Meet Dakota

So this post begins with the fact that we are crazy & just have to have an animal in our home.  Crazy not because we have a dog but that we have a PUPPY!  I guess you could say that he was meant to be in our family.  After Abbi passed away, I started to look for another dog.  I knew that we were leaving for vacation soon (as in that very next week) so we'd probably end up getting a dog when we when returned.  I'd looked on Craigslist and saw several prospects, but again we were leaving on vacation & couldn't bring the dog with us or leave it here for someone else to take care of.   One Sunday I was talking with my sister in UT & looking at their classifieds called KSL.  I had several breeds in mind that might be good for our family.  We really were hoping for a medium size,  non shedding dog about 1 yr old.  I was willing to possibly get another puppy (afterall we'd had 3 before) but was really wanting a little older dog.  The kids didn't want to have to wait TOO long to get another dog.  So...that Sunday as I was talking & looking I came across a breed called a Mini Goldendoodle.  Hmm.. I thought that's interesting but didn't want to spend the money.  Scott & I discussed what we were willing to spend & these dogs were too much money.  I continued to look.  In a conversation that evening, Scott was mentioning how he'd really like something that had the personality of a golden retriever (we love them!) but that wasn't big or shed.  I said they have them but they are HUGE, they are called Goldendoodles.  I proceeded to tell him the ad I saw on KSL & pulled up the ad.  It was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!  It was exactly what we wanted, but they were in UT.  Oh wait we were going to UT next week for vacation.  I called the breeder the next day & spoke with her.  The puppies would be 7 wks old on the day we were planning on returning to CO & would be willing to meet us in American Fork on the exact day we would be driving home.  It couldn't be more PERFECT!!  Although I don't like the CONSTANT chewing, he LOVES TO CHEW EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!!  He is a great dog & we love him!  Welcome to our family!

                                                   7 wks old(the day we brought him home)

                                                 The EXTREMELY LONG car ride home

                                                         He loves to sleep upside down        
                                                         

                                                           He loves this beanbag chair!

                                                                       12 wks old

Summer cont 2

One post isn't quite enough when you have such a big family!  If you are thinking....well where's the photos of Scott's family?  Well this is MY blog (JK)!  We did spend time with them (I just don't have the photo evidence).  Well ok maybe a few pics...

On Sunday we spent all day with Jeppersons.  We went to church Sacrament meeting at our previous Ward.  We had the privilege of attending a baby blessing that evening.  Scott's niece, Jami & her husband Tim blessed their daughter, precious, little Emi at his parent's home (picture above)

One of the joys of having a big gap in the age of our kids (almost 10 yrs) is that your nieces & nephews have kids closer to yours.  Who would've thought we would have a kid about the same time as them!  I remember when they were babies themselves (ok not the 4 older ones) but they were close enough!

Shalyse & Addison

The 3 Musketeers

Shalyse (2), Emi (3 mo), Addi (1)

I have a similar picture of 3 other babies on that exact same couch (maybe a different color then).  Those babies were Kayla (16), Nick (15) & Ariana (15).  They were all born within 3 months of each other & now in high school.  My how time flies!

The last day we were in UT, we tried to think of something fun to do (that we already hadn't done) with the Dunfords & Snyders (that didn't involve being outside. Remember 100 degree weather? After several failed attempts...or not being creative enough we decided just to meet at Scott's parents house around 4 & spend some time just hanging out before going out to dinner.  Scott had wanted to go to his favorite Chinese restaurant, the Mandarin.  Of course with a big family, it's difficult to get everyone together but we were happy to have those who could make it join us!  Lisa, Nick, Greg, & Greg's 's mom Maggie, Addi (without her parents) came with Lisa & Greg, Julie & Chuck(without any kids), Scott's parents, & of course our family.  Julie took the pictures above after we got home.  What a great looking family if I do say so myself!  I'm glad we got to spend some a little time with those we love!

