What a weekend!

Saturday morning, after my Weight Watchers meeting (I'm down 12 lbs., my girlfriend has lost over 30!!) I went to the Toledo Summer Festival parade. I got to ride on top of a fire engine. That was way cool. This was the truck behind us.

Apparently these guys didn't have anything better to do than watch a parade...

Then I uploaded some wonderful family portraits I'd done the night before. Here are some of my favorites.

Then I went and helped staff the CERT booth for a couple of hours at the Summer Festival.

Sunday, Eric and I took Freckles to a fairly secluded stretch of beach where she can run around and have some fun. I had my camera with me and captured some interesting things.

This piece of grass was stuck in the sand and made an interesting pattern when the wind moved it around.

This surf-fisherman really had Freckles concerned. She apparently thought he needed to be rescued, or was trying to warn him to get out of the water. She wouldn't stop barking at him.

Some neat patterns of shells trapped in rock.

Freckles really loves the beach. She was doing laps around us.

Some things just catch my eye and beg to be photographed. I told Eric that it was better this way, cuz I can take them home with me and they won't stink up the yard.

Speaking of the yard, I got up before Eric yesterday morning and captured some pretty stuff in our backyard.

Dew on the grape leaves.

These are flowers on the Parrot's Beak plant.

And this is a Creeping Jenny. One of my very favorite plants.

Yesterday we had to go to Lincoln City for Eric's job, and drove the long, scenic way back. We stopped at the river and played around for a while. It was shallow enough we all three waded across to an island, poked around there for a while and then waded back across. Freckles decided to go swimming and promptly got a huge underwater branch stuck in her collar. She got a little freaked out, but she didn't panic, and Eric was able to free her quickly. She was fairly shaken, but we were able to coax her back into the water so she wouldn't end up being afraid of it.

We got her a kiddie pool for the yard, I'm hoping to use it for her bathtub. She doesn't seem to like the hose, so I'm not sure how I'm going to bathe her. I put her in the pool and then dropped in one of her chewy hooves. She dipped her head in the water and retrieved it from the bottom twice. We're working on some other tricks, too. She's a very smart dog.

Have a wonderful week!