The little man is crawling. all. over. the. place. He also thinks I’m a climbing gym! I love hanging out and snuggling with him. He loves his puffs and I’m hoping he will drop some on the floor for me soon! 🙂

We’ve been a bit busy around here. A little one definitely adds more craziness to our lives, but also an explosion of love in our home. Our days now consist of morning snuggles, fresh air, and play time, all with The Blakester. We cannot wait until the he can drop his food on the floor for us to clean up. He is going to be the best little buddy! 🙂

It’s been a busy past few months around our household. There’s a new hunting buddy in town and his name is Blake! He loves to eat, sleep, go through lots of diapers, and smile. In a few years, he’ll be hunting with us, his mommy and daddy, and his grandpa. 🙂

XOXO, Lexi

Porter and I spent a few weeks up with our buddy John this fall doing some bird training. We work great together as a team – I’ve got the nose to find all the pheasants and Porter has the drive to fetch all the pheasants – it’s a win win situation. Now that it’s winter, mom (7 months pregnant) and dad are taking us on pheasant hunts, and we could not have more of a blast doing it!

We went out in the field with mom, dad, and grandpa recently and had a blast getting some birds, although Porter being the self-destructive boy that he is, hit something sharp in the field and almost sliced the femoral artery in his front right leg. Luckily he did not, and the vets were able to put him under surgery and fix him right up with some stitches, so now that he’s all healed we are definitely ready for some more holiday hunts. He’s a hot mess, that one.

We are adding to the family again! No, not another dog, but a little human!! We hear little kids like to lay on dogs and drop food on the floor for us, so we’re incredibly excited to receive more cuddles and food than we already do! And mom and I are being outnumbered, because

IT’S A BOY!

But that’s a good thing because it still means I’m princess of the house! 🙂

XOXO, Lexi

I think I’m getting used to Porter, even though I still like to tantalize him. Since I’m stuck with him, he’s become my partner in crime. Now mom and dad can’t tell which one of us took the cookie jar off the counter, destroyed it, and ate all the cookies; they can’t tell which one of us chewed up the black pen and got ink all over the carpet and stone mantel in the living room; and they can’t tell which one of us ate the blocks of cheese out of the trash.

If they don’t know who did it, they don’t know who to blame. Anyways, we have had plenty of good fun so far together. We’ve gone swimming and chasing balls in lakes, we’ve been running around a ranch with a bunch of other crazy dogs, and even getting some couch and snuggle time in when we decide to chill out for a moment.

 

 

We’re looking forward to hunting camp this summer and hope to learn a thing or two…and of course retrieve a lot of pheasants. I think I’ll win at sniffing out the birds, and Porter will win at retrieving.

 

Sometimes we appear to love each other, especially in the mornings when mom and dad are getting ready for work and we want to look adorable so that they don’t leave us behind at home all day. We just want to get outside and play!

XOXO, Lexi

I am no longer just a one-woman army. I now have a partner in crime and his name is Porter Jackson. A couple weekends ago mom and dad took me on a rainy road trip to Colorado Springs.

I had no idea what I was in for, but I always love adventure. Upon arriving at a place I had not been before, I met a male lab. I’m always down for playing with new dogs, but little did I know, Porter was coming home with us that day and would be my new brother.

My partner in crime. Someone to play with whenever I wanted to play. Someone to play tug-of-war with me that was actually good competition. Someone to snuggle with on mom and dad’s bed. Someone to drip lapped water with all over mom and dad’s kitchen floor. Someone to chase around the yard.

I wasn’t sure what to think at first, but then I realized we just might be best buds. He’s 11 months younger than me, still acts like a puppy, and can outrun me – he’s fast! But he can’t hunt pheasants as well as me, yet anyways, so I’ve got that on him – my nose rocks! And he’s pretty good looking too, so I think we’ll keep him around.

XOXO, Lexi

It’s been a busy season! Mom and dad have been getting outdoors as much as possible to hike, hunt, shoot sporting clays, and just be.

We did a 12-mile hike in Staunton State Park to Lions Head, giving us gorgeous views of Pine, CO and plenty of colorful changing fall leaves to admire. I even got a bite of some lunch break PB&J – yummy!

We also shot sporting clays to get ready for hunting season – my pheasant hunts can’t come soon enough! I even saw a few pheasants while on the range and tried to chase them, but mom and dad said I had to wait until an official hunt to retrieve them. Sigh.

While mom prefers warm summers and hiking outdoors, and dad prefers cool falls for hunting and not dripping sweat, I prefer winter. Winter means pheasant hunts and snow, and well, those are two of my absolute favorite things! I’m looking forward to these cold weather adventures soon to follow.

Mom woke me up at 3am last Saturday morning. Yes, you read that right! Some people from her gym were going on this “fourteneer” hike, so she took me, my friend Bentley, and her friend Jen along for the trip. Driving up I-70 towards the mountains, mom and her friend started chatting as soon as we hit the road, and didn’t stop until they realized we had blown past our exit. With two hours to go to get to the hike site (when there should have only been thirty minutes left), mom did her best to get us there, and maybe went a little faster in some areas than she should have. There was maybe a cop stop and maybe some barking on my part, but everything was fine.

We got to the trailhead around 7:30am (the rest of the group had taken off by 7am due to no cell reception and us not being there yet) and began our trek up the mountain. We just kept hiking and hiking and hiking and hiking. I had to balance my way across a log bridge over a river, scramble some rocks (boulders rather), find paths that didn’t exist (via cairns), and keep an eye on wildlife (saw a chatty marmot and a mean muggin’ mountain goat). We got around 13,500 feet when we hit a talus field and the boulders were too steep and jagged for me to jump my way up the rest of the mountain. Mom could use her hands to climb but my paws don’t quite work the same way; mom tried to get me to go up the snow field next to the rocks while she climbed, but I wouldn’t have it. The girls made a decision for us to head back down to spare me since I couldn’t make it up and there was no way in heck mom could carry me with her pack the rest of the way up at that high of altitude (along with the timing it would take coupled with questionable weather). We trekked back down the mountain, snacked on some doggy trail treats, chugged some H2O, and Bentley and I passed out in the back of the car after the seven hours of hiking for the ride home. Mom plans to hit up La Plata Peak again with her friend Jen to finish the final climb sans doggies. We had one heck of an adventurous day, new experiences, and learned a lot. We love this place we call home!

 

Mom and dad took me to Brantley’s 1st Birthday Party this past weekend. They put me in charge of gearing the car right and keeping the wine safe. I think I did a pretty good job – I only put the car into neutral once while mom was driving. We also stopped by a sporting goods store on the way to pick up a slider bike for Brantley. I stayed in the car with mom while dad did his thing. I really don’t understand why I can’t go in all the stores. They must think I’d stick my nose in everything, and well, they are probably right. There are just so many things to smell – you should try having scent glands like these! Anyways, the party was fun, and I got to play with Rusty, Gonzo, and all my favorite little wiener dogs. I even snuck in some licks from the leftover cake box in the trash.