Hitting the road...

Moab for the weekend to escape the snow in Telluride

chaos, mayhem and the grumpy kitty

life at campchaos has settled down. the animals are all getting along well and even pissy kitty joins in the snuggle fun sometimes, but mostly she just runs around and meows at Mayhem. 

And I want you to marvel at the fact that we managed to get all three animals in one shot, this may never happen again.

Mayhem and Chaos have started to play more and the living room has turned into a play arena each night. We've traded dogs during the day and they'll take turns coming to work with me or running errands with Dave. Chaos is great at holding the floor down while Mayhem is learning that the chair is for me and not him.

It's snowing again in Telluride. We've begun packing away our winter gear in hopes that mother nature will take the hint. There were a few inches on the ground this morning and tonight it looks like a blizzard outside with fat flakes filling the sky.

mayhem has settled in and is now living up to his name. he's full of energy and even tires chaos out. that's why he's photogenic late at night while chaos just wants to sleep.

camp chaos hits the road

Last weekend we loaded up the 4Runner and headed northeast to catch up with all the folks in Summit County. We even squeezed in a few extra visits along the way. Dave's finished for the season as there isn't much demand for groomers after the mountain closes and I took an extended weekend so we didn't have to rush the trip.

Chaos in blue and Mayhem in green cuddle in the sunshine

We left Thursday morning and stopped in Vail to see our friend Sandy who currently lives in Alaska and was in Vail for a conference. We walked the dogs along the busy ski town paths and grabbed dinner at a local pub. Big Dave also made the trip out of Telluride as he had to drop a friend off for knee surgery and met up with us at Sam & Meghan's house. They rent a farmhouse in Silverthorne and it has a big area for all the dogs to run and play in. They had borrowed a Wii for the weekend and it kept the boys up late each night for some rounds of bowling and golf.
Friday we started our day with a breakfast at Kula's in Dillon. It's a small cafe and run by the nicest people... they also happen to specialize in gluten-free goodies. It's not often I get to enjoy gluten-free french toast and I made sure to document the occasion for my GF blog. Sam had the day off and the three boys and I headed over to Copper for the day. Meghan was able to meet up and ride with us for a bit as did Jon in the afternoon. We also spent some time watching Alex and a crew of CVA kids compete in SBX. Alex had stayed with us last December when the World Cup hit Telluride and it was great to be able to watch him race and take 5th.
Saturday found us with a repeat at Kula's before Team Dave and I hit slopes at A-Basin. It was a cloudy day near Loveland Pass and colder then expected. We had taken Chaos, Mayhem as well as Kaya and Echo on a big walk that morning so we didn't feel too bad about ditching them. Saturday night was Courtney's birthday and we hit their house for Chinese food and birthday cake. Chaos and Mayhem had a great time playing with their cousins and the girls even took Mayhem and Chaos for a walk with me. Both dogs were on their best behavior as the girls held the leashes. These days Chaos only pulls when he sees another dog and Mayhem had on his gentle leader harness which reigns him in nicely.
Jon and Courtney had Sunday off so we hit Copper for a ski day with the crew after our 3rd Kula's breakfast of the trip and another big dog walk. Kula's also had great pocket snacks for me. They made this incredible GF carmel bar with a rich chocolate topping that was great fuel for both A-Basin and Copper. I can't ski without loading my pockets now as I never know where I can find "safe" food. It's imperative that I don't have gluten while traveling since it would kill the trip with a migraine and other issues that I'll spare you the details on. This last weekend I was a huge fan of Kula's treats and fruit snacks.

The kids have progressed a lot since the last time we were able to ski with them, and Courtney and Jon aren't half bad either...

Team Drabik ripped it up and we ended a big ski day with free music at the base of the mountain in the sunshine. It was a very full weekend and we're both looking forward to a quiet time at home with the monsters this weekend to recover from the Summit County crew and the trip out of Telluride.


Spring Travels

life with chaos and mayhem

Mayhem is settling into life at camp chaos nicely. Chaos is learning how to be a big brother to someone who likes him a lot more then Mu-nee Kitty does and Mayhem is learning our rules and routines. Dave has another full week of grooming and being a creature of the night before off-season hits the lifts stop for the summer. Chaos and I are really good at taking up the whole bed now after a season of Dave working 5 nights a week. Mayhem sleeps in his crate as it enables Chaos and I some sleep in and cuddle time in the morning. Once I let Mayhem out he springs onto the bed with us and squirms vying for attention. Mu-nee has also figured out that Mayhem's crate time and take the opportunity to have her free roam of the house back.

Munee and Mayhem have had some kitty therapy time and Mayhem is actually afraid of the grumpy cat. She tends to avoid the new monster at all costs and was pretty upset when we made her spend some time with all of us in the living room one day. I think she now realizes how good she really had it with Chaos.

The boys and I play outside each morning then Mayhem has some crate time while Chaos enjoys some couch time before Dave comes home from grooming. He also takes them out for a bit before going to sleep for the night.

In the evenings I like to avoid the mud pit and slush that has become many of our trails and drive the boys to a empty cul-de-sac to play. It's at the base of a hill and tennis balls roll back to me in case one of the dogs (Chaos) loses interest and drops it. Mayhem is quite the ball dog and will play for as long as I let him. Chaos loves to play fetch while swimming but quickly loses interest on terra firma.

