Moab 2013

Well we did it, we finally took the kids on their first vacation!  It just so happened to be our first time camping as a family too.  We were invited by Mike's brother and his family to Moab this year.  My experience camping has mostly been growing up back east.  Once with our 8th grade class, and the rest were all church activities. I have only been twice since moving to Utah, so it was somewhat a new experience for me, especially taking kids.  My memories of camping have always been good ones, but also most of the work was done by the adults, and we just had to show up and have fun.  We were lucky in that Tiffany graciously planned all the meals, so we didn't have to worry too much about what food to bring.  But, I have to admit the thought of packing all the things we still needed, and also for the kids was a bit daunting.  The closer the trip got, the higher my anxiety got.  

The campsite was decent, although we will never forget the zillion caterpillars all over the place!  They were all over everything, including ourselves!  A few even hitched a ride home with us, and we discovered a few weeks later that they were moths!  Other than the unavoidable, yet harmless creepy crawlies the campsite was pretty clean.  I had been a bit worried after reading some negative reviews online, but overall I was happy the negative reviews were not accurate.  For future trips however, I wouldn't mind finding a site that has a little more room for the kids to play, since the road was really very close to the site...but since we spent most of our time away from the site, it wasn't too big a deal.

Anyway, the first night we arrived we all went out to a restaurant called Zak's.  They had really good pizza and other food as well.  On the way there, there was a huge downpour with thunder and even some hail, it was pretty crazy.  We were glad no damage was done to our equipment.  The next day, Saturday, we went to the Arches National Park and pretty much spent the whole day there hiking and looking at the beautiful scenery.  That evening a meal was planned by Tiffany, but since everyone was too tired, Mike offered to take everyone out to dinner.  He found a place that was right by our campsite, Buck's Grill House, that had decent reviews online.  After a long day in the hot sun, we were disappointed to be sat outside in the sun again.  But thankfully, the sun shifted by the time our food arrived, and the patio was quite pleasant with live music as well.  I LOVED the Pesto Pasta meal, and even wrote a review raving about it on Yelp.  That evening the kids stayed up way too late!  It was very crazy trying to get them ready for bed, especially Rowan.  She kept screaming on the top of her lungs, and it wouldn't have been a big deal except it was late, and there were other campers trying to sleep!  But once we finally got them to settle in, they crashed, and slept much better than the first night.

The next morning we decided to do one more trip into the park before heading home.  The kids did amazingly well for their first ever family trip, and we look forward to making more good memories on our future family trips.

Kids Village Graduation Pictures Spring 2013

Update on Life

So, it has been a while since my last update.  Life with Mabel and Dipper has been pretty hectic, but their training is coming along slowly. Mostly because between work and 2 kids, our time is pretty limited to spend time training.  But, considering we have only had Mabel for about 6 weeks, she has made vast improvements from when we brought her home in early April.  Today was one of their best days yet.  They actually were able to hang out in the back yard and relax in the grass together while we were all out there playing with the kids.  Mabel didn't jump or knock either kid over.  She sat next to Liam, and let him pet her several times.  It is nice to finally have mostly well behaved dogs.  They still have a long ways to go, but considering where they were, and where they are now...we are quite happy with them.

We have had a couple of big events this past month.  One was, we went on our very first trip with the kids....they did awesome!  Although if you asked me at the time, I wouldn't have been so enthusiastic to say that.  (Amazing what hindsight can do to a person).  But considering they can barley make it to and from Orem without fighting, I would say the trip was successful, and we look forward to taking more in the future.  (I will do another post in the near future about our trip) The other big event this month is the kids graduated preschool. It was Liam's 3rd and final year of preschool, and Rowan's first year of preschool.  Funny how during the year they complain about not wanting to go to school, and as soon as they are done with it they miss it and want to go back.  Anyway, we are very proud of them, and it is bitter sweet for Liam to be saying good-bye (most likely) to KV.  They love it there, and so do we.  The teachers there are wonderful, and we always feel like they really enjoy and love our kids.

