Our New Dog, Sally, The Welsh Springer Spaniel

Last Monday night, we surprised the kids by taking them to a dog rescue for Family home evening.....Eric and myself were both very hesitant about getting a pet, but went open minded, to LOOK! We never thought we would find the perfect dog the first time! Right when we pulled up (all packed tight in Eric's pick-up) we saw her, she jumped up on the roof of one of the kennels and just stared, while all the other dogs were madly barking trying to get out, looking like they wanted to eat us for dinner. The super nice and knowledgable lady, got her out for us right away and she ran to us and wanted to be loved :) The kids loved her right away as she chased them around and licked the spaghetti sauce that I missed on Rylie off under her chin.

She is a big puppy,they aren't sure exactly how old she is, but she still has her puppy teeth and has awkward puppy movements. She belonged to a military family that had to move and couldn't take her with, but they did a very good job training her, she is already housebroken, doesn't beg for food (the kids have dropped food right in front of her and she doesn't even attempt to get it, she eats her own food only, we were amazed. She found the front door right away and when she wants to go out, she goes to the door and touches it with her front paw. We have still yet to hear her bark, Cayley said she did when she had her out the other day, but no one else has heard her yet. Even when someone comes to the door, her head perks up, but thats it! We are all still amazed , waiting for her to do something wrong.... but she is perfect, the only slight-ish complaint I have is she follows me around all day, but so does Rylie so I have just learned that I am the leader of the parade! She loves raw hide bones and that is the only thing she has ever chewed on or even put in her mouth besides her food and her tennis ball. The lady who had been looking after her at the rescue said she had only had her for a little bit, but was sad to let her go, she said she was such a sweet dog, very loyal and just wanted to be loved and to please. She called us yesterday to see how she was and wasn't surprised to hear how wellshe has settled in with us!

Cayley's blog

http://cayleybird.blogspot.com/
Cayley made her own blog, I will try to supervise it, but I apologize in advance for anything crazy, embarrasing, or overall out of control that she may post!

Cayley's Birthday

Cayley's Birthday came as fast as it went this year, poor thing: (

Amongst all the settling in and work to get ready for winter (we have been told its just around the corner, like any day now) we didn't do much. I tried to make it just as special for her, but nothing like we have done in the past. She had whipped cream for breakfast with some pancakes and chocolate syrup on the side (you know Cayley) and had a friend sleep over, we watched a movie on the big screen and had popcorn and candy, an icecream cake from coldstone, YUM! Oh and we went bowling, gosh I guess we didmore then I thought, it sounds like alot as I'm typing it, but went by really fast. Her friend who slept over name was Rylea. Poor girl everytime I was yelling forRylie she came running. The morning after she sleptover I was callingfor Rylie tocome and get her hair done, it went something like this "Rylie come here so I can do something with that mop on your head" she came to me in the bathroom with a sweet look on her face and said "okay". She must of thought I was crazy,because first of all she has the straightest finest hair in alaska, and what was this women talking to her like that?? So Cayley decided she would be Rylea and Rylie would be Ry-Ry.

"The Home"

Well alot of you have emailed me for pics of the home...we are having our first day of rain, and it is cold! If it clears up this afternoon I will take some of outdoors, right now I have these few of the main floor. The other rooms still have boxes, I try and keep the main rooms clear so I can keep my sanity! If you go downstairs, there is a family room, office, bathroom, and utility room, then down again is the basement. If you go upstairs from the main living area, there is the bedrooms, bathrooms. ALOT of stairs! I have been putting some of the kids summer clothes away as I am unpacking, storing them in the basement, wel going to the basement from the bedrooms means 3 flights of stairs, so I am getting my workout! We are loving having the open plan on the main floor, It hlpes me keep an eye on the kids while cooking, cleaning, and we seem to all be together everynight, Eric and the kids in front of the TV, me cleaning the kitchen....we haven't even used the family room, I'm sure we will start to get sick of it and start using other areas more, especially when we are stuck in the house this winter!

The Others

The rest of us enjoying the outdoors..

"Rylie" Our New Beastly Outdoors Girl

Okay now we (those who had the pleasure of spending time with Rylie in FL) know Rylie has some animal instincts in her (eating food off floor, out of garbage, dog bowl) lying with the dogs in there bed, letting them lick her in the face, while she attempts to lick them back...

As pretty as a lil gal she is, she loves the outdoors and becomes like an animal, running around, picking up sticks in her mouth, wallowing in the grass, leaves, and dirt..I think the pics speak for themselves, these were taken last weekend when we cooked our dinner over the fire in our back yard and had s'mores afterwards!

Haines, Alaska

We got off the ferry in Haines, Alaska. Talk about a welcome, it was beautiful! We couldn't wait to see the rest of Alaska. The kids still bummed about not seeing much wildlife in Yellowstone were pleasantly surprised when just down the road from our port, we came across a couple of moose, how exciting, little did we know at the time that moose would become an everyday occurance here in Alaska!

More of our Ferry trip

More Ferry fun...

The Ferry

The last part of our trip..Final destination...North Pole, Alaska!

We were excited that this part of our trip we wouldn't be doing any driving, we were taking the Alaska Marine highway! Aboard a ferry..the Columbia to be precise...

We wished for better weather, but it was still amazing. The views were great, though cold and wet. We enjoyed each others company, staying busy watching movies, playing card games, the kids liked the arcade, we had a wonderful buffet dinner one night (the other nights were pretty much fast food) and did some whale watching.

Washingtonian Family!

We were very fortunate to get to visit my sister Jennifer and her family while passing through Washington on our way to the port to leave on the ferry to Alaska. We were only able to stay a couple of nights, but wish we could of stayed longer, it was very nice there, Jennifer has a beautiful home and we enjoyed their company : )

More Yellowstone..

Yellowstone

Wonderful, Wonderful Yellowstone...

We were so excited for this part of the trip, it is something we have always wanted to do with our children! We didn't arrive at Yellowstone until almost noon, so we were told that is probably why we didn't have alot of luck with seeing wildlife (just a couple of buffalo and elk), but the scenery was still amazing! Hope to go back one day and spend a little more time, we had to do it in just an afternoon.

Cody, Wyoming

Cody, Wyoming..Rodeo Capitol of the world, thought it was Cheyenne, but goes to show how much I know about Rodeos..

We went to the Cody night Rodeo, only a few minutes from our hotel, and enjoyed some good ol' BBQ and a great show!

Thermompolis, Wyoming

The World largest hot spring?? The worlds stinkiest spring...

This was actually a really nice place and it was alot of fun for the kids, but you have to get past the smell of rotten eggs left unfound from Easter 12 years ago...

We were able to swim in it, yeah!

It was just a quick stop to get the kids out of the car before staying in Cody, Wyoming for the night.