St. George

After our first successful night of camping we headed to St. George for some fun! While it was snowing in Salt Lake, we were throwing babies in pools... Fabulous!

The weather was perfect and the company was even better.

We were on our way to hike the Red Cliffs, when Drew's key wouldn't turn in the ignition.... Lovely... We spent the rest of the afternoon watching Drew dismantle the steering column of the truck. No luck on fixing the problem. So I headed back in a lawn chair in the back of my brothers car... No joke... And Drew stayed behind to get a hold of our mechanic after the holiday. Thank goodness for the iPads FaceTime! I could say goodnight to my Drewpy and pooches! Look how cute Polly looks with her head cocked trying to figure out where I am... Silly pooch. And a virtual goodnight kiss from those gorilla lips I love so much!

Sandhollow, UT

We did it!!!! We finally had our camping adventure! We headed down to Sandhollow Lake where my brothers and there families met up with us.

Isn't our tent cute? We had so much fun watching Polly swim. She looks like a baby hippo in the water. Making s'mores, looking at constellations with the iPhone Starwalk app, and my brothers laser pointer. Laughing, building giant bonfires and watching Polly and Cleo dig in the sand.

It was fun, but might have been more fun, had it not been such a crowded weekend where we had to camp with 1.7 million other people! It was crowded. But a good practice run for us! Hooray for adventures.

Take the Pooch to Work Day!

Drew has been working at home on a kitchen island, our cabinets, spice rack and other treasures for me!

Polly loves the shop! She digs nest in the piles of sawdust, sniffs and chews scraps of wood.

A puppy paradise!

When our main water line broke, the city workers had to take out a tree.

Drew, even though he had a lot better things to do, has chopped it up for me. So I can make all sorts of trinkets!

A crafters paradise!

The stumps are placed in the garage drying, and our cabinets are not yet hung, but we are excited for our weekend adventures. Hopefully we will have a whole lot of finished product shots next week!

Son of a ........

.....(And if my mom wasn't a loyal follower those dots would have been filled in with a word that had would show my frustration. However, for courtesy of my mom and my two female dogs I'll let you fill in the blank!)

As luck would have it, our basement flooded! Even better it was in a wall that we were NOT going to demo! (Why isn't there a font for sarcasm?). After our CampOut in the living room, we took down the tent, and noticed that the carpet was wet halfway through the room. I mean soaking wet! Nasty! So we got to work, exploring where the leak was coming from. When we pulled back the carpet, pools of water were left on the concrete, not to mention a lovely odor... (Insert sarcasm font.... Maybe a reverse italics...)
Drew went to tap the wall above the wet carpet to see if it was wet, and his little tap turned into a squish. The dry wall was soaked, and moldy.... Followed by moldy insulation.... Followed by moldy cement! This is not a new leak.... Years.... And years... No wonder I'm constantly sick... I probably have mold spores on my lungs... Isn't that a nasty word? Spores....ew.

We (read Drew) suspected ground water... So Drew went outside and turned on the hose, three minutes later nothing. He came inside, and then we heard the water, in our cold storage, that has always been a little funky, I just never open the door, water was POURING out of the walls! Through these holes, you can see it spout out...

With the outrageous amount of moisture we have had this winter/spring, we have been having water continuously coming into our basement... Lovely (reverse italics)... With old carpets removed, moldy sheet rock, insulation and bleached walls we are on our way to a mold spore free home!

What I'm Loving!

The color of our kitchen walls... Accented by our red clock... And That at 6:20 PM there is still a lot of day left!

And branches from my lilac bush, in my shiny vase, with a backdrop of turquoise/green frame and beige tile. Our kitchen's almost finished! Update soon!

Camera and Kids

While in the midst of our home remodel I have been having a great time figuring out my camera. I bought this ebook, from a blog post from kellehampton.com. I think she takes beautiful pictures, and I want to soak up any advice she has. So far I have really enjoyed it, it is plain talk, and some times dumbed down even more then that so it's super to follow. What I like most about it, is it's how to work with what you have. Not telling you all the expensive equipment that is available.

Practice attempts, with two adorable models.

Crazy about these girls.

Below is a cheat sheet I found on pinterest. It's helpful to have as a quick reference on hand!

Pooches

Just because they are so darn cute!

All day long...

An outrageous amount of tongue!

I will say it until I'm blue in the face. I love these dogs.... Drew and I wonder all the time, how can you live your entire life without a dog? Not an animal who you leave tethered to a rope, leave outside, day and night, or treat as a burden instead of part of the family! Rather a companion who loves you unconditionally, has intense loyalty, and gives a tremendous amount more then they take if given the opportunity.