Life With Mabel

Well, we finally found our Mabel!  Their personalities quite match the characters from 'Gravity Falls' too.  More so Mabel.  She is a wild/crazy puppy, but she is very smart, and it seems she is receptive to training...so hopefully we can get that started up SOON.  She likes to jump on top of furniture and on people, and even though she is on the small side, she is super strong. I was pretty shocked, and we have owned a 90 lb. Malamute, so I'm used to strong dogs.  She runs all over the house, and steals stuff like socks, diapers, kids toys and pretty much anything!    She will even steals stuff out of Dippers mouth, but thankfully he is super sweet about it, and doesn't care.  They LOVE to run around the back yard and wrestle and chase, and play.  It has really helped to burn off some of his energy, although we have noticed now if he is separated from her, he gets kinda mopey.  He really has bonded very quickly to her, and she seems to really like him too, most of the time.  Sometimes she just wants to roll in the grass or chew on a bone, but he just can't help but bug her...hopefully with some time they can settle down and co-exist nicely in the house, and have some great play time outside!

We got her on Friday.  We found her on Petfinder.Com at a shelter up in SLC, called Utah's Animal Adopton Center. At first her bio read : "I'm a new arrival!  Check back soon as the staff promised to write an update as they get to know more about me".  Then after I talked to a person at the shelter it said this on her bio:  "Hi! I'm Rio, and I'm looking for a playmate.  I love to play chase, ball, or any other game you can come up with.  A home where I receive guidance and training would help me become the best dog I can be. I get along really well with other dogs and think kids are awesome play buddies."

We joked that they wrote that bio for us!  It was pretty close to what we were telling them we were looking for.  Anyway, we took the kids and Dipper, and met her in a room.   It was pure chaos, and I think both of us in the back of our mind was thinking 'What are we doing?!'   But we took a chance, and decided to try it out.  It still has been crazy, but I think with time and training, things will get a lot better.

Life With Dipper

Well, life with Dipper has been interesting to say the least.  At times we were ready to return him, but now that we are looking for a friend for him, we realize just how lucky we got finding him.  His issues have been mostly puppy related, since he is still young.  But, the thing we really love about him is he is super good with the kids.  I took Liam to meet a dog last week, and she seemed sweet, and friendly, but she was very jumpy. And she jumped pretty hard on Liam several times. Had she jumped on Rowan, she would have knocked her down.  I know that can be trained, but when you have small kids, that is something that I just don't want to deal with right now.  I contacted another rescue group about a different dog, and the thing we were concerned about with her is she has separation anxiety, which I don't think would be good for 2 working parents.  Another dog I called on, I was told she has 'high prey drive', which would not work having a small dog.  Also would be concerning taking her to a dog socialization class that has tiny dogs as well.  I have been a little obsessed trying to find a pal for Dipper...I kinda get that way when I am trying to find something, and not getting there.  It gets pretty sad after a while looking at all the sweet dogs out there that don't have a home.  It brings up a lot of my frustration with people that are not responsible pet owners, and don't spay/neuter their pets, and adding to the continuing pet overpopulation problem this world is facing.  Anyway, off the soap box, and onto the dog socialization class.  I took Dipper to his first class this past Saturday, and he was in 'Doggy Heaven'!  I was told the class at 11 was a small breed/puppy class, but when I got there, there were tiny dogs all the way up to horse sized ones.  Not sure if they combined the class that day, but he didn't seem to mind....he just loved running around unleashed and checking out all the other dogs there!  He was a saint!  Well, there is a cute pup that I called on today that is at a shelter up in SLC.  Her name is Rio, and we are probably going to take a look at her sometime this weekend.  So stay tuned :)

This picture is blurry, and I need to get some better ones with the good camera, but you can see that Rowan just loves Dipper.  She always is saying how much she loves him, and he loves her.  So cute!

