Mini Vacation!

Great Aunt Mary, one of our smiley hosts. What a character!

A visit with Grandma Fretwell and the other side of the family.

Cousin Jan with Shelby

Blueberry romps through the tall grass.

This is Ollie!

Copper tried for hours to coerce Grandma Newman out of "his" chair.

Copper actually looked right at home amongst the garden ornaments.

Shelby, the Aussie mix, is very camera shy. It took Neil several attempts to get a good photo of her before she darted away.

Shelby at the top of the waterfall.

Neil and I got a chance for a quick get-a-way last week. Ohio was our destination which is an approximate 800 mile trip by car. The little house dogs came along while the sled dogs remained at home for this short trip. We intended to visit some of my family and also to make a very special trip to a small sled dog kennel that just happened to be near our destination, where the owner is interested in joining our Hedlund Husky Preservation Project.

We stayed with Grandma Newman, Great Aunt Mary and cousin Jan and did a lot of catching up. Jan has two wonderful dogs and we spent a lot of time taking long hikes together. Ollie is a Golden Retriever and Shelby is an Australian Shepherd mix and they both got along perfectly with Copper and Blueberry. Copper, being the littlest of the bunch, had to be, of course, the boss and reminded Ollie on several occasions.

A large family gathering also took place with the "other side" of the family and we visited with cousins that we haven't seen for years. The wife of a cousin mentioned she has an uncle that runs sled dogs and has some land in northern Minnesota close to the Canadian border where he goes to run them. The name didn't sound familiar but what a small world it is!