Can you believe that we hit 200km towards our 1000km goal this week in the Woof Walk challenge?!? The update is a couple days late, sorry, as we had quite the run of technical glitches but it all seems to be sorted out for now! We had a lot of adventures to write about over the past week!
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Beach Treats
Although we walk to the beach every day, we don’t often stop for treats. However, it had only been ONE day since the dogs had a bath, and I didn’t want them on the beach and water just quite yet! I was enjoying my clean house and floors and dogs that actually smelled good! One dip in the lake water undoes all of that…
Instead, we decided to walk the boardwalk and stop for hot dogs and ice cream! And of course, the dogs get a hotdog of their own to share and a cone…Benson LOVED the food truck and was standing up on his hind legs to try to get a good look inside where all those yummy smells were coming from! Getting the food back to the table with him was a bit tricky though…
This is such a fun spot, I really don’t know why we don’t go more. They have a lot of tables set up, a big water trough for the dogs and living walls which make it a really beautiful spot to stop! It can get pretty busy on weekends though but we are fortunate enough to live close by so we can go down mid-week!
Benson waiting for his hot dog and ice cream! 
The living wall at the beach patio
New Signage At The Chickens
As any regular reader knows, I get DRAGGED across the street so Benson can say hi to his chicken friends! I love that they have fun little updates on the chalk board all the time and a new one was up this week!
There was also another sign on the gate…I know the chickens have been escaping as one of the neighbours told us a story of how he had to chase chickens down the street! But they should consider getting a better latch on that gate too because Benson has almost even managed to open it…
New joke at the chickens and bunnies! 
Hello chicken! 
Don’t let the chickens out!
Benson and Grace vs. The Feather
On one of our walks, we ran into a woman who really wanted to pet the dogs! Grace got super excited as she always does and went bounding over dragging me along. But then…Grace froze! I mean FROZE! The woman kept calling her but there was NO WAY that dog was going over there…by this time Benson, who is scared of just about everything too, spotted the fearful object…
I looked more closely to see what had spooked my dogs so bad! And I saw it…the woman was carrying a big FEATHER she must have found on her walk!! I had to laugh. Benson was actually being the brave one this time around and sticking his neck out as far as he could to try to get a sniff of the offending feather.
Grace meanwhile had backed up in the opposite direction and was standing in the road on full alert! She didn’t take her eyes off the feather of doom and the woman laughed and eventually gave up trying to pet the dogs…
The Oak Tree
In Kew park there are some really beautiful, old trees. There is one giant Oak in particular that the kids just love because it has a giant branch that dips in one spot to just above the ground and is easily accessible! My daughter loves to get boosted up just to sit there and watch the world walk on by.
Someone in the neighbourhood made ribbons that they tied onto that particular branch which give a description of the tree and it’s likely age. I had to stop and read a few of them, and it turns out that the tree is at least 300 years old! Really cute idea, and of course the dogs had to sit and pose under the ribbons gently blowing in the breeze.
Grace posing 
She knows she’s looking good there!
Graduation
Graduation signs popped up all over the neighbourhood over the past week as well! The kids are on summer vacation! My daughter graduated from Grade 5 last week and is off to middle school next year! Where does the time go??? Benson and Grace will be happy to have more kids out to pet them and play with them for the next couple of months!
The Fairy House
There is another big tree in the park that someone has built a fairy door on! It is really neat to walk by it every day and see the offerings that the kids all over the neighbourhood bring for the fairies! Grace and Benson love to check out these little gifts but I am careful to make sure that they don’t disturb anything because we don’t want any angry fairies to come after us…
Paddle Boarding
This summer I got some paddle boards so that my daughter and I could spend some more time out on the water on hot summer days! Getting a text from my neighbour that the water was like glass on Canada Day I chugged down my cup of coffee, got dressed and got my board ready!
Today was going to be different though…because the dogs were coming too! I decided it was time to start training them on the boards!
Grace knew what to do pretty much IMMEDIATELY! I didn’t even have the board half blown up and she was lying on it! She did GREAT out on the water too! I was able to paddle around a little bit with her sitting in front of me!!! She loves it!
Impatient much! 
Benson looking handsome 
Samson!!! 
Come on Mom let’s go! 
Taking a break in the shade
Benson…well…that’s a bit of a different story! He has no problem getting onto the board on the beach. On the water, he tried a couple times (I had it half on the sand and half in the water) but when it MOVED he freaked out! By the end of the day I managed to get him on it in the water though for a few seconds!
I’m going to have to be careful though, because Grace also loves to LEAP off the front in the water and swim back to the shore! I have a feeling we aren’t going to be venturing very far from the shore, because there is about no way I could get her back onto the board after she’s fully in the water…Both dogs slept like babies that night!
Be sure to check back next week to see what we are up to! Follow us on social media for updates as they happen!!!
