to find our future home. Seriously, the area is amazing, large wooded lots with giant homes we could never afford, I was smitten of course :) We got back home by 2:30 or so and gave Willy a bath then we all hit the deck to catch a few rays. That didn't last long as it was clear I had already gotten enough sun for the day.

When we came in Murph was rubbing Willy's belly and saw 10-15 large deep red welts. I panicked. Was it something in the water? Did he have ticks? IS HE DYING? SHOULD WE GO TO THE VET?! It was at that moment Murph uncovered some ticks and my Google search let us to believe he had some black fly bites and we shouldn't be alarmed. Phew. So we checked him for ticks throughout the night and pulled about 5 little guys off him. The bites didn't seem to bother him and thankfully are already gone, but worried me enough to want to stick to less grassy paths with the pup.

All in all it was wonderful and I think there should be at least 1 mandatory 4 day weekend every month. We would all be in a better mood :)