(I created this post a few days ago and tried to upload the videos but couldn't get them to work. I figured I better get this post up before weeks went by. I'll work on the videos more and getting them posted.)
There has been quite a lot going on that I need to catch up with!
Firstly, Sirius and I spent 8 weeks taking a beginner's agility class. We had a lot of fun learning to do some beginner obstacles and how to get through a course. Henry was able to go to the graduation class with us on May 3rd and was able to take some videos of us going through the course. We were in a metal building at the Fairgrounds during a CRAZY storm so the video is pretty loud.
My hand is filled with hot dogs to give him treats but he would get so excited to get a hot dog piece that he would bite me a lot. He actually made me bleed at one class. He did a great job and we are very proud of him.
Our next adventure involved a surprise trip to California for my dad's 60th birthday. We had actually been discussing this trip for a year and a half, unbeknown to him. We flew in on May 5th, his birthday, and were picked up at the airport by Rob. Then Karen had arranged for a limo to pick up all the kids and spouses first, and get them last.
Here is the video of us surprising Dad:
Everything went so perfectly! After that, we went to an AMAZING restaurant called The Kitchen. It was the best meal I have ever had in my life. Ever. First you come in and are taken to your table and order whatever you want to drink. Then for the next half hour or so, you are free to wander around anywhere you want, including the kitchen! They told us nowhere is off limits. We could go back and watch the chefs preparing the food at anytime and they would explain everything they were doing. It was so fun. It was also amazing how nice the whole staff was - they servers were running around trying to get all the water filled and the chefs were trying to cook and you have a bunch of civilians wandering everywhere. At no point did we ever feel in the way or that we were bothering someone.
After that, they came out and introduced everybody, explained what to expect from the evening, and talked about the menu and where it all came from. Then the insanity started. I can't even say enough about the food. Words don't describe how good it was. The best part, was after the second course, we were raving about how good it was and the server asked if we wanted some more. Turns out, it's all you can eat!!!!! If you want seconds or thirds or fourths of anything, they'll make you another one!! Let me tell you, we all took advantage of that. Especially at the dessert course. It was five courses, with an intermission of sushi and sashimi. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. The whole evening took about four and a half hours. Even the tea they made was the best ever. You would go up and tell you what flavors they wanted and they took these cast iron tea pots and a huge box of fresh herbs and made you herbal tea. Seriously? I didn't even know you could do that. I thought it had to come dried in a tea bag. I could go on for hours about the food but I will try to restrain myself.
We had a few more days in California after that so we got to do some really fun stuff like go to the Cheesecake Factory and spend a day in San Francisco. Henry had been there once before a long time ago but it was really fun to show him around, show him the marathon course, and take him to USF.
Then we got to go see Iron Man 2 at IMAX and have a dinner with the whole family - kids included this time. It was a great way to spend the weekend and fun for us to get out of town for a little while.
In the meantime, the ten days leading up to our trip to CA, we had a little furry houseguest staying with us! Dad and Karen had found a little Brussels Griffon puppy from Absorkee. They were able to get the puppy to us and she stayed with us until we left for California and took her to her permanent home. We had a pretty fun time with little Dali while she was here. It took some getting used to - the only dog I have had is Siri and we definitely know how to take care of big dogs more than little dogs. The little nugget was only four and a half pounds and went with us everywhere. She came to work with me and loved sleeping on our laps. She was a lot of fun but we realized we are a one dog family, and that dog shall be a Labrador.
We had such a busy and fun start to our May! It's nice to be home and getting ready to start summer in Montana. We have a lot of house and yard projects we're trying to get done and Henry is staying busy with school. It's shaping up to be a great summer!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
More Springtime Flowers
Here are some updated flower pictures I took today. The tulips have started blooming!
More daffodils of a different kind:
More pictures of flowers will be coming. I love walking outside everyday to see how they have changed!
