Oliver Was Sad When I Was Away for a Conference Wednesday and Thursday Last Week

This past week, I did some traveling for work to a conference in Wichita. The conference was great! It was fun to be able to see and connect with peers from other Kansas institutions as well as our vendors who sponsor the conference. This post is not about the conference so much, but I wanted to say how great it was to be at a conference again in-person.

 

While I was gone, my dog missed me. Carrie sent me a few different pictures while I was out. The one to the left was the first night I was gone and he was laying on our sofa with his lamb (that is bigger than him) watching the kitchen door to see when I would return. Carrie shared with me that at night, Oliver would sit on the end of our bed watching our bedroom door to see when I would return. Then at night, he slept in my spot next to my pillow. Poor guy! 

 

It has been a while since I had been away from Oliver where Carrie was only left with him. Same for Carrie where she has not traveled anywhere without me, so this was a first for Oliver to have one of us gone and him wondering what happened. I think he missed me!

 

Oliver loves our back yard to watch for people. Again, while I was out, he was hanging out with Carrie in our back yard watching for people, other dogs, or anything that he could bark at, but he was also keeping an eye on Carrie to make sure she did not leave him too.

 

Of course Oliver, like humans, he loves routine and when the routine is broken it causes him some anxiety. He will have his normal day broken up next week as he has a day at the vet scheduled for multiple shots and spa day to get him smelling good. We think he likes his spa day at the vet, but he is exhausted when he gets back home in the evening and his whole day has been completely different from what he is used to doing when we are at work. That is to say, he is exhausted because he stayed awake to watch other dogs at the vet. Poor guy has to protect and announce the existence of those dogs to others.

 

It was a good week and flew by quickly! Unlike Oliver, it was a busy week with the two day conference in Wichita, KS. It breaks up my routine for the week, but I really have no routine any longer as every day is different which is good. I was able to stop by and see my sister and brother-in-law while I was in Wichita which was fun. Had dinner with them and chatted for an hour or two before I had to get on the road back to Topeka Thursday night. 

 

Routines are good but it is good to mix it up and have things be different too. Have a great week and we will chat later.

 

Our Summer Vacation in Texas from July 2016

Carrie and I have been so busy the past month and half. We went on vacation the first part of July and leading up to those vacation days and after, it seems like we have been non-stop on the go. Things are good, but just really busy. At work and at home. Seems like there is always something happening. It is good, but also nice to just have a relaxing weekend every now and again. Finally, today, I have such a day where can just relax and not do anything.


Our trip to Texas for vacation was a lot of fun. We decided to drive this time instead of flying. This would allow us to take our dog, Oliver, on the trip with us. He is a great travel pet. He sleeps the whole time and enjoys riding in the car. He wakes up every now and again to look at the window, see if we are still in the car, or just to enjoy the ride. Our trip started out from Topeka as went drove to Dallas to visit Javier.

We were able to celebrate Javiers' birthday with him. Took him out to a nice place to eat. We also enjoyed a few beers with him too. Got to see his new house and Oliver got hairs all over his new place. After spending a few days in Dallas,  we left for Houston to visit Cory and her kids. We were there in Houston for the July 4 celebration. We had a great time at her parents pool and even did some fireworks while we were there too.

We spent a few more days in Houston before we got in the car again with Cory to head to the beach. We went to Crystal Beach in Galveston, Texas. It was very hot, but we had a great time! Yes, we took Oliver to the beach and it was so fun to see his first experience seeing water, seeing waves, and running on the beach.

We normally keep Oliver on a leash, but this day, we decided it was a good idea to release him. He would stick around. There might have been a little protest to releasing him from the leash as it is known back in Topeka, he will take off if no gate and no leash. Yet, we went ahead and removed him from the leash. He stuck around for a few seconds, realized he was not hooked to the leach, and took off running as fast as he could. He ran down one way of the beach, stopped and looked at us following and yelling for him to come back, then ran the other direction right past us again. He stopped in front of our spot on the beach and seemed to catch his breath. Then went running off the other directions and did the same routine again running as fast as he could. Two spots down on the beach and the lady there told me "he is fast!", yeah, he is very fast and seems to run his fastest when off leash and no fences. He was running so far sand was flying up behind him in almost a cloud behind him as he ran. Wow!

Here are some pictures of Oliver at the beach that day and you will note he is on the leash. Such a good boy!



He was so happy and really did not mind the water. He did freak out as the waves would come into shore. He would be down close to the water and as the wave would come in he would run back up away from the water. He looked so happy and seemed to have a smile on his face the whole time we were down at the beach.

Following our time at Crystal Beach, we headed back to Houston for a few days. We left to head to Dallas and spend the night with Javier one last time before we headed out back to Topeka.

Wonderful trip and great to be a able to take our dog with us on the trip too. I hope that as Carrie and I look for future trips, we can find places to go and places to stay where we can take Oliver.

See all the pictures from our summer vacation below....


As the summer is starting to wind down and hopefully the heat starts to cool, I realized that I had not posted in over a month. As we were on our vacation, I had not posted about July 4 or what we did that day. So, I decided to post a summary of our vacation and what has happened this summer.

Vacation and being busy has taken a toll on both Carrie and I for being in the exercise routine. We have somewhat dropped out of the routine, but plan to get back into it aggressively as we head into the start of the semester.

Carrie is taking a class for the first time at Washburn that she is very excited to be doing. I am taking my second class in two semesters. I am starting a master program at Washburn in Communication and Leadership. I am very excited. It will take me a while to complete the masters program as I am doing one class per semester.

It should be a fun and interesting rest of the year. I trust everyone has had a wonderful summer. I would love to hear from you about our trip to Texas. Share your travel experiences from the summer, or just say hello.