Our new spot is great as the hill also lets me pretend to be the ski coach from hell and I make the boys do uphill sprints. I keep waiting for them to catch on to my game but they just keep running. These workouts let Mayhem (and the rest of us) have a quiet night.

Mayhem enjoys sleeping in the tub on occasion and isn't afraid of it like Chaos. They each had a shower on Sunday and the lavender puppy shampoo scent lasted a few days before the spring mud smell returned.

Chaos has been excellent about sharing his toy collection and Mayhem is learning how to use the treat spot in the kongs and Planet Dog Toys.

We're working on our manners and although Mayhem eats like he hasn't been fed in years, he is sitting before his meal is presented just like Chaos. We've been adding some toys to his food bowl so he has something to work around and helps to slow down his pace. This little step also ensures that each pup is in his own spot and we haven't had any food fights at all. In general the boys don't wrestle with each other. This helps keep things at campchaos pretty calm overall.

Mayhem had his first vet visit on today and he was dropped off early in order to get neutered for an early birthday present. I'm sure he'll love spending his birthday on tomorrow wearing a cone... perhaps we can dress it up like a birthday hat?  When I picked up Mayhem, Chaos had a few routine shots done. We don't get to schedule vet appointments very often... usually chaos will find some reason to see Dr. Taylor, he'll do anything from getting sick to a ski injury to see his favorite vet.

We have less then a week left of lift service here in Telluride. We lucked out on Saturday and had 22" with bluebird weather. Jared, Dave and I even did a hike-to. Bald Mt is a 20+/- minute hike for some pretty deep snow.

campchaos welcomes a little mayhem

It's offical... campchaos is now also home to a little mayhem. We picked Mayhem up yesterday and he is settling in well to life at campchaos. Mayhem is almost a year old and a pure golden. We weren't able to see photos before we picked him up and were pleasantly surprised that he looks similar to Chaos. We've been talking about getting a second dog and this was set into motion around Christmas when we asked our landlord. She knows Chaos well and consented. Last week she called and asked if we were interested in an older puppy. She had a friend who's daughter had a golden that needed a new home. It was a big week and we decided to have Mayhem join campchaos. We kept it quiet in case it fell though... what if they backed out? what it the puppy was a monster? 
So Friday morning we were up and on the road before the sun to go pick up our new pup. We did drive through a storm because it was the first time we've ventured past Montrose all winter and that's the way the world works. Since we drive the car so infrequently we also learned at the top of Monarch Pass that it was time to invest in some new windshield wipers for the 4Runner. Thankfully there are a number of places to pull over a clean the windshield.

Chaos has the entire back of the 4Runner to spread out in on the way there and ended up curling up on top of our bags. The normally six hour drive to Colorado Springs turned into an 8 hour drive and we all felt a little cooped up by the time we arrived in the Springs. (Go Turtle!)

We picked up Mayhem and went over to the nearby Garden of the Gods Park to walk the boys together. The weather was moving in and we grabbed a quick gluten-free dinner at PF Changs before the long drive home. They just added a few more items to their gluten-free menu and it was great to be able to try them out.

21 hours after we left, we returned home with our new monster.

This morning I took the boys out for a walk and Mayhem had his first gondola ride. He slipped his collar and was afraid to get on but Chaos climbed in like a seasoned pro and I scooped up Mayhem and added him to the cabin. He rode it fine after that and I tightened his collar for the exit.

We had a good walk and the boys romped in the fresh snow.

Chaos has a lot to teach his new little brother... Mu-nee Kitty checked out his crate last night and has not made an appearance yet today to make comment on this new addition.

loafer invasion

Camp Chaos was headquarters to a Sugarloaf invasion these last few weeks. Here's a few highlights from the trip. We spent some serious time skiing, tubbing and catching up. Chaos was excited to see his old friends again.

Powderhound

We have had a busy march so far at campchaos. We had a few fun sugarloafers to ski with last month and 3 in the last week who have become part of campchaos. Chaos has had no shortage of attention and cuddles and today we found a nice spot to play in the fresh snow. I caught this image in the fading sunlight. I love having the extra daylight after work.

powder days in telluride

We awoke on Saturday to 13 fresh inches and the sky was still dumping. Chaos managed to score a short walk before Dave and I headed out for a day on the hill.

After taking some runs together, we found our friends waiting at the gate to Prospect Bowl... the rope dropped and it was a ski/board cross race to the lift. 95% of the crowd hit Gold Hill and Jess and I met up at Prospect Express. We had first tracks down Stella and captured the image in the low light..

We found some good stashes and hung out in prospect for a while...

Eventually we found Jared and Dave again and stopped for a snack at High Camp.

Seriously... this sounds narly but was actually really good and marked gluten free... a gourmet chocolate bar laced with bacon. While there was more snow this morning I ended up working all day and not making time for a ski break.... perhaps tomorrow if all goes well!

The bacon chocolate only made us realize how starving we all were and we descended on Big Dave's house at Melrose Place for some food and tubby time. We made Brinner (breakfast for dinner) and all the non-glutards piled it high on a bulky roll.  We made gluten free pancakes, hash browns, eggs, bacon and sausage and a few folks managed to get all these layered up into a sandwich.