Sad January

It's with a heavy heart that I write that we don't have our loveable Chula with us any longer. She was Jared's first dog. She would have been 14 years old on St. Patrick's day this year. According to webmd on pets, for her breed that's equivalent to a human being in her 80's. Somehow I think I hoped she'd live as long as we probably will, but it just isn't so. We've shed a lot of tears this past week, and I'm apparently not finished as I'm crying now, but as we've looked at photos of her from a pup on, we feel some comfort knowing that we gave her a good life. 

We got Chula as a puppy from our bishop and backyard neighbor in Spanish Fork. Her mother was a full bred chocolate lab and dad probably a black lab. We do still remember her awful puppy-missing-mom cries the first couple nights.   

This picture was also from our days living in Spanish Fork. We were lucky to have a fenced in yard and nice pre-existing dog run for her. We occasionally had one of her siblings named Sassy over to play with her.  Sassy was quite a bit rougher than Chula and that didn't last super long.











We were able to get out a lot on walks and to parks due to Chula's love for being outside. Even in very recent weeks, she was eager whenever Jared or I put on tennis shoes and we'd go for a short walk on most days.

Chula wasn't ever great in getting along with other dogs, which was partially our failure to socialize her better. But she was sweet to our boys at all stages. And when we got our two kittens, with some initial careful supervision, she learned to be gentle with them. Once in a while she'd try to play with them by putting a paw near them, or sometimes on their back, but it was always soft and so cute. But neither cat seemed to speak her language. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she outweighed them by about 50 pounds ; )

Chula liked to open presents with us. She'd take any corner of wrapping paper she could and tear away...then take the paper away and shred it to bits. Thankfully she always waited for us to start the process.

 Anytime we went camping, if there was water nearby, Chula found it and had a great time. A few times we tried to take Chula out in the canoe. she was ok to get in, and float a bit, but if she saw a duck or any other bird she leapt out, leaving us scrambling to balance the canoe.

Clyde and Roanna were with us on this hike. They might remember Chula so eager to go anywhere we were, scrambling over large rocks. She found her way and yelped if she needed help. It was a great hike in the desert but I doubt I could find it now.

 I like these last two photos because they show how she knew when to relax too. Our old blue couch that didn't come with us to the new house had her paw/claw marks on the cushions because she'd tried to re-arrange the (permanently fastened) cushions to her liking. It was ridiculous to watch. But often she'd be content to sleep on her own bed, which we always had nearby. We've been consoled by our family and friends who also know the amazing loyalty and companionship our dogs give. All the time. I believe I'll see her again and that she has a spirit and will enjoy some form of salvation and immortality and I found good support of that in my little research on lds.org. In referring to my sadness about Chula's passing, my aunt said to me, "don't worry about her, she's probably better off than you are right now!". I hope so. We love you Chula.

December

We made it into our house about 5 days before Christmas. I didn't think it would happen but it was ready - all except outside paint.  The temps became too cold for that so it'll be done in Spring.  We did put our tree up on Christmas Eve and that was the extent of our decorations.  This was the first year that the boys woke up before we did and came to get us out of bed. I wonder if we'll ever go back to us waking them...maybe when they're teenagers?

The boys were happy with their gifts - although apparently Santa didn't get a letter Bennett wrote at school and he was sure that his teacher didn't mail it.  So she may not be his favorite any more. They did get a trampoline with a net enclosure.  Maybe that will help prevent major injuries until we put it at ground level. Unless we decide we don't want to dig a big hole again...I think we'd use a backhoe this time.

This was also probably the fastest they've opened gifts; I think Bennett hardly saw what Paxton got even though we tried to have them take turns.

I'm not the fastest decorator around so I am still working on that side of things. This is the upstairs living room off the small front entry - anyone suggest a rug color? I've been looking for weeks and am still indecisive despite the tens of thousands of rugs online!

Here is the basement family room - we just got the curtains up a couple days ago because they and the rods took forever to come (ordered Dec 1st). It's very close in size to our last living room but the walkout to the backdoor is in a corner, to the right here. and you also cannot see the wood burning stove.

We are having the boys share a room. Their beds just look too good together to split them up! And we want them to practice dealing with another human being in their space. So when they're physically bigger we'll split them up and lose the guest room.

Just the hall of doors downstairs - we had one in the last house so we repeated it since we found it to be very useful storage. There are two double doors and then the single for the space under the stairs. At the end of the hall is the basement laundry room and the door to the cold storage.

This is my studio space with an outside entry there in the corner.  Next to it is the rec room / pottery studio, which is still in disarray because it's been the catch all room for boxes. So I'll get pics of it up and maybe the kitchen too next month. I frequently have technical difficulties getting these photos uploaded so sometimes I just take whatever I can get.

