Cooper's Summer Vacation

In August, Cooper took a summer vacation to Asheville, North Carolina. 


Cooper swam A LOT during the trip! The house we rented was on a lake and had an indoor pool, so Cooper spent most of his vacation wet. First, in the lake.

And in the indoor pool:

Then Cooper hiked to the top of the Chimney Rock State Park (he would have reached the top twice as fast if Jeff and I weren't with him!) -- elevation 2280 feet.

View of the top from the parking lot.

Cooper at the top of Chimney Rock!

Cooper and Jeff at the top of Chimney Rock.

Taking a break at the top of Chimney Rock.

At Chimney Rock State Park, we also hiked to the waterfall.

Taking a break with the waterfall in the background.

Cooper and Jeff set out to reach the bottom of the waterfall.

Almost there.

Playing in the bottom of the waterfall.

Playing in the waterfall.

Posing at the bottom of the waterfall.

Thanks to Grandma Vogel, Cooper had a new towel to dry off with after all the swimming he did!  SuperCooper!

And then after all the swimming and hiking, Cooper was worn out!

Cooper passed out on the couch.

Alan relaxing with Wee, Smooch and Cooper.

...except when there was food involved. (Notice who the well-behaved pup is.)

  

Summer vacation? Did you say summer vacation? Cooper's at the door ready to go again!

Cooper's First Camping Trip

For Labor Day weekend, Jeff and I had planned a camping trip to Reed Bingham State Park in Adel, Georgia. We planned to spend the weekend with Jeff's cousin Nate and his wife Amanda. They live in Tampa, so this park was a great halfway point. However, the trip was planned pre-Cooper and I've only been camping once with Jeff, so we were a bit hesitant to take the trip, but we manned up and went anyway!

Cooper slept the 4+ hour ride to Adel. When I stepped out of the car at the campground to let him pee, I was overcome by gnats. They were everywhere! They were swarming around my head -- especially my eyes and mouth -- and all around Cooper. It was disgusting. Thankfully once we got to our campsite, I sprayed myself with deet and that helped a little bit, but the only real solution was that the gnats disappeared after it got dark.

Here's a picture of Cooper hanging out while we were setting up camp. Cooper really enjoyed the gravel -- he liked to chew on it, dig deep holes in it and even eat it.

Nate and Amanda arrived after Cooper went to bed, so we didn't get to introduce him to them and their German Shepherd named Kit until Saturday morning. Here's a picture of our camp site all set up.

After the dog introduction and breakfast for all, we went hiking on a nature trail. Here are three pictures from the hike. It's shocking that Cooper's in the back of the pack in this photo because we learned he really likes to be in the front of the group with his nose to the ground!

By the time we got back to the campsite in the afternoon, it was miserably hot and the gnats were unbearable. This tent was our only savior from the bugs.

After complaining for a while about the heat and bugs and letting Cooper take a nap under a shade tree (which turned out unfortunately to be a sappy pine tree), we decided to take a trip to the 300+ acre lake in the park. Cooper was so excited to see all that water and wanted to go for a swim. Click here to watch a video of Cooper swimming for the first time. We didn't let him go too far though because there were alligators in the lake!

On Sunday, we decided we couldn't take the heat and bugs for another whole day, so we went home after a morning hike. Here are a few pictures from the hike -- one of Cooper trying to bring a huge pine cone back to the campsite and one of Nate and Kit looking for alligators. I saw my first alligator in this lake -- kind of scary!

Cooper was so exhausted from his exciting weekend that he slept the entire ride home. He got a bath this morning and a good brushing (to remove all the sap from his fur), so he's all clean and pretty again! Cooper's ready to go camping again, but he says he'll wait until it's cooler out and the bugs hibernate for the winter!