Relaxing around the fire

As I have been scrolling through our camping photos, I noticed that my son didn't debut in our pictures as much as my daughter did. Then it occurred to me that when we go camping, my son never holds still. He is far from being a hyper-active child, rather he is just busy ~ always wanting to do something ~ even if that is classified by others as work. To be active is my son's way of relaxing; letting his brain go from school, and his hands free from texting friends, no routine from home.

I felt I needed to make that clear as to the "why" of my son's disappearance in this series of posts. It is a fact that my son did come with us, and I don't want to forget that in years to come when we are rereading this blog!

When we are at camp there always is a fire going in the pit. To us it would not be camping without the flames and smells of a good outdoor (safe) fire. A mid-day relax after a hike found my girl with dog in lap.

I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory. Mister Kolby is a lap dog. He is perfectly fine snuggling up on a lap, standing on his back legs, for what seems like forever. He is also okay in circling-up his entire body on your lap, when you let him. Lucky dog got both with the girl in the red chair.

The fire was new to Kolby and he paid no attention to it. We did, however, save showing him a night time fire for another camping adventure. Mainly because he was in bed for the night before the complete four of us were ready to sit by fire for late night laughs and chatter. We are a camping family, no worries for Kolby, there will be plenty more experiences in his future.

I love watching the friendship develop between my girl and our Puppy in Training. It started off rocky. My girl has zero tolerance, nor patience, nor confidence in a snappy, biting, out of control tiny puppy. Puppies may be adorable and tiny, but they can be rather squirmy and unpredictable when they come to us at only 8 weeks. She skipped the first month phase of Haddie, and she did the same with Kolby, and now the two are inseparable.

When I command Kolby, "Find (insert my daughter's name)" he will tilt his head to the left ... I will repeat the phrase ... he will tilt his head to the right ... his eyes deep in concentration ... and then it will click and he will stand up and start searching for her. Tail wags a million wiggles a second when the two meet with an excited praise from my girl and lots of prancing from Kolby. I taught this same trick with Haddie, and we are so happy that Kolby caught on so quickly. It is one of my girl's favorite commands for both her puppies.

Love. It.

Relaxing around the fire during camping is one of the bests.