Family Vacation Part 2: Cook's Canoes

We woke up today to clouds, but Pat had a fabulous egg and cheese souffle, bacon, and sweet potato fries.  Yum!  The dogs were invited to breakfast, and Mrs. Pat made sure to sneak all of the pups some bacon tidbits.  Such spoiled babies!  Aggie Belle was in puppy bliss wrastlin' and playing around the table and in the yard with Razr and Beau.  Shiva isn't too fond of dogs that aren't street dogs, so she stayed in the bedroom.

After breakfast, we packed up a cooler with some water and granola, and headed down the road to Cook's Canoes.  The BBB isn't far from the Colorado River, and Mr. Cook seems to be making a fine living running a very redneck (but totally legit!) Aggie canoe service.  They brought a canoe down to the bank for us, and made sure we had a good map to know when our 5 mile trek was up.  If we didn't get out at the park, we were stuck on the river for an extra 15 miles...no thanks!  The river was flowing well, and it is absolutely gorgeous!  We had a bit of a south wind blowing against us, be we still never had to paddle too hard.  There were even a few small rapids on our stretch of river that made for a few 'weeeeee' moments with the pups.

 

A taste of our beautiful scenery

Bailey began in my lap; I think he was still tired from yesterday, so he slept until our first stop.  There are several islands on the river that make for great exploration stops.  We made three stops to let the pups run, chase sticks, and of course, swim.  I honestly didn't think Bailey would get in the river, but every time I turned around, there he was, belly deep in the water.  He was NOT about to be left out of the fun.  He's still not going to chase sticks, but he'll swim with the best of them.  Bailey amazes me with his tenacity consider how babied he is at home.  I think this Momma needs to loosen up and let her boy be a boy!  After that first stop, he hung out in the middle of the canoe, mostly rest his head on the side so he could ensure he wasn't going to miss a single thing.

Enjoying our first stop

Catching the sights.

Cooling off

About to head out from one of our stops

Aggie Belle wanted to jump out of the canoe to swim most of the river, but we didn't let her unless we were stopped.  She was well behaved, and made sure she found every stick possible to chase, throw, and gnaw.  I love the energy this sweet girl has.  She keeps us on her toes and reminds to enjoy each second of every day.

The breeze smells good!

Swimming!

After we made it back to Decker Creek, we took a jaunt to the creek before cleaning up for dinner.  I don't know how these pups had energy for it, but they weren't going to get in the shower until they'd seen the creek!  We went to Donn's BBQ so the pups could come with us.  Very tasty!  The chimenea was used to make smores just now too.  Yum, yum!  We are loving our family vacation!