More daffodils of a different kind:
More pictures of flowers will be coming. I love walking outside everyday to see how they have changed!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Springtime!!
Spring has hit the Rockies! This means we get a snow storm about once a week, wind, rain and beautiful sunny days that trick you into thinking we might get a real spring. What does this mean for us? Blooming daffodils that are occasionally covered in snow.
Last fall I planted 125 bulbs - crocus, tulips, daffodils and hyacinths. They got planted shortly after my foot surgery on a VERY windy evening when the last think I wanted to be doing was getting up and down from my knees while being outside. It has been interesting to see how they come up - I had tried to scatter them so it was very random but I definitely have clumps and bare spots. Oh well, my thought is over the next ten years they will multiply and fill everything in so much you won't even be able to see the ground. If they don't do that on their own, I'll just plant another 125 bulbs. :)
Here is a little clump of crocus - they came up first.
Here is my clump of daffodils and you can see a bunch of tulip buds that are going to open soon.
A lone little daffodil but it is so perfectly formed!
A view of the whole row on one side of the sidewalk. There is another row on the other side.
Please do ignore the irrigation line. I need to put sprayer nozzles in it so it will water my flower beds and then cover all the beds with mulch again. My hope was to do that this weekend but the forecast is calling for snow....
The best part is I took these pictures a few days ago and the beds have really exploded with blooms since then! I plan to go out tomorrow at lunch and take some more recent pictures to post - the difference is astounding. My tulips are so close to blooming and all my hyacinth are barely out of the ground. I'm surprised the hyacinth are last - I wasn't expecting that.
Spring time has also brought on some other adventures like Spring Cleaning and Siri Blowing Out His Coat. Not surprisingly, Siri is greatly increasing the need for the cleaning. I seem to always forget how much he sheds in the spring and fall. I have seriously contemplated stuffing some throw pillows with his hair but I thought that might be weird. Last weekend I spent some serious time doing deep cleaning in our living room. This involved vacuuming for longer than I thought possible, dusting EVERYTHING, including the wooden slat blinds (blech), washing the walls and fixing all the little paint chips. My living room looks fantastic and no one is allowed to pet the dog in the living room. This weekend will be the kitchen/dining/laundry room. Based on how long it took me to do the living room, I assume I will be cleaning for about 12 hours straight. It's amazing how two people, a dog and a cat can make a house so dirty in just 14 months.
Ewww, ewww, ewwww. I spider just crawled across my desk. Ugh. Where's the cat when I need him!
Stay tuned for more of my springtime adventures like Sealing The Deck and Cleaning Out The Garage! Sure to be stimulating reads. In the meantime, expect many more pictures of flowers and I'll soon be posting all about Siri's agility class!
Last fall I planted 125 bulbs - crocus, tulips, daffodils and hyacinths. They got planted shortly after my foot surgery on a VERY windy evening when the last think I wanted to be doing was getting up and down from my knees while being outside. It has been interesting to see how they come up - I had tried to scatter them so it was very random but I definitely have clumps and bare spots. Oh well, my thought is over the next ten years they will multiply and fill everything in so much you won't even be able to see the ground. If they don't do that on their own, I'll just plant another 125 bulbs. :)
Here is a little clump of crocus - they came up first.
Here is my clump of daffodils and you can see a bunch of tulip buds that are going to open soon.
A lone little daffodil but it is so perfectly formed!
A view of the whole row on one side of the sidewalk. There is another row on the other side.
Please do ignore the irrigation line. I need to put sprayer nozzles in it so it will water my flower beds and then cover all the beds with mulch again. My hope was to do that this weekend but the forecast is calling for snow....
The best part is I took these pictures a few days ago and the beds have really exploded with blooms since then! I plan to go out tomorrow at lunch and take some more recent pictures to post - the difference is astounding. My tulips are so close to blooming and all my hyacinth are barely out of the ground. I'm surprised the hyacinth are last - I wasn't expecting that.
