With four dogs who needs a dog park?  It was an exciting couple of days for the clan at the Rau's Doggy Hostel.  3 was good but 4 was great!  The spread of dog beds, the wrestling, and never ending tail wagging, along with great weather, made for a great time.  With four active dogs there was always a dog willing to play with the other one who was ready to play and then another who was willing to referee.  On Saturday we loaded all four wagging tails into the Subaru and hauled them all off to an old tree farm.  While Nick a I hiked over four miles, we are sure the dogs put in close to 8.  They all managed to squeeze in a nice mud bath and one dog "need we say who?" even managed to coat themselves in a nice "earthy" smell.  
We are now back down to 3, Samson has returned home to her exciting new life with a new little baby girl.  Congratulations Barb and Todd and welcome baby Virginia!

Down to Moab we went to get the most out of spring break.  I am into my 3rd trimester of my first year of teaching and Nick has been pretty contempt at work.  Needless to say spring break was a nice change of pace and enjoyed to a great extent.  We hit up the famous Porcupine Rim, Slick Rock and visited Arches National Park with a day pass to explore the Fiery Furnace.  We also visited the Poison Spider Bike shop much more than we would have liked. 
 After our arrival on a Sunday afternoon, we found a great campsite by Slick Rock.  We took a nice little 3 mile jaunt on Practice Loop and then settled in for the night.  The next day we headed out on the 10 mile loop of Slick Rock, not much more than 5 miles out Nick ran into an issue with his wheel and he had to walk his bike out for the next 4.5 miles.  We spent that afternoon at the bike shop.  The next day we headed to Porcupine Rim and just about 3 miles in as we began to crest the top of the 3 mile climb the De-railer Hanger on Nick's bike completly broke off... and again Nick found himself walking up hill to get back to the car with me rolling along side of him.  Again we found ourselves at the bike shop that afternoon.  So we went to practice loop that evening for a short ride when my chain broke, but that was an easy fix so we were on our way before too long.  After a windy night in our tent and finding sand in our teeth the next morning we headed back to Porcupine Rim to give it another try.  Successfully we completed the 20ish mile ride.  If you have ever had the pleasure to ride slick rock than you can appreciate the serene and energetic gain of the ride.  It pushed me to step up a level or two on my mountain bike, but it was an enjoyable push and I was happy that we made it to town without injury to ourselves or our bikes, with the exception of the easy fix of another broken chain, only this time on Nick's bike.  After a good lunch Nick headed back up the hill another 10 miles to retrieve the Fit.  The next day we spent in Arches National Park. Amazingly, despite our habit of not planing,  we managed to get the last day passes to explore into the Fiery Furnace.  We found ourselves trekking inbetween long, skinny fins of rock, discovering arches and helping lost families find their ways back to the parking lot.   Upon arriving back to our campsite, Nick discovered our sleeping bags covered in a blanket of sand and our pillows displaying a nice, circular, Zen pattern of red sand.  Upon our next glimpse at the tent we found it collapsing upon itself from the wind that was going to continue to blow through the rest of the night.  We decided to shake everything out and then throw it into the car.   We found a hotel in town that night and treated ourselves to a nice Italian dinner in down town Moab and completed the night with ice cream and a hot shower.  
        We set out the next day after a quick morning ride and stopped in Pocatello to enjoy the great company of Kate and Dustin "Roqinstud".   We were extremely grateful for the comfortable bed that they offered and the surprisingly good sushi that we had in Pocatello, but even more grateful for the time that we got to spend with some good friends.  The next night we crashed in Coeur D'Alene and caught up with more wonderful friends that we do not see near enough; Charlie, Amanda, Jessi, and Britni.  Nick and I were also privileged in being able to share some great meals with our family catching up with my sister and her kids, my mom for  an enjoyable breakfast, and Nick's parents for a nice dinner.  The next day, Sunday, we had a weeks worth of over packed camping gear shoved into the back of the car to make room for 3 dogs.  Again, what fits in the Fit was successfully played.  Luna was joined by the great company of Roo and Max as we headed our journey back home to Silverdale.  
     We have since made it through our first week back.  I am counting down the days to Summer break and I can finally say that we have fewer days of school than days of summer break.  The dogs are doing great and are consistently working on their wrestling skills.  Nick is reminded of the "wonderful" Northwest as he completes his first mountain bike ride back in Washington and needs to shower to get off all of the wet mud caked to his face, it's no longer the red sand of Moab.   We are privileged that we live so close to some good mountain biking, even if we are coated in mud 9 out of 12 months of the year.