February Update

Well, February was an awful month for us.  And it has taken me a bit of time to be able to talk about it...but it started on February 2nd when we had our sitter come over so we could go to dinner with family.  Gretchen had been escaping her crate lately, so we decided to leave her in our bedroom with the door locked while the sitter was watching the kids. When the sitter arrived the kids were so excited, they were chanting her name as we all went to the front door, and I couldn't help but grin at their excitement...I didn't realize while this was happening, Liam took a detor to our bedroom to let Dad know that she was here.  That is when Gretchen got out, and she went strait for the stranger at the door, lunged and bit her!  It was awful.  I pulled her off as fast as I could, and expected to see blood everywhere.  But, thankfully the sitter was wearing a thick sweat shirt and Gretchen did not break the skin.  She did however leave bite marks, which we hope will not end up being permanent scars.  After this horrible incident, we realized that we just can not risk that ever happening again.  We have always been so careful, but now that we have young kids that do not know any better, we have lost control over the situation.  So after 2 weeks of agonizing over the decision, we ended up euthanizing our sweet Gretchen....she truly was a sweet and loving dog, but sadly she had a switch in her brain that just would never be right.

                                                   RIP Grettie

The day after we had her put down, we decided to go to a pet adoption at the Petco in Draper.  The house just was not right without a dog roaming around, and we wanted to get out of the house, just to get our mind off of it.  We had no intention of bringing a dog home unless we found just the right one, and we just happened upon a dog 'that looked like Gretchen, but doesn't bite other people'.  That is the exact description that the kids decided upon for our next dog.  Our intentions were just to look, and we had done just that.  We walked a mellow pit/shepherd male mix, and I got the info of the foster mom.  We were just about to leave after we browsed the rest of the dogs, when we saw this dog resembling Gretchen, but quite a bit smaller.  We were surprised to find out that he was available for adoption.  He was quite calm, and very sweet and handsome.  We took him for a walk, and decided we would like to have a trial week, which the rescue group offered.  In hind sight, we realize we were just not in our right mind to be making this decision!!  A few days after we got him, he stopped eating, and started throwing up.  Then he was back to normal for a couple of days, and we figured it may have been the change in food.  Then he stopped eating again, and throwing up strange red stuff, and then had dark tarry stool, which really worried us and the rescue group.  They had me take him to the emergency vet on a Sunday night about 11 pm.  They gave him some meds, and then the next morning I brought him to their vet in Murray.  He stayed there for 2 nights!  We were quite concerned about what would happen to him.  They could not figure out what was wrong?!  It really seemed serious to the point of us talking about having him cremated if he didn't make it.  Then after being there a couple of days, they told us he had 'intestinal distress', and he was OK to come home.  He has been fine since, thankfully, but he has also been showing some other behavioral issues over the last couple weeks.  We are hoping this is just young puppy behavior, and not something that is part of his breed, which we are told is an Australian Shepherd mix.  He definitely has something else in him, and we have been talking about getting a DNA test, for fun, but also so we know what we are dealing with as far as training and such.  So his bad things have been destroying two of his dog beds, and barking at the kids playing on the other side of the fence.  He needs a ton of walks and activities that keep him busy during the day or he will not settle down at night, and then becomes destructive.  He is getting neutered today, and then our next step is some serious behavioral training.  That being said, he is a super sweet dog, very gentle and good with the kids.  The kids can pet him, and he is very calm when they do, which is something Gretchen could never do.  She loved them, but was always very spazzy around them.  She always jumped in their faces, and whined when they were around us.  Dipper loves playing fetch too.  We talked about wanting our next dog to play fetch, and he does and then some!  He is also good around other dogs, he is mostly quiet unless he's barking outside.  And best of all he does not bite strangers, which is a relief and extremely wonderful considering our last dog.  

So his name...we all agreed on 'Dipper'.  The kids have been watching a new Disney show called 'Gravity Falls'.  There are 2 kids on there named 'Mabel' and 'Dipper'.  I had originally mentioned that Mabel would be a cute name for a dog, since we always have had female dogs in the past.  But, the dog we chose was not female, so we thought of going with Dipper.  It is kinda ironic too that one of his ears flops over, so it is pretty fitting.  About 2 days after we had been calling him 'Dipper', I remembered the name I wanted to give our next dog, 'Béla'...I tried it out, and ran it by the kids, but no dice...they were pretty firm with the name 'Dipper'.  Since he has been so active lately we have talked of getting him a 'Mabel' to play with.  We are unsure though, having another big dog is a lot of work, but our thought is maybe they could play and burn off their energy together, and take some of the heat off of us.  He currently is getting on average 3 good walks a day, and some play time in the yard, and even then he may still be active at bedtime!! 