Spring time has also brought on some other adventures like Spring Cleaning and Siri Blowing Out His Coat. Not surprisingly, Siri is greatly increasing the need for the cleaning. I seem to always forget how much he sheds in the spring and fall. I have seriously contemplated stuffing some throw pillows with his hair but I thought that might be weird. Last weekend I spent some serious time doing deep cleaning in our living room. This involved vacuuming for longer than I thought possible, dusting EVERYTHING, including the wooden slat blinds (blech), washing the walls and fixing all the little paint chips. My living room looks fantastic and no one is allowed to pet the dog in the living room. This weekend will be the kitchen/dining/laundry room. Based on how long it took me to do the living room, I assume I will be cleaning for about 12 hours straight. It's amazing how two people, a dog and a cat can make a house so dirty in just 14 months.
Ewww, ewww, ewwww. I spider just crawled across my desk. Ugh. Where's the cat when I need him!
Stay tuned for more of my springtime adventures like Sealing The Deck and Cleaning Out The Garage! Sure to be stimulating reads. In the meantime, expect many more pictures of flowers and I'll soon be posting all about Siri's agility class!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Adventures in Baking
This week I made my first ever cake from scratch all by myself! A friend of ours had a birthday which I took as a convenient opportunity to satisfy my craving for chocolate cake. I usually make cake from a box but had decided to make homemade frosting. While looking for a frosting recipe, I found a cake recipe and discovered I had every ingredient but cocoa. I thought I would try my hand at a little baking and I must say, it turned out wonderfully!
I was messing around with flash settings and couldn't decide which picture looked better so I put them both up.
I have a new found respect for people who put frosting on the sides of the cake. That was much harder than it looked!
I was messing around with flash settings and couldn't decide which picture looked better so I put them both up.
I have a new found respect for people who put frosting on the sides of the cake. That was much harder than it looked!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
A General Update...Heavy on the Animals
So I know I haven't updated in a while but that's because not much is going on. Henry went back to school in the middle of January and has been extremely busy. I've been working and trying to get into a routine of working out. It's pretty sporadic but I guess that is better than nothing. I'm also trying to be a better dog owner and spend more time with Siri playing at the park. He went in for his shots a few months ago and has gained about 10 pounds in the last year. The vet said he's not overweight but he doesn't want him to gain anymore. Siri is definitely loving the extra attention and exercise. I'm looking forward to summer so we can go hiking and exercise both of us at once instead of going to the park with the frisbee and then I have to go home and work out myself!
Minke on the other hand, has gained two pounds since his summer misadventure when he was stuck in an abandoned house for nine days. That's great news for him since he had gotten down to eight pounds and he should be a twelve pound cat. He's never been a twelve pound cat...but he should be. I've never been able to get him over 10.5. I wish I had his problem...
Oh! We did have a tiny adventure this morning when I opened the front blinds and about nine grouse had been hanging out under our porch and were emerging into the front yard. Both Siri and Minke found that extremely interesting and were very vocal in their desire to go outside and examine the grouse. I'm sure Siri had only good intentions; he loves to chase things and would never know what to do if caught something. Minke, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure there was murder in his eyes. He loves to kill things. I'm not such a fan of him killing things so both animals stayed inside.
Valentine's Day will be the one year anniversary of us living in our house! The year has gone so quickly and I still don't have anything on the walls. I just don't know where to start decorating so nothing is getting decorated. I would love it if we won the lottery and I would call some people from HG TV, go on vacation for a few weeks and come home to a beautifully decorated home.
I guess since this post is all about the animals I will post some recent pictures of them.
Kitty is pretty obsessed with sitting on laps, even when I am on the computer.
He also likes to climb under the covers before I have a chance to make the bed and make himself quite comfortable.
A little drowsy from being awakened by me laughing and taking pictures.
Snoozing on my lap ... he's so photogenic!
Siri got a new collar...comparison of the old and the new. I guess almost four years in the same collar will do that...
