Took a family hike up Corner Canyon just to get out.

 I forgot the leashes so Marshall ran about 10 minutes back up to grab them and while me and the dogs were slowly making our way down bikers were coming up and we have tried hard to teach the dogs to stay close and out of their way.  This one biker stopped mid ride and told me we looked like a family of ducks.  I looked behind me and we were all walking in a perfect row of tallest to smallest.

 The day we took the hike we decided to go because Brynlee wasn't feeling well and we thought maybe she just needed to get out and take her mind off of it and she LOVES hiking and usually schools all of us put together... not time.  She made it up just fine but about 1/4th of the way down she just laid in the middle of the trail, defeated.  So Marsh had to carry her down.  The 100+ degree heat probably didn't help.  Oops.

 

We LOVE our family hikes!  So may to chose from around here and we are never let down.

Another day...

We had a bounce house at my mom's house.  The nephews came over and we all had a blast. Marshall tested it out to make sure it was safe.  

Calf Creek

Buckskin Gulch

June 2012

Archimeds found what he thought was a good place to take nap.  Probably because of the extra soft pillow he found.

And...

 We took a family camping trip out to the west desert.  

                                              Brynlee hanging out with Grandpa Lyle.

Grandma Virgina hanging out with the puppies and Grandpa Von snoozing.

And Archimedes wanted to be sure he didn't have any tan lines.

NEXT...

We Hiked Bells Canyon

And last but not least...

We took a trip to Escalante National Monument on the way to St. George to see Aladdin at the Tuacahn theater.

May 2012

With the help of our nephew, AJ, we finally got our garden in.  It really took off!  I wish I had after pictures because it was pure chaos.  This year will be much better.

Kay Family Camp Out

Saturday after a long day of yard work, we decided that it would be fun to go camping to see the meteor shower. So around 6 we set off to Simpson Springs in the west desert. It was a lot of fun, even though we were only there for a short time. It pretty much went like this, drove out, cooked dinner & pitched the tent, went to bed around 12:30, got up, Marshy made breaky, packed up and headed out around 10:30.  It was very breif to say the least.  It also turns out that Brynlee LOVES camping! She was a great campin puppy! She layed by the fire on a sleeping bag all night with us, and was totally alert to noises around. Archimedes was snoozin in the tent because the little sissy is afraid of fire so it was a good thing we had the pocket dog come along so that we had some sort of lookout. Archimedes slept across all three sleeping bags at the foot and Brynlee got cold so she slept with Marsh in his sleeping bag. Marsh and I came home exhausted due to lack of sleep but we sure had fun with the little pooches! Hopefully there are plenty more Kay Family Camp Outs to come!

On the way down... P.S. Usually Brynlee does not ride over there but as soon as Marshall rolled his window down she bolted and I couldn't help but grab a picture.  She likes to ride with her head out the window. 

Snoozin' puppies

Just hanging out by the fire.

This was while I was trying to pack up the tent.  He slept similarly to this... I hope he was comfortable.

Eating breaky by the fire.

The best part of this pic is Archy poking his head out the tent.  He hung out in there the majority of the time.  We just unzipped about a foot across the bottom and he would pop out to say hello every now and again.  Sometimes he would only poke his head out of the hole, it was classic.

I finally did it!

I have seen pictures of houses with a room painted with stripes and I absolutely love how it looks but never really dared do it to my own house, just because one false measurement and you are in serious trouble or even worse, what if the paint bled under the tape??? Well, I was sitting in my family room the other day and all the sudden the vision came to me and with a 4 day weekend coming up I just said, what the heck, I am DOING it! And it turned out awesome! It is subtle but lights up the room and adds such a modern twist. Check out the before and afters...

Spur of the moment

When I was eating dinner the other night I decided I was going to stain the rail. After dinner I started taping it off and committed myself. Sometimes I feel bad for Marsh because when I get these itched he kinda just gets roped in and is automatically signed up to help me. Luckily, he is not to resilient as long as I do the taping (he HATES that part). Ignore Brynlee's toys all over the floor in the family room, we are currently training her to pick them up but it is trick training in process.