Summer cont

In July we made our annual summer trek to Utah.  I guess you could say it was a family reunion for both sides of the family.  My sister's family (minus her oldest, Ariana) were there.  We hadn't seen the whole family in about 6-7 years.  Most of Scott's family were there as well.  One day we might get Heather & her family to join us.  It's always a little bit tricky to juggle spending equal time with all of our family when we go to UT.  We try our best to split up who we stay with.  This time just happen to be the Jeppersons, which worked out because my sister & her family were staying at my Dad's.  My Mom has a 2 bedroom townhouse, which makes it a little too squishy for our family of 6 to stay with her.  We stayed for a week & as most vacations go we crammed in as much as we could.


Here's the photo recap:

                                                   
                                                Standing in line for the Park City alpine slide

Swimming at Grandma's pool

 Couldn't resist putting this picture here

Three towel head girls (reminds me of how my 2 sisters & I use to do this same thing after we got out of the shower)

                              We had a great time EXTREMLY HOT day at Lagoon Amusement Park

   I wished I would have taken a picture of all of us, but we were rarely all together.  That's the joy of having mostly teenagers & 3 younger ones.  You spend most of your day riding the kiddie rides (waiting in line for them)!  Some of the fun rides of the day were Cliff Hanger, Wicked, Bombara, & getting SOAKING wet on Rattlesnake Rapids.

               
                                                  My squishable, adorable, nephew Sawyer

His sister (also adorable) Bailey

                                                        Another day spent swimming.
                                                       

 We went to a water park in Draper (in hind site we should have paid the extra money & gone to Seven Peaks).  It wasn't a great water park for older kids & I think I mentioned before that we mostly have teenagers in our family.  Oh well, it was a great day to spend with family!  What else can you do in UT in July on a 100 degree day!


We were so excited to be able go to Utah over the 24th of July.  It's a state wide celebration of when the Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley.  We haven't been there for the 24th the whole 4 years we've lived in CO.  We were most excited to see fireworks because we didn't get to again this year on the 4th.  
What's a picnic without ants...we picked up pizza on the way to the Liberty Park & found the perfect spot to watch the fireworks.  We set our pizza down on the ground & within 5 minutes we had 3 or more pizzas that were infested with ants.  Needless to say we kind of lost our appetite!  As always the fireworks were amazing, but spending time with family=PRICELESS!!

The whole gang (without Ariana, Bailey, & Sawyer)

She poses like this ALOT!

                                                   Playing cards waiting for the fireworks

7 days just isn't enough time when you are spending time with family.  Although we were ready to come home, we weren't ready to say goodbye!  It made it a little easier to come home because we were picking up a puppy to bring home.  Watch for another post.  Thanks for the AMAZING 7 days Azimi, Jepperson, Snyder, Dunford, Hodges, Abram, & Clegg families!  WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!  Till next time!

Saying goodbye is hard

We said goodbye to the sweetest dog Abbi.  She had 3 cysts, 1 of which she had since we moved to CO 4 years ago.  It was on her paw & had gotten significantly bigger over the last 6 months.  She had another one on her back which we noticed 4-5 months ago (it also was growing bigger).  The third was just over her eye (not growing).  After a visit to the vet, Scott & I came home to talk with the kids about the options & what we were going to do with her. After a week of prayer & thought we made the decision to put her down.  She was a sweet dog & we'll miss her alot!  
Memories of Abbi...
1. Got her from a shelter in Farmington, UT
2. The day we brought her home she stole Lexi's hat from off her head.
3. She rarely barked(only heard her bark a handful of times mostly as other dogs)
4. She would grunt 
5. She was stubborn (couldn't make her do anything if she didn't want to do it unless you picked her up or grabbed her collar & dragged her)
6. She LOVED attention!!!
7. Loved the snow
8. She would get nervous when Scott would watch sports on TV.  She would get up & just stand there panting.  She wouldn't lay down. We could never figure out why.
Tricks Abbi could do...
1. Wave
2. Put on treat above her nose.  She would hold it there & try to catch it.
3. Shake
4. Paws (jumping on us with both paws-I think this was her favorite because she would get attention)
                    
                    Pictures from the day we adopted Abbi

                

                         
                             Playing in the snow

So far this summer

Why is it that summer seems to go by too quickly?  The kids have been out of school since the end of May and it's already the end of July!  This is what we've been up to this summer....

