I got to go on a VACATION!!!

Sometimes in the summer I go to camp when my parents go out of town, but this year I got to go too!!!  It was all very exciting.  I thought I'd better keep a photo diary, so here is my impression of the family trip to Vermont.

Oh boy, I'm super excited...

Are we there already?  Hmm, I thought Vermont would be further way, it sounds very exotic! I found out later this was just a stop so M & C could "gas up"... I think it has something to do with food, because M got a bagel, the car got a drink too....

I don't want to miss a second of the fun, but the motion of the car makes me sleepy...I try to fight against it but....

Eventually I gave in

Hey!  Where is C going?  Are we there???  (another false alarm it was only a lunch break)

Ahh here we go!

What a view!  And the smells coming from the forest!!!  So exciting!

Oh good, I found a couch and some sun, I wasn't sure there would be either in Vermont!  Plus great news Grandma and Grandpa B were there with Seamus (aka Moose)!!!

Moose and I quickly settled into a routine of waiting to come inside....

And then wanting to go back out!

The humans spent quite a bit of time here, in the water and on that floaty thing (looked dangerous to me)

There was even a potential friend for me and Moose in the pond, a local otter!

However, as Moose and I are not water dogs (we could be, we just prefer not to be), we spent a good deal of time here, on the lovely deck, smelling the delicious smells

Moose is very vigilant when his people are swimming...

Still on watch... I myself am more of a napper, if they want to do a silly thing like swim that's their own problem, and I'm not going to let it interfere with my schedule.

Luckily, there was lots of time for napping!

We also got to take fantastic walks every morning with Grandpa B and M, in the woods!  Lots to smell, one day I met a black lab... turns out my howl really echos over the mountains... sorry to everyone I woke up early!!

There were also lots of side trips, since M was along they mostly had to do with food!  Here I am super excited to be arriving at the home of the world's greatest ice cream Ben & Jerry's!!!!

Here I am finding out they don't allow doggies inside... how disappointing...

Moose took the news stoically, luckily it was a very cool morning and the van has super sun shades and tinted windows so by the time they got back, we were both sound asleep.

M distressed me by eating this one night for dinner...  I know we all eat animals... but this one still had it's face on!!!  Disturbing, I'll have to keep an eye on her!!

And here I am told is the home of the best pancakes in Vermont (possibly anywhere)... again dogs not allowed... what a terrible policy, there was a baby at the table next to M who put more food on the floor than in his mouth, if I had been there I could have cleaned it up more thoroughly than any human in there... and you wouldn't even have to pay me!  People need to think outside of the box a little more!

I had so much fun, I got a little silly... look I'm batdog!

I didn't want to leave... here I am refusing to take one last look out the window

And this is how I spent literally the entire ride home... M kept trying to get me to take a potty break but I wasn't having any of it!

Who needs thumbs??!!

My regular readers will remember that I have often lamented my lack of thumbs... they seem so terribly useful for things like, opening doors, peeling bananas, typing, reading and of course eventual world domination (which is my ultimate goal)

Today, I took a huge step toward fulfilling that goal, I learned how to use a zipper!!!  This was the ultimate result...

M & C were clueless about the fact that I've been working on this for awhile (although M claims that she noticed last night that the pillow was about 1/2 way unzipped... thank goodness she got distracted and never zipped it up, that would have undone a weeks worth of work!)  I delicately unzipped the pillow and then enthusiastically removed the stuffing (which was great fun) until I was caught red pawed!!  Notice how I'm trying to blend the perfect amount of "who me?" innocence and "yes I'm that smart" smug-ness into this picture!

So one small step closer to not needing those stupid thumb things, they aren't so special anyway!!  I do admit though that stuffing although it appeared marshmallow like, was not all that tasty... and it's still stuck in my teeth!

Shhhhhh....

Can you keep a secret?  I LOVE to read.  As I do spend the majority of my days alone I have cultivated quite the taste for literature...both figuratively and literally, I have on occasion been known to express my anger via the eating of a good book or two.  Ironically one of those books was Marley and Me  about a rather mischievous lab fellow who sounds like quite a lot of fun.  I ate the book before I got to the end though ... I think that was probably a good thing, M read it all the way through and she got all red and runny faced before it was over.  Anyway luckily my mom wants to be a librarian so there are lots of books ... yes, most of them are upstairs behind the baby gate.  If I want to read one of those I have to hop the gate scamper up the stairs, leap over the stuff in the spare room climb up to the shelf I want and knock off a book.... it's quite a process without thumbs, so I don't do that often, especially since I have to put the darn thing back before you know who gets home so I don't get caught.  So mostly I stick with whatever M leaves laying around.  So what does the well rounded beagle read??  I'm quite fond of historical fiction, anything featuring dogs (Thunder Dog was amazing), and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  But quite honestly, anything will do and sometimes in the summer there is nothing better then a quick easy read... the Stephanie Plum novels are perfect for that!!  And lucky M and Grandma B read a lot of those!!  Of course, I can't get caught reading so I often have to pretend just to be napping in the vicinity of a book...

It's demeaning but otherwise people would be lining up to see the world famous reading beagle and I can't have that... I really like to keep quite a low profile!

Happy 4th of July

Today as we celebrate our nation's birthday Beagles everywhere recommend finding a comfy spot to cool off and stay out of the heat.  I also strongly recommend finding a snuggle buddy for later tonight when the scary fireworks start... it's best to plan ahead.

My big night out!

Since I will be spending some time at camp GrandmaGrandpa this summer I went over there last night to re-acquaint myself with their doggie Seamus....

I found all this to be very exciting... it was hard for me to sit still

Seamus was excited too

There was so much to smell!!

I found a few crumbs that Seamus left behind... silly boy

I was anxious to assist with dinner, my offer was declined

Are you sure you don't need me in there???

Seamus showing off his table manners...  I was banished during dinner, if you ask me I think it's a little rude to sleep at the table but whatever...

After dinner exploring, this is right before I did a ninja leap to catch up with Seamus

Who was on his way to treat central

He got a better position due to his non-threatening size...

But I made sure that my presence was known

At one point Seamus demonstrated that he too is a jedi dog... this scared me a little...

What is he doing??? I think I'm safer up here....

All in all it went quite well, I'll be happy to spend time at camp this year!!

Just hanging around

Got my workout in today

Finally!!  I am allowed a little cone freedom and was able to do my normal backyard workout today!  Of course the only thing better then chasing green rubber squid shaped things around the yard is catching the nice cool breeze from the kitchen vent afterward...