Long Distance Visitors

This past weekend was very eventful.  There was a lot going on and one of my bestest friends ever came out to visit!

Rebecca and Clay came out on Friday evening.  We went out for dinner and then went over to the brewery.  Aaron had to drop off his beers for Tim to taste and we never miss an opportunity to bring friends to the brewery.  It was really nice to be able to hang out with Rebecca.  I miss her.  She is all the way in Montana, so it's not like our paths cross often.  And it was great to get to know Clay, too!  I'd only met him briefly at our wedding... which means about 15 seconds during the "Hey, thanks for coming" portion of the after-dinner-before-dancing reception.

We went hiking on Saturday morning.  We weren't sure how Gus would do, but he did great and we made it further than we anticipated.  He was very curious about all of the greenery (he wanted to taste it all) and really wanted to get out onto the rocks where everybody else was taking pictures...

We finally got some decent pictures of the four of us for our doggie picture frame.  It was quite the task to try to get both of them (and us) looking at the camera at the same time.  Rebecca is a pro... and took 100 pictures rapid-fire style in order to do it.  

We took a few detours on the way back down and managed to get a second family picture!  It's easier to get them to stay still when they are getting tired...

Once we got back, we got ready for the beer-tasting/dog-birthday/cook-out!  We used our new drink bucket for outside... and Aaron and Clay managed to spill ice all over the floor.  I had to get a picture of the clean up efforts: 4 adults shuffling around on hand towels to soak up the water while 2 puppies try to lick it all up.

 Aaron proudly set up his new corn-hole boards...

And then managed to beat everybody else (with various partners throughout the night... I believe the most-winning combination was him and Kayla).  

It was pretty relaxing, except for the 7 dogs that were present in our not-so-large backyard that is mostly gravel... so the pups spend 95% of their time inside or on the concrete.  We grilled, tasted beer, chit-chatted, and had a campfire!  It was good to spend time just talking to Rebecca and Clay. Did I mention that I miss her?  I think I covered it...

 Everybody seemed to have a good time.  Plus there was cake!  Some for the people and some for the puppies (I had just enough pup-cakes left over to give one to each of the dogs and still have one for Gus and Lucy yesterday).

Clay and Rebecca left way too early on Sunday.  It was a short stay, but I'm glad they came to visit.  Hopefully we can make it out to Montana next year!  Snowboarding, anyone?  They'd mentioned a ski resort with a "Kid Zone", which sounds like my kinda snowboarding!  We shall see...

It was a fabulous weekend of good beer and even better friends.  Even the pups had so much fun they slept through most of Sunday!  Now if only our fabulous friends didn't live so gosh-darn far away!