Meet our cat Chica. She does not come out from underneath Paxton's covers until night time, and even then she'll only go a little way across the hall into the bathroom and sit on the rug. So I lifted the comforter to take the photo. Apparently she doesn't love moving. Our other cat hid the first two days under Bennett's bed, then he ventured out and explored everywhere. He is back to his old self being annoying at night by climbing over us when we're trying to sleep. And, like his sister, he has learned to climb under our covers to snooze. Our dog Chula is still doing quite good despite her old age, but she certainly prefers Grandma's grassy yard over our current mudpit. 

November

It's been a frustrating month on the home building front, but progress has been made, albeit it rather slowly. I'm so tired of it I don't really even want to write about it, but that is what has consumed our lives lately. 

On a much brighter note (they were done well in time), the cabinets are awesome so here are a couple of pictures. They'll look even better when we have working lights too.  You have to see them in person to appreciate the impressive craftsmanship and the very unique wood grain of quarter sawn oak.

To date, which is December because I'm behind again (sigh), we have all the countertops in, the basement is painted, and the main level is in the hands of the painter. It remains to be seen whether we'll make it in by Christmas but we have some hope for that. If the painter finishes this week as he said he will, then we can get plumbing and lighting fixtures installed as well as carpet and a final coat on the hardwood floor. None of those individually take a lot of time, it's just a challenge to get everyone there immediately due to a very busy building industry.

I think one of the other hard parts about building is that we have zero control over timing of subs, both when they arrive and how long they take. And sometimes I question whether the general contractor has any control over that either. On the other hand, we did get every opportunity to do some things that are less conventional, work with some special subs like Clyde, and meet some new ones that did very good work.

The exterior is getting close, the siding guy (yes one guy even though we were promised a crew) just has a little soffit left to do and then the raingutter people need to do their part.  The metalwork, like stairs and handrails are all said to be arriving shortly.  But the painted portions of the outside won't be done until March or so due to cold temps in the day and night now. So those stripes won't be there then...it'll be the same green as the stucco in the next pic with white trim around doors and windows. The siding is cement board and will withstand a winter just fine.

This is the back of the house here. We were able to plant 12 trees in total and that was nice to get them done.  I'm crossing my fingers they all wake up in Spring. 

The boys - they're good, excited to be in a new home with a basement they say. We bribed Bennett into participating in a turkey shootout at the rec center which consisted of a basketball shooting contest against kids his age. He managed to win his group - the prize - a turkey. Just what every 6 year old wants.

October

We had a fun chance to go on a tour of Range Creek with Jared's parents. It's a canyon not too far from where Jared grew up that was owned privately for quite some time so most people didn't really explore the area.



There are a lot of Freemont artifacts and sites there so now private tours are scheduled and that's what we went on.
The road is a bit of a rough drive and not accessible the whole year.  We think it was perfect timing to go at the beginning of October when the temps were mild. This is called Locomotive Rock.  Mostly we saw petroglyphs and pictographs and some granaries. We also saw an area of former pit houses. It was a really interesting experience to have a close up, more in depth look at what some experts believe their lives were like.

We were fortunate to have a day or two to go help stain and varnish the cabinets Clyde made for our new home. The staining went well but we were definitely novices at applying the polyurethane. But we managed to learn how to use it more sparingly. Due to Clyde's expert wood working skills, the cabinets are by far the most beautiful part of the new house.

On one trip to the ole hometown we got to spend time with extended family. Grandma put together a combined party for these two and it was really cute to have them and their siblings all together. I love the idea of cousin birthday parties because I had them so often growing up.

We took the kids to the indoor wave pool, which seems like fun, right? Well the bubble enclosing the pool seems to lack adequate ventilation so within a few minutes our eyes were watering and some of our lungs burning due to the chlorine mist hanging in the air! So we need to go back next year in the summer because the waves were really impressive.

Paxton said he wanted to be John Wayne for Halloween this year - usually people guessed he was a bandit - too much black I think. And Bennett was sure he wanted to be a vampire so there he is looking pretty scary for a 6 year old.

September

We've wanted to go to the sheepdog herding event held each Labor Day for some time and this year we finally got there. We have heard that border collies are often smarter than their owners. We now know why. These dogs responded quickly and accurately to whistle commands and were excited to work. If only we would respond this quickly when we are asked to do something. It was a fun experience.

Where did all the dogs go? Who are these punk kids with their hats on backwards? Although the dogs didn't get in the picture, the boys were sitting to watch some agility dogs.

