Blake's Funny New Trick!

Splash Pad with Aunt Tina and Grandma C

Another fun adventure we had this month was going to see Aunt Tina at a splash pad near her house. Blake loved it! He crawled all over the place. So fun! The kids had a great time running around and showing off for us. Grandma C drove down with us and we took a picnic lunch. It was a fun time!

Visit to Great Grandma's house

Two weeks ago tomorrow I drove the kids to Provo to see their Great Grandma. Sadly she has never met Blake. She is almost 87 and can't drive up to Salt Lake by herself and life gets crazy when you have kids. Not that I should be making excuses for not visiting my Grandmother. I feel terrible that Blake was almost 10 months old before she got to meet him in person. She was so excited when I called her to let her know we wanted to come visit. She has been really lonely lately. I need to make it a priority to visit her more.  

The kids thought (Karlee thought) her house was amazing. Grandma has a lot of neat things to look at. Karlee was amazed at the old pictures, jewelry and rooms in her house. Grandma even has an old brush and hand mirror set that Karlee adored. Great Grandma took us out to lunch and afterwards showed us some of her picture albums. It was so fun to see her. Blake even thought her nick nacks were awesome. In fact he liked them so much he even broke one of them. Man those babies move fast when you're not watching them close!

I also need to document that Blake and Great Grandma share the same birthday! Grandma thinks that is the best part. Having a great grand baby to share your birthday with.

Here are the kids with Great Grandma.

Grandma holding Blake.

Karlee wanted a turn with the baby on her lap. Ha ha!

And here am I with my Grandma.

It was hard to leave her house that day. She was so glad to have the company that she cried when we left. I need to make sure that I get down to visit her again soon. I love her so!

Rest In Peace My Sweet Sampson

I've been putting off doing this post for a week now. It just makes me sad to think about. We had to put down our doggy Sampson last Monday August 1st. 

It was THE most heart wrenching decision I've ever had to make. I love this dog so, so much. Jason and I found Sampson at the Humane Society 10 1/2 years ago. We fell in love with his sweet puppy dog eyes. He was already a year and a half old and was robust and adorable. We had to get him. So we did. He was our kid for almost 4 or 5 years before we actually had a human kid. He was my shadow and would never leave my side when I was at home. 

I want to list a few of my favorite memories of  Sampson so I don't forget and then I will tell the events leading up to him going to heaven.

I will always laugh when I think of the first time my Mom met Sampson. She came over and he was so excited to see someone he jumped up and licked her in the mouth! It was the funniest thing. He was so lively. 

Sampson HATED the water. He hated baths, he wouldn't drink out of a hose, nothing. Or so we thought......Jason remembers we got stuck in traffic on our way up to Gooseberry to camp. The man asked what kind of dog we had. We told him and he asked, "Does he like to swim?" Of course our answer was no. He bent over and picked up Sampson's paw, spread his toes apart and said "See, his feet are webbed. He's a swimming dog. We got up to fish and would you know that Sampson jumped right in the water and started swimming! It was pretty cool. I wish I knew where the pictures went from that trip of him in the water. 

Jason loved to tease Sampson. Jason would get on the floor, turn Sampson on his back and tickle him. Yes, Sampson had a ticklish spot on his flanks and he would do this funny growl/laugh. He hated it and would run around the house like a crazy dog after Jason would let him go. Hilarious. Sampson also loved chasing the laser pointer. He could never figure out where that stupid red bug would disappear to. He would chase it until he couldn't move any more. He would then look for hours after the light was put away looking for the sneaky bug. I also will never forget the homecoming I got when I came home from the hospital a couple of years ago. I had been gone for 3 days and while my Mom was at the house tending the kids she said Sampson would mope around the house and look for me repeatedly. When I came through the door he was so happy to see me! He was trying his best to hug me and he even jumped up to kiss me. He was one of my bestest friends and I miss him so much! Sampson also had a great love for chasing flies and bees. He would run back and forth in front of my flower beds just waiting for one to fly out for him to catch. Sometimes he would get impatient and stamp on my flowers to get them to fly out. Knotty doggy. It was cute and he even got stung a few times but it didn't stop him. Sampson was also the only dog I have known that wouldn't tear apart a stuffed animal. Instead, he'd just lick it to death! He would lick and lick and lick until it was crusty and brown and I'd have to toss it out for a new one! Sampson was also one of the most patient dogs with kids. We had 7 kids with foster care and every single one of them fell in love with this dog. I even have pictures of the 2 little-est one's on the floor sound asleep with Sampson laying with them keeping watch. He was such a good natured dog and I feel so lucky to be his mommy.

In June of this year I noticed that Sampson had a hard time eating. In fact it got so painful for him he literally yelped out in pain. I took him to the vet and they couldn't pin point where the pain was coming from in his mouth and suggested a teeth cleaning. Well if you have a dog you know that this is a VERY expensive procedure. $350 procedure. So we put it off to see if we could save up the money to pay for it. In the mean time we softened Sampson's food and gave him some pain med's to help him be comfortable. About a week before we put him down Jason noticed a large lump on the side of Sampson's face just in front of his ear.

 I'm not sure if you can see it in this picture but it's on his right side. So I took him into a different vet (because the first one I wasn't very impressed with) and she wasn't at all happy with this lump. She said it was either cancer or an abscess of the jaw. She said she wasn't sure which and suggested we x-ray and biopsy it to be sure of what it was. Well that was only going to run about $700 to do and either way the treatment for his jaw was going to be outrageous. I just didn't see the point in making my 12 year old, arthritic dog going through all of this. He was in pain, he had lost way too much weight and the doctor said he had lost a lot of muscle mass in his face. So Jason and I decided that it would be best for Sampson to let him go to doggy heaven. It was so very hard for me. I called my Mom for some courage and sympathy because she knows how hard it is to let a 4 legged friend go. The kids said goodbye and even Danielle next door had to say her goodbye's and cry along with me. I took some pictures of the kids with Sampson before I took him.

 Sampson was also a dog of many tricks. He could shake, sit, roll over, crawl, speak and best of all, he would put himself to bed at night. When he was tired he would go right to his bed. He was so good.

One more thing I'm going to miss........his cute, muddy paw prints from going out back to use the john.

This picture is actually from the day before when it had rained. I didn't have time to mop the floor. It was so sad to come home to after he had gone. I will miss my friend. 

First Zoo trip, First drive in the mountains, UP house

Blake got a few more "firsts" this past month.

First- Hogle Zoo

Blake thought is was very interesting. He couldn't figure out what all the animals were doing there. He was very intent on watching everything. Plus it was a busy day so he had a lot of people to look at too.

 The zoo had all these fun dinosaurs through out the park. These one's would spit water at you. It was funny when they sprayed unsuspecting victims!

 A couple of Sunday's ago we decided to go for a drive in the canyon's. Another first for Blake. We ended up at Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We packed a lunch to eat picnic style and walked around the lake. The kids had a great time exploring and Blake enjoyed being outside. 

 I thought this was a really neat plant.

 As you can see the views were beautiful. It was a lovely day for our drive.

 And here's the happy boy. He loves to be outside!

Some of you know that Bangerter Homes built an UP house replica for the Parade of Homes. I really wanted to see it and I figured the kids would too. And of course Mom is always right. The kids were very excited to see it! I was very impressed at how well they replicated it.

 I want these appliances! So cool!

They even had the balloons tied to the top of the house like the movie!! It was so sticking adorable! Loved every little detail they included that was in the movie.