We went miniature golfing.  Shalyse had more fun hitting our balls off the course.  

 I took the kids to a splash playground in Aurora.  Bryant brought along a couple of friends.  They had fun playing basketball & getting wet.  Shalyse & Lexi on the other hand weren't as impressed.  Lexi did go in the water but Shalyse wouldn't even get wet!

 We bought a season pass for the whole family to our community pool & have enjoyed using it!  Shalyse loves the water!  Lexi is always the last one out of the water (she's been like this her whole life).  

 Our ward has a 4th of July celebration every year.  We rotate times with the other 2 wards in our building.  This year we had lunch (it was SOOO HOT!)  The primary kids have a bike parade where they ride their bikes around the parking lot.  It always fun!  Lexi & I thought it would be fun to decorate Shalyse's bike & push her around for the parade.  She was sooo excited to decorate her bike, but when it came time to ride it in the parade she wouldn't.  I'm glad I took a picture of her before we left the house. 

Later that night we had some good friends the Boohers over for dinner and played some games.  Fireworks in CO were banned because of the horrible fires we had in June & July so..our city of Parker opted to do a laser show instead at the last minute.  When I say last minute I mean last minute.  It reminded me of some of my old computer games...it was that LAME!!!  The only cool thing about it was when it started to sprinkle and you could see it the laser lights. Oh well at least we got to pay $5 for parking(really we paid $10 because our friends didn't bring cash).  It was $10 we won't forget!!!

                                                Lexi doing the zipline for the 1st time

                                                                   Bryant on the zipline

July 10-11-Ward Family Campout

This year it was at Lookout Mountain which is only about 1 hr away from our house.  Kayla, Shalyse, & I went up to eat dinner on Friday night(being the camper that I am  not).  Scott, Lexi, & Bryant stayed the night.  It rained for quite awhile on Friday night and the evening ended with a campfire & talent show.  Lexi was brave & rode the zipline for her 1st time.  I meant to take video but was too late!  It was a great evening & I was thankful I could come home & sleep in my own bed!

Father's Day

Today was a somewhat normal Sunday.  We woke up and got ready for church.  I made breakfast for my wonderful hubby, since it was Father's Day, which was french toast, sausage, & honeydew.  I don't know what it is about having church at 11 but I always think I have more time than I do and I was late again (although the girls & I usually make it before the sacrament which to me is SUCCESS).   My hubby told me recently that if I make breakfast he knows I'll be late to church.  Ok I'll admit even if I don't make breakfast I'm usually running late which means that we end up taking 2 cars to church so that the preteen son can arrive on time to pass the sacrament.  So we have a "boys" car & a "girls" car, HA HA!! 

The preteen son gave a talk in church today (his 1st in sacrament meeting) & did an amazing job!  He wrote the talk all by himself (sniff), which signifies that he's growing up, way too quickly in my mind.

This is how the older 3 spent a good portion of the day. Can you see the preteen son in the corner by the play kitchen?  The teenage girls came home from spending 4 days at girls camp and needless to say came home exhausted.  What did they do them up there (hmmmm I wonder)?  They are still recovering (I think it might take them the full week to catch up). I'm probably going to be in trouble for posting this pic. I don't really know why the preteen fell asleep, maybe it was from too much pressure from giving a talk in church.  This picture should be of my wonderful husband taking a most needing glorious Father's Day nap, but NO!  He helped me prepare dinner by grilling our kabobs.  Thanks Honey!  You are an amazing man & we love you!  Happy Father's Day!

This is how the 2 yr old spent her afternoon as well!  She fell asleep at 4 and decided not to wake up until after 7.  Late night for me?  Surprisingly she was asleep for the night at 11.  I thought I'd be up with her till midnight.  The bonus for her is she had dessert for dinner.  At least it had fruit in it, that's healthy right?

All in all it was a good day, it ended with a thank you from my wonderful hubby!  SUCCESS!!