However an apology needs to be made to our future children... I am so sorry that Polly is so adorable, loves to be held, falls asleep on our chest, nuzzles in our neck, loves to be snuggled and held, sleeps through the night and is potty trained. She has taken every ounce of being baby hungry from us. (Is it wrong to delay trying for children because you love your dogs, and husband so much.... Not in that order.... Rhetorical, because we know the answer is, NOPE!) Our dear neighbor, 85 year old Stormin' Norma waltzed over the other day and said, "I see both of you kissing on that puppy, and I think to myself, those two need a baby!". To which we responded in unison, "Who needs a baby with a puppy this cute?". (I know, we're adorable, we talk in synch.... That happens to us at least several times a day... Which then leads us to turn and stare at each other and do our secret handshake... It's so cute it'll make your teeth hurt!). To which Norma, in her infinite wisdom responded, "I guess you're right!" And Norma knows all!

Our Yard!

Glamorous!

This is Lilly..... And I'm her chauffeur.... She's glamorous!

Living Room CampOut!

Drew and I are finally getting around to achieving our dream of become granolas! Haha just kidding, but we have both been tempted at one time or another to grow dreadlocks, walk around in chacos, spending most of our days at farmers markets and Whole Foods... AKA... The good life!Baby steps are being taken on our quest to become Enviro's... We set up the old tent in the living room to get us, and mainly the pooches ready for sleeping in a tent. I don't want to be secluded in the wilderness to find out Cleo hates tents and burst through the seems of the tent to escape! I would say the night went well... I woke up once to find Cleo had cleverly slid me and my sleeping bag off my pad, and was completely stretched out on it! Dogs a gosh darn genius!

These pictures above just make me laugh! I was trying to take a picture of the tent, and I told Cleo to get out of the way. You can see she is in motion to move on out, when I snapped a picture to test the camera settings. When I checked the picture I saw Polly had run in last minute and took a quick seat to get her picture taken... She did the same thing in the next picture! This pooch loves herself some camera... I love how quickly she runs in and immediately sits, like she has been there the whole time. Quite the opportunist! The last picture, after we finished setting up the tent, Polly ran out to get a toy, and I'm not even how this is possible, but she set it here, and just left it, perfect storage!

And again another snuggling pooch picture to rip your heart out (woah, that got graphic in a hurry.). I think these dogs snuggle on purpose just to make Drew and I yell to one another to "hurry and run into the room, look what the dogs are doing!". Polly probably snuggles up and whispers in Cleo's ear, "watch this!" love them!

And as all indoor campouts need, a little iPad time! Truly Earthy!

Drywall and Art

You might be thinking, why is Drew patching a wall that looks like it was newly finished. Just kidding, you weren't thinking that.... I was.... But I'll tell you why he is... Drewpy was being super awesome and repairing our dryer. He was holding the top of the dryer when it slipped out of his hands, and the metal sliced open the skin in between his thumb and pointer finger. When the lid slid all the way down a screw on the corner of the lid, snagged the sliced skin. Did you dry heave? I did. I had to go lay down when I saw it! Anyway, Drew being the manly man he is thought the best way to deal with the pain of a gashed hand would be to take the same mangled hand, and slam it through a wall! Ahh, I bet that felt soothing. Sliced hand through drywall, is pretty much the equivalent to taking a nice warm bath after a long rainy day!....

I would love to spend 15 minutes inside Drew's brain!

So....... After another round of taking two steps forward and one step back.... Story of our remodel...I have moved onto trying to find some art for the house. I have picked up a few pieces on etsy, but couldn't find an affordable painting at the size I was looking for. So I bought a 36X48" canvas at the art store. And did a pastel drawing of some lemons. I didn't like how it turned out, so I used by step backward, and painted the canvas white, with our enamel paint we used on the trim. And went for a more modern painting, that will bring in a whole lot of yellow to the room! Simple, crisp, and yellow. Check, check and check! Wait until you see the frame Drew is making for it! Awesome!

Sprinklers

Drew spread seed on our front lawn, and doing the final touches on the sprinklers. And I'm SO ready for grass! No more mud yard!As always, the pooches were a tremendous help!These pictures are very monochromatic. I have always loved brown!

With my new portrait lens, I figured out how to adjust the white balance setting on my camera. I couldn't figure out why my pictures were coming out so orange. This one of Cleo had zero touch ups.

This face makes me too happy! She has the most incredible disposition! Our plan was to spay her, but her personality, and appearance may be too incredible to just give up on. We are going to watch her health and personality for a little longer, and if she stays this well behaved, and her health stays good, she may be continuing her bloodlines. Even the vet commented on what a remarkable build and especially wonderful personality she has! Who wouldn't want a puppy like this?Even when she looks like this!

Our little mud puppy! This pooch loves water and mud. When we turn on the hose, Cleo runs for the hills, and Polly runs to sit under water!Again..... I can't wait for grass!