What you can't see in this picture is my other hand holding his head down because he thought something exciting was happening and could hardly contain himself.
The drowsy face of the cutest dog in the world...in my opinion.
Minke on the other hand, has gained two pounds since his summer misadventure when he was stuck in an abandoned house for nine days. That's great news for him since he had gotten down to eight pounds and he should be a twelve pound cat. He's never been a twelve pound cat...but he should be. I've never been able to get him over 10.5. I wish I had his problem...
Oh! We did have a tiny adventure this morning when I opened the front blinds and about nine grouse had been hanging out under our porch and were emerging into the front yard. Both Siri and Minke found that extremely interesting and were very vocal in their desire to go outside and examine the grouse. I'm sure Siri had only good intentions; he loves to chase things and would never know what to do if caught something. Minke, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure there was murder in his eyes. He loves to kill things. I'm not such a fan of him killing things so both animals stayed inside.
Valentine's Day will be the one year anniversary of us living in our house! The year has gone so quickly and I still don't have anything on the walls. I just don't know where to start decorating so nothing is getting decorated. I would love it if we won the lottery and I would call some people from HG TV, go on vacation for a few weeks and come home to a beautifully decorated home.
I guess since this post is all about the animals I will post some recent pictures of them.
Kitty is pretty obsessed with sitting on laps, even when I am on the computer.
He also likes to climb under the covers before I have a chance to make the bed and make himself quite comfortable.
A little drowsy from being awakened by me laughing and taking pictures.
Snoozing on my lap ... he's so photogenic!
Siri got a new collar...comparison of the old and the new. I guess almost four years in the same collar will do that...
What you can't see in this picture is my other hand holding his head down because he thought something exciting was happening and could hardly contain himself.
The drowsy face of the cutest dog in the world...in my opinion.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Christmas and Such
After our amazing Hawaii trip, we came home to ever-welcoming Montana and a balmy -20 degrees. Having a 90 degree change in less than two days did not put me in a very good mood. For the first time ever, I actually considered moving away. It warmed up after a week or so as we came toward Christmas.
For Christmas, we went up to Henry's parents' house and spent a couple days with them and his sister Katherine and her boyfriend Logan. It was a nice relaxing time and we had a lot of fun.
Some pictures of cookies Hank and I made - I think we started a new tradition!
For New Year's, we went out with some friends and enjoyed a night on the town. We hadn't done that in a really long time and we had a blast!
Just before heading out for the evening:
Passing around the New Year's hat some very drunk people gave us.
My turn with the hat.
At the end of December, we put our truck up for sale and at the beginning of January, we sold it for our asking price! We are going to miss it very much - we loved that truck but it is going to free up a lot of money in our budget without the monthly payments and allow us to meet some financial goals we set for ourselves.
Our last days with the truck.
So far, 2010 has started off with a bang and we are anticipating our best year yet! Henry goes back to school tomorrow and it is really exciting to think about how our lives will have changed by this time next year. Happy New Year's Everyone!
For Christmas, we went up to Henry's parents' house and spent a couple days with them and his sister Katherine and her boyfriend Logan. It was a nice relaxing time and we had a lot of fun.
Some pictures of cookies Hank and I made - I think we started a new tradition!
For New Year's, we went out with some friends and enjoyed a night on the town. We hadn't done that in a really long time and we had a blast!
Just before heading out for the evening:
Passing around the New Year's hat some very drunk people gave us.
My turn with the hat.
At the end of December, we put our truck up for sale and at the beginning of January, we sold it for our asking price! We are going to miss it very much - we loved that truck but it is going to free up a lot of money in our budget without the monthly payments and allow us to meet some financial goals we set for ourselves.
Our last days with the truck.
So far, 2010 has started off with a bang and we are anticipating our best year yet! Henry goes back to school tomorrow and it is really exciting to think about how our lives will have changed by this time next year. Happy New Year's Everyone!
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