BEFORE:

AFTER

Pepe le pew

From the title and picture you may all see where this is going, but here it is anyways. Last Sunday night Archimedes started whining, he whined and whined and whined and we had no idea why. We checked on him a few times and everything was fine but he would not shut up. So out of frustration at about 3:30AM Marshall went and let him outside. About 15 minutes later Marshall let him back in and this NASTY smell started circulating our house. Marshall brought Brynlee up to me to see if I though she smelled like she got sprayed like a skunk and it stunk so bad I thought for sure she did until I went down to check if Archy smelled too and I only got about 3 steps in the family room and my nose started burning. I immediately put him in the garage while we figured out what to do. Marsh read online that we need to create a chemistry lab and bath him in peroxide, baking soda and dish soap. Easy enough, as long as you have all three of those ingredients. And of course, we had about an inch of peroxide so that was not going to cut it. Marsh couldn't drive so we got in the car and headed to Harmons, which doesn't open until 6 so we started trying the gas stations. Maverick had it, we paid $2 for 8 oz of which we needed 32oz and of course that gas station only had 2 bottles. Long story short, after we finally got peroxide we went home and Marsh washed the dog and I started looking up what time pet stores opened so we could get him properly bathed with de-skunking shampoo. At this point we were super tired, super pissed and super frustrated. The pet store didn't open until 9 so instead of having Archy freeze in the garage we put him in the basement. Well, he didn't like that and instantly started whining and barking. He did it consistently for 3 hours and we were about to pull our hair out! Marsh was calling every pet store within a 100 mile radius trying to find one that could take him first thing. With the dog whining, us on little to no sleep and our house freezing because we were trying to air out the worst smell in the world, Marshall finally had it and he went down stairs to shut the dog up. In his frustrated haze he accidentally fell down the stairs and in lou of trying to save his foot he laded on his left hand and he said he heard a crack. We laid there regrouping and just taking some deep breaths and then got up stairs and continued to call pet stores, apparently Sunday is bath your dog day and everyone was booked. We finally got Petco to take him at 9 and we took him the second they opened. When we got home I dozed off on the couch and when I woke up I found Marshall dead asleep in the recliner and Brynlee dead asleep in the middle of the floor, sprawled out like she was dead. It was a rough morning to say the least.

Back to Marshall's hand. So, Marshall has been riding one of those wheeled scooter things that you rest your leg on and push with your other leg and apparently it is pretty touchy because he keeps taking spills. Well, he took a spill that broke the cast on his foot and the only time they could fit him in to get a new one was the time he had schedule for the x-ray of his hand. It is kind of hard to see the crack in his x-ray but it is a triangle and you can sort of see one side of it just above his knuckle.

So now the guy has to deal with a broken cast on his foot for another 5 days until he has a follow up appt. and the doc it going to put him in a walking boot. The results from the x-ray showed that he broke the crap of his hand right about his ring finger. So now he has a bandagey cast thing on his right foot and a bright green hard cast on his left hand. He is falling apart.

Marshy is very very broken

Back in July of 2011 Marshall fell off a climbing wall (with no harness) and landed directly on his right foot. We immediately got it x-rayed and the doctor said nothing was wrong. After months of his foot still hurting Marsh started to get really frustrated and decided to go to a different doctor. This doctor told him that he needed to go to physical therapy. So after two months of that and no results Marsh was starting to get pissed. He went back to the doctor and demanded he get an MRI. Well, it is a good thing he did. His ankle was MESSED up and required surgery. So a few weeks ago I took Marsh to the hospital and the doctor said it would be about a 2 hour surgery with a 1 hour recovery, this was at 1PM. So at about 6:30, when I hadn't heard anything I started to get seriously worried. It was at the Surgical center in the Avenues in SLC so it is a smaller facility and everyone had gone home besides the doctors working on him and the nurse and I didn't know where they were so I just waited... waited... waited...waited. At about 7 thedoctorcame in and said he could not believe how bad it was and once he got in there it just kept gettingworse. I finally got to go back and help Marsh with recovery and he did not come out of the anistesia very well. He was throwing up the entire hour he was there, he threw up on the car ride home and he sat in the drive way for another 20 minutes throwing up when we got home. Poor guy. He has been wrapped up with instruction to put NO weight on it for 2 weeks. But don't worry, he has had a great nurse.