So anyway, that has been the last month and a half.  Our work out schedule went by the way side for the past month or so because of all the new changes in combination with everyone being sick.  But, with all our walking Dipper, we have at least been somewhat active still.  We look forward to warmer weather, and hanging out in the yard more this year.

Update January 2013

Well, here it is the new year, and I have once again been slacking in my updates.  We had a pretty good holiday.  We really didn't do much but hang out at home.  When you both work, it really just feels good to be at home.  With all our extra time on our hands, I decided that I would finally start working out again.  I worked out more than I ever had in the past.  I started doing 60 minutes on the elliptical and the bike.  Mike decided he wanted to start too, and he started up with the KettleWorx program that he purchased many months ago.  He tried the first week when he got the set, and it really kicked his butt, and he lost his motivation with it. But over the holiday, he decided to give it another try.  After I returned to work, I had to cut my cardio down to 20-30 minutes during the week just cause of time. Mike really urged me to try the KettleWorx.  He got me a 5 lb. kettle bell.  I tried the first week, and I really questioned if I should step it up to the 10 lb. one that comes with the set.  I just felt the 5 lb one wasn't doing much, and by this time I had been working out for almost a month...I decided to give it a try, and I'm glad I did, it is providing much more progress for me.  The program is 6 weeks long, Mike just finished week 4, and I just finished week 3! We are both pretty happy with the results so far.  I am just happy that I finally got the motivation to last this long, and I do hope to keep it up.  After 6 weeks of working out, I decided I was committed enough to buy some new work-out clothes and sneakers (which I didn't own any).  Kohl's, my favorite store, sent me 30% off coupon, so the timing worked out great!!

So that is what is up with me and Mike...the kids have been doing very well.  We just had parent/teacher conference on Friday.  Rowan's teacher Miss Marjan said that Rowan has come out of her shell, and has really blossomed.  We were really surprised when she told us at the Christmas party that she was the quiet/shy one in the class.  She is the spit-fire in the family, but I guess they always are different around other people, but it sounds like she is more comfortable now, and being herself at school now.  Liam is doing really well too.  His teacher, Miss Kathleen, was talking about how the kids are learning to blend sounds together to read words.  They have a reading program at school where they send home books to read.  It is meant to encourage parents to read with their kids every day.  We assumed that all the kids in his class were reading the books sent home, but I guess not all of them are.  He's been reading for a year now, so that made us pretty proud of him.

Anyway, the only other exciting thing that has happened lately, is Liam lost his FIRST tooth.  It started to get lose on Christmas Eve, and I joked that Santa and the tooth fairy would have to come in the same night.  But, it was just barley lose, and he was way too scared to let mom or dad try to pull it out.  Then Friday it was bent out, but he still was too scared to let anyone touch it, but we knew it was on it's way out.  He spent the day wiggling it.  By afternoon, I drifted off on the couch while he was playing.  All of a sudden he woke me up shouting my tooth came out. I thought for sure we would have to pull it, and was a bit bummed since I was going to take a video...but, oh well, he did it on his own, and that is pretty grown up for his first tooth.  We really didn't expect it to come out just after he turned 5! Both me and Mike were at least 6.  That night Liam asked me if the tooth fairy would know if he's asleep if the lights were on. I told him she would because she would hear him snoring.  He started to go back to his room, then came back and told me 'I don't snore'.  We thought that was pretty funny.

Oh, I thought of one more exciting thing that happened.  Rowan is now in her BIG Girl bed!  She is a whole year younger than her brother was when he graduated from the toddler bed, but such is the benefit of being the 2nd kid, also she is much less of a mover when she sleeps. She has adjusted quite well to the bed, and it has helped a little with her wanting to nap and go to bed at night.  She likes to have everything in it's place, and will organize her dolls, and toys just the way she wants them on her bed.  She keeps her bed very tidy, and she loves having all her cozy pillows and blankets too.

                       So Proud of his lost tooth!

Like every other kid ever, she had to test the bed by jumping :)