This was actually taken in October but Amy got behind so here it is. The stucco crew is probably the best crew that has worked on our house. They are very detailed oriented and take pride in their work.  If only all of our subs took the same pride in what they do. Since building with the insulated foam block was out of our price range we decided to do our stucco over 3 inch foam (EIFS) so we could add an extra layer of insulation. Hopefully we save money in utility bills.

The wood shop has been busy.  Grandpa and Grandma have been very generous with their time and talents when they agreed to build our cabinets for our home. We can't wait to see them in the house. I think they will be the main attraction.
 

Amy grew waaaay too many of these...this is a small sample of mini gourds and pumpkins.  Will she ever learn that one plant is enough?

August

We enjoyed ourselves for the month of August. Much of the summer was absorbed by church camps, the new house, and my ridiculous garden. So we finally took a little time to do some fun family style things. This was on our hike to Timpanogos Cave.

The shot is from our day at Lagoon. We had an unfortunate experience that reinforced Paxton's fear of roller coasters. For starters, it was almost dark, as you see, and we were headed up the first and largest hill of the wooden roller coaster when we suddenly stopped on the incline and had to sit there for about 20 minutes. Then workers hiked up alongside us and said the sensors thought there was a "ghost train" (their words) sitting still on the track so safety mechanisms wouldn't allow ours to move. So Paxton was mortified already and then we started up the hill without warning. But hey, we'll save money not going to Disneyland!

Finally we got out to one of our favorite camping spots. It was pretty warm but the boys did a couple of good hikes without complaint. It was a shorter trip so we used a tent and stayed in a primitive site. Next summer we need to make up some serious camping time.

Some day I'll do some nice paintings from photos like this. There is amazing scenery all over Utah.

The little canal you can see here is near where we camped for a couple of days. Paxton enjoyed himself here, but this was Bennett's turn to hate us. He kept saying he would "die on the rapids" so he got out a little earlier than Paxton. But, he did paddle by himself across one of the lakes, even though he felt he didn't have great control, so we were proud of him.

I was fortunate to go on a group day long hike (about 9 hours) to Box Elder peak above Alpine. It was really pretty - but sometimes really steep - and these wildflowers were so abundant it was like they'd been planted in someone's yard.

We had a big anniversary this month so we took a trip to the Moab area. This photo was taken by another hiker who believed pants were optional. Thankfully he had a long shirt. He was from France and had come to Wyoming to see the total eclipse.

Here is the Fiery Furnace portion of our hike fest. We ended up getting in 20 miles of hiking in a day and a half, some in Arches and some in Canyonlands (below). Crowds weren't bad so it turned out to be a great weekend down there.

We were in Canyonlands at sunset and the view at this part of Island in the Sky was stunning. 

July

We didn't have a super eventful month (sigh). I had hoped for more progress on the new house but it's been slow due to one sub's delays. But, we have done a few fun summer things here and there. We hope to make up for some lost time in August. I got up early one morning to get a spot to see the parade on the 4th. It was pretty good actually, not much advertising or too many politicians - mostly high school bands and floats like the good ole days.

The smelly smoke bombs are one of my favorites in terms of daytime firework stuff - I'd love to set a huge row of them off all at once.

Grandma provided this little pool for the kiddos - it's been nice they can cool off in hot weather. We're considering a larger free standing pool at the next place. Some people in our area put them up on cement or just sacrifice their lawn for the season.

Paxton and Bennett have had swim lessons once this summer and just started a new session today. They get to go down the big slides at the end and I was so pleased Bennett was willing to go it alone. His confidence in the water is increasing and I know he's having fun too.

Jared took a week off of work to attend scout camp for our 12 year old boys in the ward. He is always a great sport about that kind of thing, giving time up to help other people. We were able to meet him one afternoon and go on this little hike in the canyon.

We took a short trip to Wellington to visit Gma and Gpa and see if we can figure out the cabinets for our new home. Gpa is a skilled wood worker and we are thrilled he is willing to build our cabinets. We are going to have quarter sawn oak, probably a natural finish, but maybe a lighter stain - we'll see.

This is the south side of the house, kind of looks like an alternative front of the house. There are a few improvements to report, as of today the electrician finished almost all of the upstairs, plumbing is in until the finish stage, the roofer has started and all windows and doors are on site, although some still need to be installed. Jared and our friend / excavator dug and ran the water line, including taking it all the way to the back of our property so I can get water to the chickens and garden all year long.

Just a little shot of a local balloon launch. We see them from time to time, not usually this many at once though. One of them landed nearby on this day. I'm ready for the events August has to offer; school starting, the benchmark of a 4 way inspection on the home, our anniversary (it's a big one), and Jared's birthday.