Puppies, Playing, and Parking

From Teton Phone Pics

I thought I would do a quick post with a few more fun pictures. These were from my phone and are mostly of my cute puppy dogs and our Teton trip. They both love to be on my lap in the car - and me being the pushover I let them. They have grown to like each other very much as you can see in the picture above. Notice Lacey's tongue is hanging out - she gets that way when she is really relaxed.

From Teton Phone Pics

From Teton Phone Pics

From Teton Phone Pics

From Teton Phone Pics

Then we stopped off at Mom and Dad's cabin on the way home. This was the first time since we've had Lily that she was able to freely run around. We've been working hard with her and now can be around Kai without killing her. Fun enough we watched one of our old foster dogs, Toby (now Reuben - although we still call him Toby) this weekend - and they got along great! Normally to get her good exercise our only option is the tennis courts - but during the summer they are often being used. She loved it! Thanks Mom and Dad!

From Teton Phone Pics

From Teton Phone Pics

From Teton Phone Pics

Finally on Friday of last week my sisters and I got together with mom and dad for our weekly Friday Lunch. This time we went to Liberty Park. It was lots of fun. The kids (and some adults) got to ride some of those old amusement park rides at the Park. Honestly, I didn't even know they ran anymore. Then we fed the ducks and ate some great food. Fun to hang out, as always - but of course we always miss the Roarks!

From Liberty Park

From Liberty Park

From Liberty Park

From Liberty Park

From Liberty Park

From Liberty Park

How I know the United States is a woman...I've seen her Tetons

From Grand Teton Trip

Sorry about the punny post title. I couldn't resist. I was also going to post this yesterday but wanted to give my little pooper a day of blog celebration. She deserves at least that much.

This last weekend Brandon and I traveled with our pups to the Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming. It was a quick 5 1/2 hour drive to a gorgeous range of mountains that starkly emerge from the flat Wyoming land.

From Grand Teton Trip

We took a couple of hikes and saw some amazing scenery and large wild animals. My quest to see a bear was unfulfilled but we had a buffalo cross right in front of our car. That was fun!

From Grand Teton Trip

We met up with Brandon's parents who were at the beginning of a week long trip through the Tetons and Yellowstone. Brandon could just afford the weekend to leave from work so we just hung out at the Teton's with them. It was great to see them as always and they were very patient with our pups.

From Grand Teton Trip

Unfortunately the town of Jackson (no dogs, even on leashes, in any of their city parks) and the National Park (only allowed on paved paths) are not super dog friendly so the poor dogs had to stay in the car a lot. If you look closely in the picture below you can see their cute little heads propped up in the car.

From Grand Teton Trip

Luckily it was cool enough to do that, but there was very few shady spots as well so I did feel bad. We took them out when we could and got some cute pictures:

From Grand Teton Trip

From Grand Teton Trip

From Grand Teton Trip

Most of the hikes were on top of at least 3 feet of snow that still littered the paths. It was a great time to go through the park because it was warm, and uncrowded, and still gorgeous.

From Grand Teton Trip

From Grand Teton Trip

Below is the slide show of our trip with the rest of our pictures.

Happy Birthday Lacey!

Lacey is 5 today! So we decided to throw a small party for her with her friends. It was just to be low-key but Coco, being the party girl she is, looks like she might crash the party. Happy birthday booger!

From Recently Updated

30 years old....Ugh.

A very sad day came and passed this year on the 3rd of May. I became old.

But to make my passing a bit easier to take, my sweet Brandon planned and executed an extremely memorable birthday surprise that will be one to remember forever.

The "plan"

We were going to Wendover for a night of fun and entertainment. We were to meet at our house at 5 and then head to the mini-sin city. Everyone started to arrive and Ed and Kenny offered up their gift that was a combined gift for Manda (who is older, I might add) and I. We were opening this gift while unbeknown to me a stranger was walking up to our front door and rung the doorbell.

The real plan

I walked out on the front porch closing the door behind me to keep the dogs from attacking the man. He asked if "Mark" was here.

I said, "Brandon?"

He said, "It says 'Mark'."

I said, "Um we are kind of busy here, can I help you?"

He said, "Well I'm the limo driver."

I was suddenly shocked and realized that something was up. These thoughts went through my head instantly:

"wait a minute we cannot take a limo to Wendover that would be ridiculous!"

"this guy has the wrong house - it must be for those renters across the street"

"I am horrified to turn around and let everyone, who are no doubt staring at me through the windows right now, see me.

So I come back inside and I am dumbfounded trying to figure out what is going on. I am looking around and everyone has dufusy looking faces smiling at me. I'm totally lost.

Then the night slowly unveils itself partly through demands on my part to know and partly through the night unfolding. We piled into the limo and headed to the begging of "my life" LDS hospital.

Brandon had planned an entire evening of "this is your life" including notes from and phone calls to my family and friends. My friends went with me, enticed by drinks, to help me reminisce my past by going to the following:

LDS Hopital
Davis Blvd house
Valley View Dr. house
South Davis Junior High
Woods Cross High
Top Hat Video
Caterbury Apts.
Rockcrest Apts.
My Grandparents old house
Where Brandon and I first met
Soverign Way house

The evening was topped off with dinner at my favorite Indian Restaurant - Taste of Punjab.

What a spectacular and amazing evening. Thank you, sweetie, for making it such an amazing time and memorable occasion. Thanks to my friends and family for participating. You are all awesome!

Then he even planned a dinner with my family on my birthday - which is always such a great way to spend a night.

Thanks, honey!

Thanks, to everyone!


Thanks to Paul for taking pictures (which I quickly stole from facebook). The blurry ones are probably the ones from my phone. Sorry.

Done with YEAR 1

I can't tell you great I feel RIGHT NOW! I just got done no more than 3 hours ago with my first year of grad school! I took a two hour land use law exam and my thumb is still numb from pressing against the pen. I'm halfway there, and doing well!

Second reason I'm feeling so great....tonight : STAR TREK!

From the LA times:

'Star Trek' takes the universe by storm

The much-anticipated sci-fi epic mind-melds Roddenberry's vision with J.J. Abrams' sense of entertainment: epic storytelling and ramped-up action.