Runaway

This last Monday Nathan and I decided to drop everything (even grocery shopping) and head up the the family cabin for the night.  We packed up the truck quickly with clothes, a few cans of soda, sleeping bags and Jasper and we were on the road is less then and hour later.

Having no food in the house, we stopped on the way for take-our Olive Garden (thanks to a birthday gift card from my parents).  We ate our bread sticks while driving and laughed at Jasper, riding in the bed of the pickup excitedly watching everything passing around us, cheeks flapping in the wind.

Before we knew it we were there; in our little piece of heaven.  Being a Monday night the canyon where our cabin is located was quiet and peaceful with most of the weekend crowd back at work.  It was perfect.  It was so wonderful to sit back and relax, eating our pasta on the front porch and listening to the sounds of nature around us.

After dinner we took a walk down to the river.  Jasper was so preoccupied by all the new smells and new things around him that he forgot to stay close to us and ended up wandering in the a swampy area.  After a while of frantically calling his name, he finally emerged from the trees very muddy and in need of a bath. That's what the river is for right?
Two years ago when we has taken Jasper on a day trip up to the same spot we had tried to get him to swim then. He couldn't do it.  It was so funny (and a little bit scary) to watch as he would just sink to the bottom and snorkel his way through the water coming up snorting and gasping for water.  Luckily age has made him a bit smarter and this time he figured out how to swim.

Funny Story:  One time he lost track of the stick that we had
thrown in the river for him to retrieve and his solution was
to just bring us back another on.  The only problem was that
the stick he selected was still attached to a tree that had fallen
into the river.  He tried for several seconds before finally
giving up and climbing up the opposite river bank.  We had to
throw in another stick from our side in order to get him to jump
back in and swim back over to our side of the river. 

Video of Jasper swimming.  The end is the best part when he tries to shake off the water while still holding a large stick.

To be continued......