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!