We are HERE!!

Wow. Why has it been so long since I have posted? Probably because I can’t do it from work anymore ;o) Anyways… I guess I should take a minute and get everyone up to date. One disclaimer that I would like to make is that Marshall and I just got a new computer and I have been using a PC my entire life and Marshall talked me into an iMac so to avoid me throwing it out the window it may be a while until I post again because it is going to take a while for me to get the hang of things.

Marshall’s summer project.

While I was studying, Marshall found a project to keep him busy. This is the left side of our house BEFORE:

AFTER:

We moved the fence up about 30 feet to add more room to our backyard, built a retaining wall flush with our neighbors yard, added rocks and a few plants out front and bod a bing bod a boom!

Addition to the family #1.
Long story short. While in college, Marshall’s roommates got a dog. Marshall’s roommates moved out and left the dog. Chris adopted and cared for the dog with Marshall’s help. Chris moved to NY. Chris’ parents adopted and cared for the dog with Marshall’s help. Chris’ parents adopted a new dog. Chris’ and Marshall’s love child dog came to live with us.Why hasn’t this happened before? Well, you see, I am NOT a dog person. Especially not a dog that lives in the house. Ever since we have been married Marshall has wanted his college dog (Archimedes) to come live with us. When we were in the apartment it was not a problem because they didn’t allow dogs and Marshall knew it was not smart to keep him cooped up all day and in an itty bitty apartment. Well, since the day we started looking into buying a house the topic of Archimedes coming to live with us has come up once or twice (a week). I have been trying to get myself prepared and let the dog join our family and stop acting the part of the wicked witch of the west and to be honest I was not ready when he finally came but I will be the first one to admit that I was WRONG about dogs living in the house. It has been a total joy with him! He is amazingly well behaved, I feel safer when I am alone and it has made some amazing changes in Marshall. The only thing that bothers me is the shedding but since Marshall knows this was a huge sacrifice for me he is totally on top of the hair business. He vacuums at least twice a week, the dog is not allowed upstairs or on the couch, and he dusts the furniture items that may collect the hair. It has made things a lot easier for me to say the least.

And there is more...

Addition to the family #2.

Well, things with Archimedes had been going so well (1 week in) and I thought… well, the poor little guy is left home alone all day and having a dog inside has been nothing like I thought it would be, why not get him a little friend? So I started looking… I have always loved Yorkies but never though I would get one because they have to be house dogs and I never thought I would have dogs in my house. Since that was no longer an issue… we got this little delight!Brynlee Kay

The minute we saw Bryn we both knew she was coming home with us. We did however resist the temptation and go home and really put some thought into it but you can all see the outcome.
It has been so much fun! She is super smart and catches onto things pretty quick, especially for being only 13 weeks old. We got her when she was 6 weeks and she would fit in one hand, and she loved sleeping there ;o) she has more than doubled in size and also in personality. She has been a TON of work but Marshall and I came together and have been getting through it with minimal stress. Even though sometimes she drives me a little nutty I do not regret bringing her into our family for one second. We absolutely LOVE our new life.

Unfortunately, Archimedes, wanted NOTHING to do with Brynlee. He growled at the very sight of her. A side we had never seen of him before and we were quite worried. But a revelation happened a few weeks ago…Brynlee was getting a drink, when Archimedes came over she moved, let him drink, then she finished her drink when he was done. And since that moment they have been getting along MUCH better. And now, almost 2 months later, they are the BEST of friends...

Yeah, so big changes. We went from being a little family of 2 to a family of 4 in 2 weeks! Good times. And I could not help posting this picture...

Halloween.
Simply put. This lasted for the length of the picture.

One last disclaimer... I know small dogs have a stereo type attached to them and pictures of her in a sweater don't help that but she has hair, not fur so she gets really cold and if it is super cold outside she won't go out to go to the bathroom but the sweaters take care of that problem so don't judge the sweaters man, you would wear one too if you had to go outside to go potty!